This was released on vinyl though quite rare -perhaps Pure Pleasure will reissue it ?Originally Posted by WOStantonCS100
This is not really the case though a lot of main stream titles tend to get a vinyl pressing these days. These are however relatively limited. Vinyl sales are in fact still a tiny fraction of the music market and there is not enough pressing capacity to release everything on vinyl anyway. Nobody is making presses so producers are limited to finding old presses and refurbishing them to meet demand.I agree. Much like SACD and DVD-A, HD downloads have a long way to go to catch up in terms of choice; but, it's still pretty much a baby compared to the other well established formats. If there is consumer demand, that will change, of course.
My question is, knowing the industry, how are they dealing with the piracy issue. They keep/kept trying to put anti-piracy schemes into CDs and locked down SACD. Remember downloads you couldn't move to another computer without a hassle (or hacking). For sure, piracy of HD downloads has got to be on their minds. Currently as a physical format, vinyl most likely has them the least concerned, perhaps seconded by SACD but without the aesthetic appeal of vinyl. If I were a record exec I'd be thinking, charge them a premium price for the vinyl (which they are largely) and not worry so much about piracy. I'd be spitting everything out on vinyl (which seems to be happening), even if I was a analog hating digiphile to the point that manufacturing costs were a moot point. After that it's just money coming in.
You obviously haven't ever heard the Cisco / Boxstar reissues of FBR (45 rpm) and The Hunter or the very rare Classic Records FBR (withdrawn by Warnes). Plenty of early digitally sourced music sounds much better on vinyl than CD.***Side Note: I recently popped on Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat original. (This, as well as, The Hunter, are supposed to be audiophile gems???) However, minutes into the first song I knew. It just had that harsh early digital thing going on. I began to scour the liner notes and bingo! Mid 80s release recorded on "Sony Digital Equipment".Subsequently, my ears also confirmed that The Hunter, which I bought on CD, was also "DDD". I had previously thought to get the vinyl release; but, now I'm wondering if there is any point in it. Perhaps, if the master was 16/48 there might be a slight improvement; but, I'm thinking the main reason to get this release on vinyl would be... ...for the sake of having the vinyl. I certainly don't think I'd waste my time downloading the album to get a 48kHz digital file over the CD I already have; not enough improvement for the trouble or cost.
As far as CD is concerned the main impression of it's death is due to media hype and the disappearance of high street outlets. The likes of HMV do not stock a large enough catalogue these days. In fact though CD sales have halved from their peak they are still equivalent to the peak of vinyl production in the 70's. A lot of CD sales were driven by people replacing their old vinyl by the same title on CD. Even today people are replacing CDs with new 'remastered' versions which more often sound worse due to added compression or just being too loud. I can't see the sense in paying nearly the same amount of money for Mp3 downloads rather than purchasing a physical product at 16/44 - can always rip the Cd if you are file only.
HD downloads are not only limited in quantity but way too expensive. Not the sort of money I would spend for no physical product - basically just the right to play a piece of music. Therefore I still think there is a small market for high res format optical discs. Let's face it most people don't appreciate decent SQ or can't be bothered with the expense and fuss to achieve it. Even a lot of the vinyl expansion is due to style purchases. Kids who like the artwork but don't play the record (just the included CD or MP3) or if they do use very cheap players. No wonder the producers can get away with poor pressing quality.
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