DTS and EMI Music Team Up To Create Surround Sound Music Titles (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Garabedia]

Hi,
Just saw this on Yahoo News:

Chuck
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DTS and EMI Music Team Up To Create Surround Sound Music Titles
Wednesday August 20, 1:55 pm ET
New 'DTS Signature Series' Will Provide EMI With State-of-the-Art DVD-Audio Releases


AGOURA HILLS, Calif., and NEW YORK, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) (Nasdaq: DTSI - News) and EMI Music have announced an agreement to create and distribute new surround sound versions of music recordings from various EMI labels on a worldwide basis.
Bearing a new "DTS Signature Series" logo, each DVD-Audio disc will be created by the DTS Entertainment production team, and will offer exclusive surround re-mixes plus a variety of bonus features. This "Signature Series" will represent some of the top artists from EMI's catalog as well as future releases, and will be distributed globally by EMI.

"EMI Music -- one of the most established and respected music companies in the world -- has joined together with DTS, which has been instrumental in promoting the surround music experience, to create an incredible new music catalog," said Jeff Skillen, Vice President of DTS Entertainment. "This agreement is another example of how the recording industry is recognizing the importance of surround music for the future growth of the industry."

"We are excited to work with DTS to develop and evolve this new format," said Ted Cohen, Senior Vice President, EMI Digital Distribution and Development. "Working in DVD-A allows us to release music in superior sound quality for the growing number of home theater and car audio aficionados, while offering a higher level of security."

About EMI Music

EMI Music is the world's largest independent record company, operating in nearly 50 countries around the world. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, EMI, EMI Classics, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin.

About DTS Entertainment

DTS Entertainment is an entertainment label that licenses, produces, and markets an expansive series of DVD-Audio and 5.1 Music Discs to millions of DTS Digital Surround enthusiasts. Currently, there are more than 100 DTS Entertainment music titles available covering a wide variety of genres, including pop/rock mega-hits such as the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over and Sting's Brand New Day. For more information, please visit www dot dtsEntertainment dot com.

About DTS

DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) (Nasdaq: DTSI - News) is a digital technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience. DTS decoders are in virtually every major brand of 5.1-channel surround processors, and there are more than 100 million DTS-licensed consumer electronics products available worldwide. A pioneer in multi-channel audio, DTS technology is in home theatre, car audio, PC and game console products, as well as 5.1 Music Discs, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and DVD-ROM software. Additionally, DTS is featured on more than 20,000 motion picture screens worldwide. Founded in 1993, DTS is headquartered in Agoura Hills, California and has offices in the United Kingdom, Japan and China. For further information, please visit www dot dtsonline dot com.

DTS, DTS-ES, Neo:6 and DTS Entertainment are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.




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Source: DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.); EMI Music

 

[Michael St. Clair]

If they deliver on what they say, this could shape up to be a major milestone for DVD-A.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

"Working in DVD-A allows us to release music in superior sound quality for the growing number of home theater and car audio aficionados, while offering a higher level of security."

That is perhaps the most telling part - the attractiveness of a "higher level of security".

I think we may have found why hirez may be around a while.

It will be interesting to see what titles they announce.

 

[Justin Lane]

This is exciting news for DVD-A fans. To date, DTS has done some of the nicer multichannel discs on DVD-A. Coupled with the great EMI catalog, there looks to be the possibility of many nice releases.

J

 

[Justin Lane]

"Working in DVD-A allows us to release music in superior sound quality for the growing number of home theater and car audio aficionados, while offering a higher level of security."

It appears that DVD-A is quickly becoming the format of choice for car audio, with many manufacturers now offering DVD-A as a factory installed option. Familiarity with DVD and the increased number of factory installed video systems should help sell DVD-A to the masses when buying a new vehicle.

Since many people do the majority of their music listening in the car environment, this could be a sign DVD-A quickly moving towards a "tipping point" of mass acceptance.

J

 

[LarryDavenport]

Hopefully one of the first titles will be The Beach Boys Endless Summer.

 

[Justin Lane]

Hopefully one of the first titles will be The Beach Boys Endless Summer.

Great title. Most of the work on Surf's Up has been completed, so we should be seeing that later this year or early next year barring any delays. Whether it will be one of these DTS signature titles is yet to be seen.

J

 

[Michael St. Clair]

There have been many online predictions that The Beatles would end up on SACD.

I have to think DVD-A has the edge at this point, as far as that band goes.

 

[LanceJ]

I'm not arguing the effectiveness of this dvd-audio team, but I wonder why EMI needs DTS Entertainment's help?

LJ

 

[Alan_Horner]

...but I wonder why EMI needs DTS Entertainment's help?

Seems to me like it's a win/win situation for EMI. They don't have to incur any expenses involved with releasing DVD-A titles (other than distribution); I'm betting that all of that will be handled by the DTS team. EMI may also have doubts about the viability of DVD-A; DTS has already displayed its commitment to the format and will likely show an enthusiasm that EMI may not have been able to.

I think it's a lot like the early days of LaserDiscs, where some video companies would license titles to Criterion, at least until those video companies realized they could make more money by doing it themselves. If DVD-A takes off, EMI will undoubtedly pull back and start releasing titles on its own (after the contract with DTS expires, of course). If DVD-A doesn't take off, EMI has basically lost nothing.

It's also a win/win for hi-rez fans. EMI hasn't exactly embraced DVD-A before now; partnering with DTS may bring us some really terrific titles that might otherwise not have been released on DVD-A.

 

[LanceJ]

Thanks Alan.

LJ

 

[Justin Lane]

Good points Alan, but also don't forget DTS experience with mixing discs to 5.1 as a major factor as well. Before DVD-A or SACD were on the market, DTS was putting out music in surround sound. Many people in the music business believe surround sound is the future of music, and DTS is a logical choice to out source work to as one of the pioneers in the field, and a company who does surround sound correctly.

J

 

[Rich Malloy]

I'm surprised they won't mention the names of at least a few artists that the series will feature. "Top EMI artists".... but who? I find this to be a promising announcement, but just give me one name I like, one title, and that sense of promise will turn to real excitement. DVD-A can go alot farther, publicity-wise, if they take a page from SACD marketing and tie all their bigger publicity announcements, all their broader efforts, to a singular rallying point like "the Dylan catalog" or "Dark Side of the Moon".

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Since many people do the majority of their music listening in the car environment, this could be a sign DVD-A quickly moving towards a "tipping point" of mass acceptance.

It's amazing to me that you ridicule my belief that Super Audio is getting some traction and then you make a statement like this. Heck I have not even been saying that mainstream acceptance is on the way-just wider appeal.

How many car manufacturers sell DVDA capability?

Is there a premium to buy the feature?

If so, how many car shoppers know what it is?

If you think this is important then you have to also agree that low cost universal players are important for both formats.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Frankly, given the less-than-optimal acoustics of a car (plus the ambient noise), I could care less whether MLP or lossy surround tracks were played in a car. They aren't going to sound markedly different from each other in that environment.

 

[ElevSkyMovie]

No doubt. I suspect very few people have a car that is quiet enough inside while driving on the interstate to tell the difference between a cd and an mp3, let alone a cd and high-rez discs. I think there is a much bigger gap between cd/mp3 than between cd/high-rez.

 

[Larry Geller]

If so, how many car shoppers know what it is?

Lee, at least SOMEBODY is manufacturing DVD-A for the car. I feel that not having car players or Walkmans (indeed, EVERY ONE of Sony's car CD players should be SACD ready), is Sony's biggest instance of shooting themselves in the foot regarding the SACD format.

 

[Justin Lane]

Lee, at least SOMEBODY is manufacturing DVD-A for the car. I feel that not having car players or Walkmans (indeed, EVERY ONE of Sony's car CD players should be SACD ready), is Sony's biggest instance of shooting themselves in the foot regarding the SACD format.

Exactly Larry. DVD-A is not blowing anyone away with their car offerings, but at least they are doing something. Dont forget every DVD-A is also playable on all DVD players which have been begun to proliferate in the new car market, especially among those higher end vehicles which people with more disposable income, and hence money to spend on DVD-A or SACD purchase.

I don't want to hear about a prototype for a car SACD player either. Until such a beast exists for purchase, saying their is a prototype means squat in the real world. I am not expecting much from Sony though, as they have totally done away with their Mobile ES line in favor of car CD players with fancy colors, screen savers, MP3 compatibility and declining sound quality.

J

 

[Justin Lane]

It's amazing to me that you ridicule my belief that Super Audio is getting some traction and then you make a statement like this. Heck I have not even been saying that mainstream acceptance is on the way-just wider appeal.

Stealth case studies involving superstar artists in the 10 mile radius surrounding my local Best Buy and Tower store say otherwise. The "tipping point" is near.

J

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The difference between 'FM radio and Dolby B non-metal cassetes' and CD is much larger than the difference between a DD/DTS 5.1 track and a lossless DVD-A 5.1 track.

My opinion, of course.

Cars, even the quietest Lexus, are shitty environments for critical listening. If they were so great we'd all design our HT rooms to have the acoustics of an automobile.