Universal announces first SACD Titles! (1 Viewer)

[RicP]

This is great news!!

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's largest music company, today announced further details of its commitment to make music available on Super Audio CD (SACD). Starting with the first releases in Spring 2002, UMG plans an ongoing program to make a combination of best-selling artists and core catalog titles available on SACD in major regions worldwide. A substantial number of these releases will incorporate SACD's multi-channel surround sound.

Some of the initial UMG titles slated for release on Super Audio CD include: Diana Krall -- The Look of Love, Andrea Bocelli -- Cieli di Toscana, Ja Rule -- Pain Is Love, Shelby Lynne -- Love Shelby, John Coltrane -- My Favorite Things, ET -- The 20th Anniversary Soundtrack, Steely Dan -- Gaucho, The Allman Brothers Band -- Live at the Fillmore East, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong -- Ella & Louis, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto -- Getz & Gilberto, and Muddy Waters -- Folksinger.

"By making our music available on SACD, UMG hopes to help drive the growth of this high-quality, secure music format," said Mr. Larry Kenswil, President, eLabs, Universal Music Group. "With its many benefits for consumers and recording artists, Super Audio CD has the potential to become a standard for the industry."

"Universal has always played a leading role in the development and implementation of new technologies and formats," Mr. Kenswil added. "We recognize the potential that SACD presents and are pleased to be working together with Sony and Philips, as we had for the introduction of the Compact Disc."

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly- owned record operations or licensees in 63 countries around the world. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations.

Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Record Company, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, MCA Nashville, MCA Records, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Philips, Polydor, Universal Records, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and UM3 (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its division dedicated to strategy, business development, and launch of new businesses and formats utilizing advanced technology in the online and offline space.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

For further information, please contact Grace Salafia, +1-212-331-2569, or Bob Bernstein, +1-310-865-0589, both of Universal Music Group.

 

[John Tillman]

Great news indeed. Vivendi, which I think acquired Universal from Seagram(?), might have pressure to open the $pipeline a little and display it's revenue generation ability.

On a similar note, AOL just announced a massive writedown which I hope will force the Warner (DVD-A) $pipeline to open a little as well.

 

[Ryan Spaight]

A properly done multichannel mix of Live at Fillmore East has the potential to be astounding.

Ryan

 

[John Beavers]

Lest we forget....Universal = copy protection scheme that makes all new CDs produced not playable on DVD players, computers and many of the current CD players. As much as I would love to have Diana Krall on SACD...big Universal is still on my shit list.

 

[KeithH]

Universal has provided a very impressive list of initial SACD titles. Let's just hope these titles see the light of day. I'll line up to buy Steely Dan Gaucho. The Allman Brothers and Coltrane titles should be great too. Still, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Greg Robertson]

I hope this comes to fruition too. But again, whether universal impacts the format in the positive way that they can, seems to still be up in the air.

That aside, I'd would buy the Steely Dan, Allman bros, and Diana Krall discs. But I wonder why the ancient soundtrack albums keep popping up?

 

[KeithH]

Greg said:

But I wonder why the ancient soundtrack albums keep popping up?

Universal seems to be covering a wide variety of interests (genres) with its initial crop of SACDs. For that, I give them credit. What bothers me is when Sony turns out one SACD in a month, and that one title is total crap.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

I just hope they don't treat SACD as the "Format du jour" and start pumping out bogus "surround" mixes for the sake of selling discs. There are quite a few inferior DVD's that were rushed into production merely to get the film on that media, without the proper audio/video re-mastering.

From my research (don't own a player yet), a bogus SACD mix can sound much worse than the original 2-channel CD.

 

[RicP]

From my research (don't own a player yet), a bogus SACD mix can sound much worse than the original 2-channel CD.

All SACD's are required to have a fully separate stero mix, so 2-channel fans never have to worry.

Secondly, a few of those titles mentioned have already had multi-channel mixes done for either dts or DVD, so I'd expect those same mixes to be used on the MC SACD's.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

From Stereophile CES converage:
2002 CES Day Two
By Jon Iverson & Barry Willis
January 8, 2002 — The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) officially opened today, Tuesday, and the SACD press conference put together by Sony and Philips started the day. Sony's Shizuo Takashino opened the presentation by explaining the three-phase rollout for the high-resolution format. Phases one and two, represented by the release of high-end and multi-disc SACD players, are now complete he said, with phase three launching at the show. As Takashino said, "This year is the true beginning of the mass-marketing of SACD."
Current hardware manufacturers for SACD now include Marantz, Classé, Accuphase, Pioneer, Sony, and Philips. Takashino announced that products will be arriving shortly from dCS, Linn, Luxman, Lindemann, Denon, Kenwood, Onkyo, and Yamaha. Software is now manufactured by 40 independent labels according to Philips' Guy Demuynck, with over 600 titles released so far, and 75-80% of those in multichannel surround sound. Universal's Larry Kenswil reiterated his label's support of SACD, and promised to begin distribution of titles in the next few months. Already slotted for SACD re-release are albums from John Coltrane, The Allman Brothers, and Muddy Waters, in addition to more recent works.
Most refreshing was the matter-of-fact presentation from Tower Record's Russ Solomon, who admits openly that 2001 was a flat year for music, and hopes SACD will give sales a boost. Solomon says he hopes folks will replace their CDs with SACDs "just like they replaced LPs with CDs. Even with CDs, something is still lost in the process of getting music from the recording studio to the player. This is not the case with SACD." He added, however, his frustration that new SACD releases "are coming too slow."
After the SACD presentation, we strolled the floor of the main convention center and south hall spotting a significant number of high-end audio companies making the jump from their traditional stomping grounds at the Alexis Park to the main consumer and home theater arenas.
This format is getting its legs! Hopefully, we will see more title commitments announced.
Lee