Warner Music Group First Major Music Company To Make DVD-Audio Recordings Available

6-Dec-00

With a release date of November 7, 2000, in time for the holiday shopping season, Warner Music Group (WMG) becomes the first of the major music companies to offer albums in the DVD-Audio format. The new format, which features Advanced Resolutionô, multichannel audio that dramatically enhances the listening experience, is cited by the company as the most significant industry format launch since the introduction of the CD nearly twenty years ago.The first releases are: Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5, conducted by Daniel Barenboim with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Core, by Stone Temple Pilots, Tigerlily, by Natalie Merchant, Johann Strauss In Berlin, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Berlin Philharmonic, Brain Salad Surgery, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Hommage a l'Orchestre Lamoureux: Chabrier's Espana & Ravel's Bolero, with Orchestre Lamoureux conducted by Yutaka Sado, and The Bedroom Mixes, by the Jazz At The Movies Band. Regular monthly releases will follow. All of the recordings have been remixed from the original masters to take advantage of the optimal surround and stereo sound quality.""With the concurrent introduction of DVD-Audio and download music releases, WMG is aggressively utilizing new technology working with music retailers to expand the market for our music while offering consumers a wider variety of listening experiences,"" said David Mount, Chairman and CEO of WEA Inc.""Because our DVD-Audio discs include a DolbyÆ Digital mix able to play in existing DVD-Video players, we're confident that a significant market for these discs will develop very quickly.""""With DVD-Audio you have the feeling that there is no artificiality,"" said internationally acclaimed conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. ""It's as if there are no microphones, as if there are no loudspeakers, and you are in the room where the music is being made. You almost feel the wooden floor vibrate.""Sharon Corr, violinist/vocalist with multi-million-selling group The Corrs (whose latest album, In Blue, will be released in DVD-Audio in November), said, ""Any time a new technology brings the listener closer to the artist, we're all for it. Through DVD-Audio, our fans can really feel as if they are in the middle of the band, and experience our music the way we experience it - whether in the studio or, in the case of a live album, on stage.""All albums released from WMG labels will offer consumers the flexibility of being able to be played in three ways - 1, in Advanced Resolution surround sound at 24-bit/96kHz linear PCM resolution (space permitting) or encoded with MLP lossless compression, 2) in Advanced Resolution stereo at either 24-bit/96kHz (DVD-Video standard) or 24-bit/192kHz resolution, and third, for those who own a DVD-Video player but have not yet upgraded to DVD-Audio, DVD-Video-compatible Dolby Digital 5.1-surround at 448 kilobits per second resolution. This last feature will enable the discs to be played in the nearly 10 million DVD-Video players already in U.S. homes.At the DVD Conference USA 2000 sponsored by the DVD Forum in early October, I was briefed by Jordon Rost of the Warner Music Group, who adamantly stated that Warner would not provide for a fourth DTSÆ Digital Surroundô option on their DVD-Audio releases. ""The idea,"" said Rost, ""is to provide backward compatibility with DVD-Video players, not to support every option for audio playback."" In the case of DTS, Rost said that quality-wise DTS falls in between Dolby Digital and DVD-Audio, and that Warner wants to see consumers upgrade from Dolby Digital directly to DVD-Audio, which WMG sees at the long-term replacement format for CD.Paul West of Universal Music Group's Mastering Studios told me that Universal releases would not support any backward compatibility with DVD-Video players (except for the extent of limited music video content on a DVD-Audio disc). West said that would defeat the aim for DVD-Audio as a long-term replacement format for the CD.Warner's Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio is being touted as the ultimate listening experience. With a sampling rate and bit depth that at least doubles the resolution for the current CD standard, DVD-Audio discs promise to deliver sound quality that is significantly closer to the master recording than is possible with CDs. (See WSR's review of DVD-Audio players in the November Issue 43.) Importantly, conventional CDs can be played on DVD-Audio/Video players. DVD-Audio's most outstanding featureósurround sound (the principal reason for the formats expected success)óopens up the soundfield, giving artists a wider palette to use in presenting their music. Beyond this enhanced listening experience, DVD-Audio discs can offer many other unique features to increase the enjoyment of this new format. In addition to brief DVD-Video quality music videos and artist commentary, when played on new DVD-Audio players, ""visual menus"" with remote navigation may also offer access to ""photo gallery"" still pictures, artist bios, discography and credits or song lyrics viewable during Advanced Resolution playback.Additional artists whose work is already in development for future release include: Barenaked Ladies, Barenboim conducting Beethoven's complete symphonies, Buena Vista Social Club, Tracy Chapman, Alice Cooper, The Corrs, Olu Dara, Miles Davis, Deep Purple, The Doors, Firesign Theatre, Bela Fleck, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Fourplay, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, k.d. lang, Zubin Mehta conducting Orff's Carmina Burana, Mehta conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Metallica, Pat Metheny, Luis Miguel, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Rod Stewart and Take 6.