Beyond what is on your cable and or coming down from the bird is a growing list of sexy titles on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The Matrix is headed to store shelves soon. The James Bond thriller Casino Royale has set sales records with over 100,000 units shipped, thus giving more and more reasons for people to pop for an HD disc player to go along with that flat HDTV. When prices drop even more this holiday season, look for both formats to get a major boost, considering how many millions of HDTV sets are installed currently in the market place. At this stage, if you want to see what your 1080p set can really do, you need HD DVD or Blu-ray or both. Cable and satellite are HD, but not “as HD” as the two disc formats.

Another source for HD is video games. Both the Gen X and Gen Y audience seem drawn to the amazingly complex, realistic and exciting world of gaming. Playstation 3, based on Blu-ray, was the story of Christmas 2006. Xbox has games that are also in very high resolutions. Recent reports show software sales for video games up over 33 percent year to date for the first quarter of 2007 vs. the same period in 2006. This is incredible growth in a segment that is relatively new to the consumer electronics market, but again, it is an HD format.

“Always Fight the New Technology” Record Industry Motto (1890 to Present)
It’s easy to see why the world of HD video is booming. Content is king and the content is getting so much better at such a fast pace that it is suckering in everyone from the average NASCAR fan to the guy with the Ferrari F430 Spyder in the garage to plunk down their credit cards for an investment. But in the music business, things couldn’t be worse. The know-it-all executives have taken a business that sold 33 billion dollars in compact discs in the early 1990s and parlayed that into about nine billion per year in domestic CD sales by 2006 – an unimpressive development, to be polite.

Historically, the music business has fought all new technologies. The LP was going to kill off the sheet music business, they cried. The DAT was going to allow everyone to copy CDs, so they killed that format off to protect the goose that laid the golden egg. And fear of people recording and or downloading ultra-huge 5.1 audio files from SACD and DVD-Audio made it necessary to connect both formats’ expensive players exclusively via analog connections – connections that required in many cases not just a $1,000 new player, but an even more expensive receiver or preamp and $200 in audio cables, as well as a degree in Electrical Engineering to figure out how to make a B-list Steely Dan record come out of your rear speakers. Consumers voted enthusiastically “no” with their economic ballots at the one pathetic attempt the record industry made at selling their lamest titles at a higher resolution level, thanks to fear of files being stolen. When were these industry leaders going to get scared that people might not care about the entertainment they are selling at any resolution?

The music industry has yet to embrace significantly anything HD and it is the number one reason why they are sucking wind in the sales department. Downloads are a three-billion-dollar-per-year business and are likely to grow, but to call a 256 kHz download “high resolution,” as Apple has with their EMI, deal is beyond insulting to consumers. In my eyes, it’s borderline consumer abuse. Much like the 1/2 resolution (of a DVD) video downloads that Apple sells for $13 and calls “HD,” their new high-resolution music downloads are only a fraction as good as a 25-year-old compact disc. Imagine trying to sell a Honeymooner’s disc set or Casablanca with one-fourth of the resolution of the master. Consumers flock to things that are HD.

The solution to the problem is actually very, very simple and easy for the music industry to implement. Each of the four labels needs to pick an HD disc format and, over the course of one to two years, re-release all of their titles, starting with their very best in stereo 24-bit 192 kHz resolution and some video and/or high-resolution photographic content (stills look great on your HDTV and give you something compelling to look at when you play music on your theater). This is audibly better than anything anyone has ever heard and, as I learned years ago at an AES Convention audio taste test, even professional ears struggle to hear the difference between 24-bit 96 kHz and the half-inch master tape. In contrast, someone who is half deaf could easily hear the difference between that and CD. The labels need to remember – people are buying CE gear that is HD in massive volumes. Right now, that’s not including music. Also, it is important to note that videogame companies, who are kicking the hell out of the four major labels in terms of overall sales, are able to pull off the same feat that made Microsoft so mighty – they are able to sell the same title over and over again. Madden Football or NHL 2007 can sell each year to the enthusiast who wants the latest players, features and goodies. Why couldn’t the music business jump into the HD format game (please pick one format for all four majors – please), release their titles in high-res stereo and then re-release the titles in surround sound as a version two offering? Add in HD video performances from the artists on the discs and watch schmucks like me line up to buy the same records all over again.

The last step in the successful HD transformation of the music business that will literally save them from their arrogance is to sell the music via download in high-res as well. While I would like to see music with no DRM (digital rights management), I will settle for copy protection if all the music I want is available for me and my media center PC (or Mac) with easy downloads. Music Giants is doing such feat now for those who have a PC in their audio or home theater system, but they don’t have the support of all four majors the way Apple does for their low-resolution music downloads. Both Apple and Music Giants can sell real high-resolution music downloads to consumers and help them to hear more, not less, of the music they love. Just because the only important advance in the world of audio since the compact disc is a low-resolution iPod, this doesn’t mean that the music business should forget that people are willing to pay for their media in HD. It’s time for the major labels to step up to the plate and give consumers what they want and more for their $20. The reward will be consumer spending that rivals the levels the record industry enjoyed in the 1990s.