MQA, the embattled U.Okay. audio know-how firm based by Bob Stuart, has a brand new proprietor in Canada-based Lenbrook, the mum or dad firm of Bluesound, NAD, and PSB Audio system. Monetary particulars haven’t been revealed, however Lenbrook says it has acquired all MQA property, together with the corporate’s two key items of mental property — the MQA and SCL-6 audio codecs. Previous to right this moment’s announcement, MQA had been mired in administration, a British enterprise standing that’s much like Chapter 11, and was searching for new possession after a significant investor exited the corporate.
“We view this acquisition as a possibility to make sure the applied sciences developed by the scientists and engineers at MQA proceed to serve the trade’s pursuits reasonably than be confined to any single model or firm,” Gordon Simmonds, Lenbrook’s CEO, stated in a press launch that outlined the acquisition.
The MQA codec is taken into account by some to supply most of the advantages of lossless, hi-res audio codecs like FLAC, however with smaller file sizes, improved audio high quality, and a few further options like having the ability to visually verify that the music you’re listening to is the model its creator needed you to listen to. Nevertheless, in contrast to FLAC, which is open supply and royalty-free, MQA is proprietary, and any entity (from streaming companies to report labels, to audio gear makers) that desires to make use of MQA should pay a licensing price.
Many report labels and audio gear firms have grow to be MQA licensees through the years, together with Lenbrook’s personal wi-fi whole-home sound system model, Bluesound, in addition to just a few merchandise made by NAD. Nevertheless, Tidal stays the one main streaming music service that has ever provided MQA-encoded tracks to its subscribers, and in 2023, Tidal has been busy making main modifications that may ultimately see it transition its total hi-res library of songs to the FLAC format. In truth, with out Tidal’s assist, music created utilizing the MQA format may grow to be very tough to entry.
Lenbrook’s substantial investments in MQA assist throughout its Bluesound portfolio of merchandise (it considers itself “certainly one of MQA’s most vital licensees”), mixed with Tidal’s efforts to cut back its reliance on MQA, makes the acquisition one thing of a necessity for Lenbrook. Controlling MQA’s property lets it protect or negotiate any of the greater than 120 present MQA licensing offers, which may present much-needed stability for Lenbrook and the better MQA ecosystem.
Lenbrook stated its main goal on this acquisition was to supply certainty for enterprise and technical developments that had been underway previous to MQA’s administration. A kind of developments nearly definitely is PSB Audio system and MQA’s partnership to launch the primary set of wi-fi headphones that use ultra-wideband (UWB) as a substitute of Bluetooth for connectivity. For that initiative to work, PSB Audio system will possible depend on each the MQA and SCL-6 codecs. SCL-6 was initially branded as MQair. Amongst its different claimed advantages, it may transmit the MQA codec intact over a wi-fi connection. Competing codecs, like AAC, aptX, and LDAC, can’t achieve this due to the way in which they compress audio earlier than transmitting it.
To maintain issues shifting from a technical standpoint, Lenbrook says it’s retaining a core group of MQA’s engineers, builders, and gross sales and advertising and marketing group members. Lenbrook solely talked about certainly one of these workers by title: Andy Dowell, beforehand the pinnacle of licensing for MQA. Notably absent from the announcement was any point out of Stuart, MQA’s founder, nevertheless Digital Developments has since discovered that whereas Stuart received’t be becoming a member of the brand new group at Lenbrook, he’ll act as an adviser to the corporate’s management on MQA / SCL-6 product growth.
Presumably, certainly one of Lenbrook’s first missions can be to resolve the Tidal downside. That might imply Tidal will get to maintain its MQA catalog at a diminished licensing value. Or if a deal can’t be reached, Lenbrook may attempt to construction an MQA partnership with certainly one of Tidal’s rivals. Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Qobuz all have present hi-res libraries in both FLAC or ALAC, which makes them unlikely companions — except these companies really feel that buying some or all of Tidal’s MQA-loyal subscribers would make it worthwhile.
Alternatively, Spotify has been circling the hi-res enviornment for years, and a good take care of Lenbrook may lastly present the motivation it must launch its much-promised, however as but undelivered Hello-Fi tier. Licensing MQA would give it a strategy to launch that new tier with out it merely wanting like a carbon copy of Apple Music and different companies.
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