Changes at Linn Records

Ditto, shame because I bought a load of Rush studio master albums off them and was planning on getting the rest in time

Just had a look on the Linn site and it seems to be unchanged; is this an advance warning that it's going to happen soon?

It came as an email from the site

Thanks Dave, useful info. Good to know we've still got a bit of time left; I wonder if they'll become available elsewhere once Linn have stopped providing them?

Maybe HDTracks?

Dave

I am personally thinking this may be a sign the business volume (of high res downloads) may not justify Linn's cost of including these into their catalog. 

The thing that bugs me about the Linn site is that they charge £18 for all high res downloads, generally an 80% premium over standard res. That just seems an unreasonable premium - I know the files are bigger, but storage is cheap these days. Wouldn't 20-30% be more like it?

CD quality involves an extra down sampling production step compared to Studio Master, so Studio master is (slightly) cheaper to produce, and thus if anything should be cheaper to buy IMO. The extra storage space at the server end is trivial.

Agree Linns pricing is way too high, and a reason I do not buy  hd albums from them.

Claus

+1 & 100%

They need to wake up, it seems the change to only sell Linn label is a bit daft & to stay at the highest pricing in UK makes a bit daft to a lot more daft.  Trying to control pricing by limiting your distribution & portfolio channels might work in the rarefied world of high end audio,  but its an audio recording file FFS !!!   

The cmpys like iTunes & Amazon are only interested in mass market numbers & that means MP3 quality.  Others are more interested in renting you a monthly streaming time rather than hi quality download files although some may hold a limited selection.    

Naims pricing is competitive to a point,  but HDTracks are moving the hi-res file game to a new level, more, bigger & wider product range.

If they do eventually move to Europe/UK they will be come market leaders & I fear if Linn & even Naim do not compete it will not be worth keeping the store open,  which will be a real shame.    

Mike, Qobuz has an increasing range of hires downloads for the UK and relatively reasonable prices, especially with the pound where it is against the euro.

Simon

Agreed Simon,  but few that float my boat hence my comment about some holding a limited selection. But that said HDT don't hold everything,  just more than any others I've found (so far) & the dollar is much like the Euro vs GBP.  

Just for the hell of it I will see if I can get the same recording across all the vendors & see how they compare.  But I'm on FON at moment, so a bit slow & limited

More later ...............

I give in,  I’m done,  my (British Telecom – curse ‘em) service is down & I’m linked to an unknown neighbours BT Hub via FON,  I give up – life is too short.  I gave up on trying to find the same recording(s) from all vendors.

If someone what to fill in the blanks – thanks.

.............. between the drop-outs ….

Linn       

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) ranged from £10.00 to £14.75

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  FLAC ranged from £15.00 to £20.50

Naim      

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) ranged from £7.99 to £9.99

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV ranged from £16.99 to £17.99       

HDTracks - USD sales only get converted by PayPal or your CC

Today’s tourist FX rate is 1.64USD = 1GBP   

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) in my limited viewing I only found 1 price £7.30

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV ranged from £10.96 to £15.23

QoBuz – sorry folks with the combination of their not so user friendly www site & what I am still convinced is a company more interested in subscription based streaming rather than download purchase, - plus my broken broadband – I quit

Bottom line

Naim beats Linn on almost all pricing & if they do go to Linn Label only, then also on album selection. 

HDTracks beat all on both price & selection – assuming you can (know how to) get around the regional restrictions. 

Mike

I think you do a Qobuz a disservice - they have loads of downloads available for purchase, often at very competitive rates, given current exchange rate. But I hope you get your Internet sorted soon!

Another  content Qobuz user here. I think their site is very user friendly with the language options etc and their range/price of music is very good.

OK but lets say we agree to disagree

Meanwhile you might go fill in the blanks - if they are that good & user friendly its a short 10 minute job

Then when BT get my phone line fixed I might go take another look

Six of Linn's top ten downloads are from labels other than Linn, so the non-Linn product must be a significant component of their sales. Maybe they don't make enough money from it even at their silly high prices. Wish they had the courage of their convictions and charged the same for Studio Master as for cd quality, there can only be a trivial difference in production cost. 

OK - I now have a fully functional phone & www - & in better humour because I found & fixed the  broken internal filter/socket wire myself    

(BT installed 2 months ago)

I went back to Qobuz & checked pricing – these guys are really competitive & will for sure check them out first before going to other download stores

Still don’t like the website tho’ (but enough of that)

I found downloads that both Naim & Qobuz sell & that both HDTracks & Qobuz sell

Neil Cowley Trio - Touch and Flee – as sold by Naim

Using €1.2=1GBP for Qobuz pricing

Naim

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) £9.99

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV £16.99

Qobuz

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) £8.93

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV £11.18

Norah Jones – Come Away With Me

- I bought this from HDTracks for $24.98 = £15.44

HDTracks

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV £15.44

Qobuz

16/44.1KHz (DC quality) £10.83

HiRes 24/96&192KHz  WAV £14.57

So the revised bottom line taken from a very small sample

Naim beats Linn on almost all pricing

HDTracks beat both price & selection

– assuming you can (know how to) get around the regional restrictions.

Qobuz beat all & have no regional restrictions. 

Thanks for doing this, Mike - I'm away from home at the moment, and thus unable to help.

BTW, you do realise that Qobuz pages can be instantly translated by hitting the right button?

Hi Goon,  yes I know about the translate right click

I speak conversational level (but going rusty) french & will probably use it to keep in practice.

The HDTracks regional restrictions are really anoying,  but it seems Qobuz have the same problem for albums listed only on the French site

I get a message triggered when I hit the download button 

"This item is not available for download in your country"