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HDGiants Still Banking on Market for HD Music/Movie Downloads
Company hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this summer
HDGiants hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this summer, according to Scott Bahneman, who founded the music download service in 2003.
The company, which pioneered high-bit-rate digital downloads, ran into some problems "in the midst of recapitalization," says Bahneman, who personally has more than $3.1 million in the business.
HDGiants -- originally MusicGiants until the company began offering video downloads last year -- filed for bankruptcy on May 18 in Reno, Nevada.
"It gives the company a chance to put together appropriate partners and move forward," Bahneman says.
Is there in fact a market for high-definition downloads, especially audio?
Digital Content is one of 6 Major Themes at EHX Spring 2010: The New Opportunities Show"We would hope so," Bahneman says. "The company is completely predicated on it."
Norman Ingersoll is one loyal HDGiants fan who says, "I can assure you, there are plenty of musicians who recognize the quality of lossless audio."
He has downloaded about 150 lossless tunes, paying about 30% more for them than their lossy counterparts. "They are far better than MP3s," he says.
But how many consumers share Ingersoll's passion for HD audio?
"Consumers are just now figuring out that 'digital' doesn't necessarily mean 'quality,'" he says. "I think the [custom electronics] industry has to realize that if we ever want to make money for downloaded music, we need to provide quality."
Sound quality is a tougher sell than video, Bahneman admits. "A lot of it [HD downloads] will probably be driven by video," he says. "A lot of people can't tell the difference between MP3s and high-quality audio, but a lot of people can tell the difference with video."
In the end, Bahneman is certain that there is a "real interest in having higher quality content out there -- something that is not designed to play on a shiny disc."
http://www.hdgiants.com
RELATED:
What Happens to Your Digital Content if the Provider Goes out of Business?
The company, which pioneered high-bit-rate digital downloads, ran into some problems "in the midst of recapitalization," says Bahneman, who personally has more than $3.1 million in the business.
HDGiants -- originally MusicGiants until the company began offering video downloads last year -- filed for bankruptcy on May 18 in Reno, Nevada.
"It gives the company a chance to put together appropriate partners and move forward," Bahneman says.
Is there in fact a market for high-definition downloads, especially audio?
Digital Content is one of 6 Major Themes at EHX Spring 2010: The New Opportunities ShowNorman Ingersoll is one loyal HDGiants fan who says, "I can assure you, there are plenty of musicians who recognize the quality of lossless audio."
He has downloaded about 150 lossless tunes, paying about 30% more for them than their lossy counterparts. "They are far better than MP3s," he says.
But how many consumers share Ingersoll's passion for HD audio?
"Consumers are just now figuring out that 'digital' doesn't necessarily mean 'quality,'" he says. "I think the [custom electronics] industry has to realize that if we ever want to make money for downloaded music, we need to provide quality."
Sound quality is a tougher sell than video, Bahneman admits. "A lot of it [HD downloads] will probably be driven by video," he says. "A lot of people can't tell the difference between MP3s and high-quality audio, but a lot of people can tell the difference with video."
In the end, Bahneman is certain that there is a "real interest in having higher quality content out there -- something that is not designed to play on a shiny disc."
http://www.hdgiants.com
RELATED:
What Happens to Your Digital Content if the Provider Goes out of Business?
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About the Author
Julie Jacobson, Editor-at-large, CE Pro
Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.
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In my not do humble opinion, these folks should be more focused on content management, meta data, content themes, collaboration/feed back and content transformation vs. so much emphasis on loseless.
Through a nice software framework this company could become the “qualcomm” of digital content distribution or the sotheby’s for license selling. think software stubs/shims. also look at the technology implementation and business model of corbis.com and replicate that so as to act as a digital catalog, fulfilment engine, distribution, royalty and content manager for all the content in the industry… Heck even specialize in managing certificates… there’s my rant. now get it done