MTV is 25 years old! That means anybody 25 years old and younger has had the opportunity to experience their music visually all of their life. For many of us, popular music and music video go hand in hand, and it's just as natural for us to think of music and video delivery media. So it makes sense that music delivery should join the march into new, next-generation media technology right alongside video. Perhaps high-definition discs, aka HD DVD and Blu-ray, are the way to sell high-definition audio as well as video, and the music industry would be well-advised to take advantage of the new media. While the recording industry is constantly panicking over a decrease in CD sales, they need instead to focus on selling media, which may be music, but in reality is likely to be a combination of video and music. As for the replicator, that can mean making more discs, but perhaps not in a traditional way.

While iPods and the like are a great way to listen to music on the move where lower-quality sound doesn't matter, home theater enthusiasts may get accustomed to listening to better-quality audio on high-definition discs because of companies like media label AIX Entertainment. At least that's what I hope. While many industry analysts, both content providers and disc manufacturers, keep telling me they expect high-definition discs to fail, the added bonus of good music may be the extra boost they need to succeed.

Case in point: While record labels are not out talking about high resolution music for Blu-Ray or HD DVD just yet, AIX took the bull by the horns and has created a high-end studio/demo room to demonstrate their vision of private HD Video and 5.1 surround music performances. AIX president Mark Waldrep equipped the room with a Euphonix R-1 recorder capable of 48-tracks at 96 kHz/24-bit and a companion Euphonix System 5 digital console. Mixes are output to a Sonic Solutions High-Resolution Digital Audio Workstation system. For playback, the AIX uses consumer equipment capable of reproducing the new high-resolution recordings.

Waldrep is no stranger to optical discs; he's been around the music industry since 1989, and he's had his hands on and ears attuned to optical disc technologies since the first single-speed CD-ROM drive appeared. He has produced over 50 newly recorded DVD-Audio/Video albums. AIX's most recent sampler, A High Resolution Music Experience, took home Best Audio Presentation and Best Music Anthology trophies at the 9th annual DVD Awards hosted by Leonard Maltin this month. But Waldrep says he still faces an uphill climb in pushing this sort of HD innovation into the music industry mainstream. "Record labels don't see this as mainstream right now," Waldrep says. "Nobody wants to risk their jobs by experimenting with the new technologies. Traditional audiophiles are still enamored with stereo vinyl, but home theater enthusiasts can appreciate and drive the surround music market."

Not sure whether anyone will care enough about high resolution or surround sound to introduce it on Blu-ray or HD DVD, other audiophile labels like Chesky continue to put out hybrid SACDs. (If the listener doesn't want SACD, the disc plays fine in a CD player). "If people want Blu-ray, we'll do it," says David Chesky. "However, our problem is that the younger generation doesn't care about sound quality. It's not a question of SACD or Blu-ray, but a question of high-resolution and 128 Kilobits."

Other industry professionals are skeptical as well. David Gorman, founder of HackTone Records, worked for Time-Warner's WEA when DVD-A was being launched. He says that while people in the 1970s might sit in a room and listen to a record from beginning to end, that's not the case anymore, and that's the real problem with surround formats. Regardless of that, he says, the labels blew it anyway. "Instead of releasing DVD-A that could be played in pure high-resolution stereo on any DVD player in the country, they said ‘no.' because they didn't want to confuse the consumer." Now the product has all but disappeared, and if you can find titles, they are usually older ones no one really cares about, he says.

I stand with mixing engineers who keep saying that the record industry is shooting itself in the foot by not offering physical product with value-added features. After blowing the opportunity of DVD-A and SACD, they have another chance with new high-definition optical formats to--once again--offer more! While Waldrep's solution might not work for everyone, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, high-resolution downloads from companies like MusicGiants are starting to take centerstage. While right now MusicGiants' downloads provide CD quality rather than low-resolution MP3s that most music downloads provide, Waldrep, who understands the need for an HD-capable downloading solution, is launching iTrax.co. This download service will deliver true high resolution, surround music to the new generation of media servers and computers, he says.

As a consumer who gets (and pays for) music anywhere I can, I also can see the writing on the wall. If record labels want to continue to sell packaged media product, they had better offer consumers a good reason to lay down their 20 bucks, and they had better offer that soon! Maybe the answer is high-resolution music and video on a single disc (aka, an HD DualDisc). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.