Surround sound music is now available for download on our platform. Dedicated to the appreciation of surround sound and immersive audio formats, we want to provide downloadable music to fans interested in trying new music in the formats they desire.
Surround sound music is undoubtedly superior for its many channels of listening that create a true “immersive” experience. However, it is also a complex process that has yet to break into the mainstream of the music industry. This is partly due to limitations on the side of recording artists, since it is substantially more expensive and time-consuming to create and produce music in surround sound than in stereo. It is also quite difficult to distribute this music given the limitations of consumers in actually hearing the final product, as they may not have the technology needed to support it.
As a result, there is no single, widespread, popular solution for downloading surround sound music. Not for lack of trying - in fact there have been several efforts over the years, including Japan’s Onkyo Music which is closing up their Dolby TrueHD 5.1 online shop only this year. There is of course some streaming available from a select number of services, including Tidal for one, but lossless quality is difficult to guarantee. Ultimately, low demand and technological difficulty prevent many sites and marketplaces from being able to justify keeping up their already-limited online distribution of surround sound formats.
There are rumors about Dolby Digital launching an ATMOS-streaming service soon, but fans will have to wait to see when that happens and what immersive formats that will include. A streaming service that is restricted to the ATMOS format may just further increase the difficulty that fans have in finding immersive music, as there is such a large variety of formats that would be excluded. In an ideal world, there can be one collective marketplace for many surround and immersive formats, but in the meantime, many tend to make do with buying physical albums, ordering Blu-rays and CDs from sites like CDBaby.com.
In an effort to save audiophile fans from shipping costs, delays, and other international delivery issues that constantly provide a barrier to listening to great music, we now provide FLAC digital downloads. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a strong, reliable format, as the compressed music files are always perfect representations of the original tracks, without any diminishment in quality and with playback supported by many devices.
To showcase exemplary 5.1 mastered music, we have added the FLAC downloads for the album The Savior by A Bad Think. Released in 2019, The Savior is A Bad Think’s 8th studio album. The production of this album is a particularly notable accomplishment given that the band is a one-man project driven by Michael Marquart, record producer and multi-instrumentalist who writes and performs all of his tracks with help from top musicians in the industry. The Savior is a double album beautifully mastered in 5.1 and consists of 18 songs that together tell the story of an experienced musician reflecting back on his life.
Produced by Marquart himself with Dave Way (Beck, Foo Fighters), and mixed by Bob Clearmountain (Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi), the album was recorded in Los Angeles at Windmark Recording and is distributed by The Orchard. You can find the tracks available for download in our Shop.
