I think Tony and I have similar perspectives - hopeful that MQA is what it is being billed as, rooting for it to succeed, willing to back the format in the form of hardware investment at a very early stage, but still skeptical about the long term landscape because of the industry's history.

I've been thinking more about al this and I'm starting to believe that MQA's association with Tidal before ever getting out of the gate (for consumers) may make or break MQA in the long run. If Tidal struggles, I think some or all of the labels will look at that struggle as a reason not to put effort into MQA. If that happens, catalog support for MQA remains limited and we never get out of it what we hoped. Of course, MQA and Tidal are completely separate and MQA could gain ground in a variety of other avenues (and they are trying to do that already), but I think the early wagon hitching will be hard to erase in the minds of the label decision makers.

I think Q3/Q4 of 15 and especially Q1/Q2 of 16 will tell us an awful lot about the streaming industry. My guess is that Apple Music is going to gain initial traction with the free trial and then again when the next phone is announced in September. Tidal already had a big task trying to differentiate itself amongst non-audiophile consumers in an established market. Jay-Z's acquisition and actions since certainly helped make them more visible, but they have a tough road ahead. If they struggle over the next year and if they are the only streaming service (I'm talking about the big players) that offers MQA during that time, I think folks at the labels will see that as a reflection of low consumer demand for MQA and thus not put extra effort into it.

Various