Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music MQA Limited in Administration (Chapter 11)

Firstly, I echo the comments that I hope Bob has done very well from this. He’s given so much to digital music reproduction, and music reproduction in general.

Secondly, I really hope MQA go on and thrive. I really love the format and enjoy listening to it on a daily basis. It’s also a much more ecological way to stream high quality music, and the planet definitely needs anything which goes that extra step in that direction.

I thought that Meridian were now owned by LG?

I believe LG license Meridian technology and use their consulting services for their sound-bars, but I hadn't seen anything about them buying Meridian.

Reportedly, Tidal will offer hi-resolution lossless music on its platform.

Does this indicate that MQA offerings on Tidal will dimminsh?

My gut feeling is it doesn’t sound good for fans of MQA.

Sadly, as a supporter of how MQA can sound (particularly as implemented by Meridian), I suspect this will diminish the value of MQA (both the company, but possibly the technology too).

I have wondered whether it might be in the interests of the licensees in MQA to acquire the IP and open source it, which would mean their investment to-date was somewhat protected and potentially accepted more widely (especially without anyone needing to incur the licensing fees).

MQA has gone into administration: what does this mean for Tidal and supported products?

Sad to read this. Will be interesting to see how all this unfolds.

Ah missed this.. would be great if the moderators could remove this post.
Thanks for the heads up!

First I am not a qualified Accountant, but have quite some experience in running smaller companies including my own

The latest posted accounts 2021 and the accompanying strategic reports make uncomfortable reading for anybody involved - huge losses for two years in a row.

What surprises me that for a small company such as MQA there is a quiet extraordinary amount of written verbiage- what are they trying to cover up.. the numbers demonstrate it’s a basket case financially. There is much emphasis on it remaining being classified as a “going concern” -really! Perhaps it’s a function of what happens when the ownership and funding is a financial institution - they have shareholders too. Anyhow they racked up some substantial interest on their loans.

I saw a couple of comments on here about hoping that Bob Stuart was well looked after. Well the Directors remuneration was almost £700K and Bob was one . The highest paid Director ( undisclosed) was earning close to £400K. Salaries overall circa £2.3 million for all 30 employees. I really wonder how that was justified for such a small entity haemorrhaging such losses and such modest income.

Not casting professional judgement, just my personal opinion and observations

At the end we all hope for a positive solution but it will require an owner with very deep pockets, but the current business model requires serious examination - continuing as is will not deliver a sustainable future.

Regards Huw

I think one has to separate the wish some (one would hope many) of us have for Bob to be in a sensible financial position as a result of all the work he has done at Meridian (and within the wider audio space), and whether or not what he got paid for his role at MQA was reasonable (which I suspect it was).

Your comments could be interpreted to mean that, because MQA might fail, he shouldn't benefit in retirement from the previous work he has done, which I'm sure isn't what you meant. I can't comment what his salary should have been at MQA, but one would imagine, given who the investors are, that they felt it was fair and reasonable. It's also quite possible that the £400k salary was being taken by someone working on behalf of the investors and not Bob (been there).

I agree the financials don't look as strong as I would have expected. It's not unusual for tech startups to burn money, but the momentum needs to be there that shows a path to profitability.

I discovered yesterday that several albums of the BSO performing Shostakovich that were available on Tidal in MQA are now only showing as 16/44.
A consequence of MQA financial difficulties or ???

Tidal appear to be distancing themselves from MQA, saying FLAC is now their preferred format.

I would see this as an indirect consequence of the financial issues, possibly based on the fact they don't want to create confusion by having multiple formats and, I suspect, they don't wish to pay any ongoing license fees. The MQA versions of these albums must still exist.