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Gilad Tiefenbrun, MD at Linn says his company is blazing a trail into high-quality digital music

“The music industry must be one

of the only sectors in the world to

have trashed the quality of its own

product,” says Gilad, “In many ways,

although the CD was more durable

than an LP, it was a technological

blind alley that meant high-quality

recordings were compressed onto a

format that was never going to take

quality music forward.”

Gilad says: “We did our best with

the format and made some really

high-quality CD players, but when

we decided to leave the format behind it was because we have

always been about quality of music and the digital age offered

us the opportunity to go in a new direction and add high-quality

to high convenience.

“High quality music fell out of fashion because it was not

promoted enough and younger consumers coming into the

market just had very little awareness of it. The idea that younger

consumers are only interested in MP3 is completely wrong, the

truth is that they have never been given a high-quality option.”

Linn made the decision to begin offering high-quality digital

content and digital playback options to enjoy them on. Gilad

explains: “Our thought process ran along the lines of, ‘We are

making high-quality recordings with Linn Records, but then they

are going out in compressed form, it does not make sense’.

We began offering downloads of Studio Master Recordings

in 2007 and from day one around 60% of all downloads from

Linn Records have been at Studio Master Level, with around

5% being in MP3 and the rest at CD level.” Gilad explains that

Studio Master downloads have risen steadily to now stand at

around 90% of total downloads since the launch of linnrecords.

com.

Gilad adds: “Our other thought was that downloading music

should not just be aimed at young people. Music fans of all ages

should be able to tap into the convenience of this format and

with the level of quality they want as well.

“All of these aspects of our thinking were fed into the

development of our DS playback systems, we wanted to deliver

all the convenience of the digital age, but with the Linn stamp off

high-quality firmly embedded in the concept, so everything was

developed in house to enable us to control the whole process.”

The strategy raised plenty of eyebrows in the industry, in

particular the company stopping the production of CD players

(although the company does still produce SACD discs).

However, Gilad says the journey has been well worth it: “The

first Linn DS products have gone really well because they are

format independent and completely up-gradable over the air.

In many ways it is like a return to our true roots as the Linn DS

products are like our iconic LP12 turntable product. Classic in

design, but up-gradable as improvements come and dedicated

to the very best in audio reproduction.”

Sound advice Linn Records (linnrecords.com) has of course been a key

part of the company’s recent success and being able to offer

both music and hardware, makes Linn unique for a company

of its size. Linn’s own artists can be found on the site and a

growing number of other independent labels are using the site

as well.

The investment to create Studio Master Recordings was a

considerable one for the company, but one that does produce

stunning results, as just a few minutes listening to some of the

Linn artists proves in the company’s demo room. Linn is also

confident that the recordings will get better and better as more

is learned about how to get the most from the technology.

Gilad explains that Linn is currently in talks with major labels

as well. “Someone needs to lead the journey towards high-

quality digital, you can be sure Apple will not, so if it falls to

us, then so be it. We are explaining to the major labels how to

achieve the same quality we do with our own label and so far

the reception has been very encouraging. It is in all our interests

that the majors adopt a more quality driven digital strategy.”

Gilad adds: “I was recently at an Atlantic Records event

in New York and we were able to show them first-hand how

we can take studio masters and create a very compelling

product. Atlantic are very keen on developing this opportunity

and companies like this are beginning to see that the argument

should be a choice between high-quality or low quality, not

analogue verses digital.”

The next few months will indeed be interesting to see which

major’s instigate high-quality download programmes, the word

is that Atlantic is already taking a look at its back-catalogue with

Led Zeppelin and Neil Young strong candidates to be among

the first to have studio level digital recordings made available

and it is also strongly rumoured that Warner is working on its

back-catalogue as well.

Gilad argues that the case for MP3 is running out, with

download speeds and storage capacities increasing all the time,

companies will be able to create high-quality and convenience in

the same product.

Gilad concludes: “At Linn we have created a genuinely

end-to-end system where digital music and playback systems

can develop together to provide end-users and installers a really

compelling proposition for many years to come.”

More information: Linn +44 (0)141 3077 777,

www.linn.co.uk; www.linnrecords.com

1

SOuNDS LIke A PLAN!EI talks exclusively with Gilad Tiefenbrun, MD at Linn, to

discuss how the company has equipped itself to lead the

AV industry into the 21st century.

EI_Jul11_Gillad.indd 1 12/07/2011 12:22