Me too. 
Well, as I pointed out in Post #3, there does seem to be a trend toward âhigh endâ lossless music. Whether it becomes a significant part of the market remains to be seen. Those sites that are offering the specialty music files look to be mastered at 96k or 192k depending on the site and maybe even the individual artist. So someone is already doing this.
Perhaps we have two issues here: 1) whether the industry wants/needs the higher resolution from a production standpoint, and 2) whether the consumer market is willing to purchase products produced in that way. As with many things, the market tends to drive the choices, which donât always make sense nor are they in the highest good.
Look at sugary breakfast cereals. Everyone knows youâre better off and save some cash with a simple bowl of oatmeal, hearty stuff. But those sugary breakfast cereals sell like gangbusters, even when weâre warned about the dangers of sugar - especially to kids who consume these Frankenstein imposters for real food, jacking up their nervous systems and glucose levels, and ruining their teeth.
Same reason someone climbed Mount Everest ⌠because they can. 
And this is perhaps exactly my point; will 96k become the new standard simply because it can? As technology continues to push the envelope, many people may see no reason not to. Iâm not suggesting it makes sense. But many things people choose to do donât make sense (like sugary breakfast cereals). And if the market gets âsoldâ on high resolution being superior and they will buy it, then the market has spoken and capitalism has won the day.
Agreed. It would probably take a new generation to pick up on the new format and start using it as their standard for that to really happen. More likely is that some people will upgrade their 20% âfavoritesâ that consume 80% of their listening time (Paretoâs Law) to the new format.
When I realized I had several albums I had purchased over decades on vinyl, 8-track tape, cassette tape, CD, and MP3 download I was indignant. I donât see any trading going on. The big record companies would never do it, and I canât imagine anyone else would, but you never know. If there was enough cash in the high end downloads they might consider it as an incentive, but how do you trade a digital resource? If you turn in a copy of a file, you can still have a keeper file. I think the whole thing would be a gimmick and not particularly meaningful.
No, the reason people climb Mt Everest is because itâs standing there in all its glory going âNya nya nya nya nyah! You caaanât climb meeee!â Thatâs why people do it. It pisses them off. âIâll show you!â says the world renowned explorer. âIâll do it because I 
A guy named Simon Sinek developed something he called the Golden Circle. Itâs actually a dot at the center with concentric circles. In the middle is âWhyâ, next ring is âHowâ, last ring is âWhatâ. He gets paid big bucks to do presentations of this to Fortune 500 companies under the guise of âleadershipâ. Someone actually hacked his chain and suggested there needs to be another at the very center; âWhoâ. It does make some sense. So it would be Who, Why, How, What. You can start at the center or at the outside ring. For example, What are we talking about? Changing the specs for audio to 96k. How would we accomplish that? Get interfaces that handle the specs and computer hardware robust enough to manage the workload on a consistent basis, and spend the extra time involved in bouncing/rendering files, copying, backing up, internet transfers, etc. Why would we change this standard? Well, thatâs exactly what weâre trying to answer here and now. Why does it matter? So if you then decide, in this backwards goal-setting exercise, to ask Who - Who will benefit? Does it sound better? Who will buy it? Does it bring in more revenues? Who makes the rules? 
