Officials from Sony's Super Audio CD Project used this week's Home Entertainment 2004 event to provide an update on the format's progress to date. Included in the update was news of some key upcoming SACD titles slated for release later this year and some new SACD hardware announcements.
Sales of SACD Albums
As evidence of the continuing strong sales of the SACD format, Sony cited the Rolling Stones Remastered Series (over 2.2 Million units sold) and the recent Sam Cooke Remastered Series (300,000 units sold) on ABKCO Records as well as the 30th Anniversary Edition of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon from EMI/Capitol Records which is now at 800,000 units sold.
Also cited was the recently announced RIAA report by Price Waterhouse Coopers which shows over 1.3 million Super Audio CDs shipped in the U.S. market during 2003. High Fidelity Review readers will remember our recent article on this study and a second RIAA study of consumer impressions of music formats purchased. The units shipped study showed SACDs outpacing DVD-A units shipped by a large margin, while the consumer phone survey showed that consumers said they purchased more music on DVD Audio discs than any other format besides the Compact Disc (see link below).
In terms of releases, the SACD Project officals report that there are now over 2,000 Super Audio CDs on the market worldwide (almost half of which are reported to be Surround Sound SACDs) and that there are an additional 100 SACDs per month now being released each month. The SACD Progress Report cites upcoming titles from labels including Artemis Classics, Audio Fidelity, Chandos, Chesky, Concord, Domo, Groove Note, Harmonia Mundi, First Impression Music, Fantasy, Koch Records, Mobile Fidelity, PentaTone Classics, Songlines, Rounder, and Telarc as evidence of continued interest in the format, particularly in the audiophile, classical and jazz markets which continue to make up the core of the SACD catalog.
Story source:
highfidelityreview.com.
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