MQA Warner Announcement

Warner Music Group & MQA Enter Long-Term Licensing Deal

Munich, May 6, 2016: Warner Music Group (WMG) today announced a long-term licensing deal with music technology specialists MQA. The agreement – the first between MQA and any major music company – will significantly increase music fans’ access to hi-resolution music globally. The agreement paves the way for recordings from WMG’s diverse roster of acclaimed artists and its world-renowned catalogue to be made available in studio master quality through MQA distributors.

MQA is a revolutionary technology, which delivers master quality audio in a file small enough to stream or download. By delivering the sound of the studio masters from WMG’s iconic labels, MQA will enable the listener to step into the magic of the artists’ original performances. MQA music is currently available via High Res Audio, Onkyo Music, e-Onkyo, 7digital, 2L and Technics Tracks. Over the coming months, MQA will expand to more streaming platforms and into download stores worldwide.

Bob Stuart, Creator of MQA, commented: “This collaboration is a giant step forward for MQA and music fans everywhere. We have been working tirelessly to ensure labels, studios, artists, services and playback partners understand the potential of our technology and the responses have been overwhelming. MQA is about bringing the most authentic sound to music lovers all over the world and WMG is our first major partner to help drive this mission forward.”

Craig Kallman, Chairman & CEO of WMG’s Atlantic Records division, noted: “The digital music era has been all about convenience. It is fantastic that we can listen to virtually any song, anywhere, any time. In that process, however, convenience has trumped sound quality, and we have gotten further away from the sound that artists work so hard to create. MQA makes hi-resolution music easy to stream or download to any device. Music fans will love it when they hear it, and WMG is thrilled to be partnering with MQA to take the next step in bringing hi-resolution music to consumers across the globe.”

ABOUT MQA
Using pioneering scientific research into how people hear, the MQA team has created a technology that captures the full magic of an original studio performance. MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) is a revolutionary end-to-end technology that delivers master quality audio in a file that’s small enough to stream or download. MQA is also backward compatible, so you can play MQA music on any device – the days of sacrificing quality for convenience are finally over. MQA is a UK-based private company.

For more information visit www.mqa.co.uk

ABOUT BOB STUART, CREATOR OF MQA
Bob Stuart is the creator and founder of MQA. MQA technology was launched in December 2014.

In 1977 Bob co-founded Meridian Audio and served as CTO until early 2015.

In 2014 he founded MQA Ltd where he is currently Chairman and CTO.

His professional interests are the furthering of analogue and digital audio and developing understanding of the human auditory perception mechanisms relevant to live and recorded music. His specialities include the design of analogue and digital electronics, loudspeakers and signal processing.

Mr Stuart has contributed to DVD-Audio and BluRay standards and has served on the technical committees of the National Sound Archive, JAS and the ADA (Japan). He has a deep interest in music and spends a good deal of time listening to live and recorded material. He is a fellow of AES and a member of ASA, IEEE and the Hearing Group at Cambridge.

In 2015, CEDIA awarded Bob Stuart a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Watch this 5 minute video to truly understand Bob’s motivations and achievements.

About Warner Music Group
With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Big Beat, Canvasback, East West, Elektra, Erato, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Sire, Warner Bros., Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville, as well as Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world’s leading music publishers, with a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide.