Technics Tracks

» see technicstracks.com as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the obituary ~

In Turkey the word Technics meant one object, and it was not a website. It meant the SL-1200, the turntable in every photograph of a DJ ever taken, a thing you could identify by silhouette whether or not you had stood next to one. Panasonic had stopped making Technics audio gear around 2010 and brought the brand back in 2014 as a premium line, and somewhere inside that relaunch somebody decided the hardware needed a record shop attached to it.

Technics Tracks was announced on 20 November 2014 and opened in Germany and the United Kingdom in January 2015. It sold 24-bit FLAC, thousands of titles of it at a 192 kHz sampling rate, alongside 16-bit CD-quality files for anyone who did not need the top shelf. The platform was built by 7digital, which is the detail that explains the ending before it arrives.

It lasted three and a half years. On 25 April 2018 the hi-fi press carried the notice: closing 30 June, with vouchers to be redeemed by 31 May. Anything already bought stayed downloadable until the last day.

~ the case file ~

~ the relaunch it came with ~

The store existed because of a theory about brands. Panasonic was rebuilding Technics for people who buy amplifiers priced like a car payment, and the argument went that you cannot sell a 192 kHz-capable system and then point its owner at iTunes. A hi-res shop was part of the product, in the way a dealer network is part of the product.

The theory did not survive 2018. Technics named the cause as market developments in streaming and downloading along with general trends in the high-end segment, which is a careful way of saying that the people who would pay for a 24-bit file had Qobuz and Tidal by then, and everybody else had Spotify.

~ the handover ~

Because 7digital built the platform, 7digital kept it. Registered users were told they could sign in at 7digital with their Technics Tracks credentials and keep buying hi-res music there. The shop did not die so much as have the logo taken off it.

The statement is worth preserving in full, because it is what a company says when there are no numbers to quote: Technics Tracks managed to attract and to gain the respect of a community of distinguished music lovers. We are proud of that and very grateful to all fans and subscribers of the platform.

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