- Headphone Dust is a new platform to buy audio with your choice of mixes
- Songs mixed in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround sound, available in MKV and FLAC
- It’s still far from being a complete platform, but it shows how it can be done
Grammy-nominated Porcupine Tree frontman and solo artist Steven Wilson has created a new music download platform called Headphone Dust shows to show the big music services how they work. could do, providing users with an incredible variety of audio formats.
Wilson is, relevantly, known for remixing records in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 channel mixes. He has updated songs from Elton John, Black Sabbath, King Crimson and Guns N’ Roses in this way.
Headphone Dust is a platform for these types of tracks, as a showcase to buy music mixed to audiophile standards, not only in these formats, but also in uncompressed audio quality (unlike major streaming services).
Each album is available in two-channel stereo, or spatial Dolby Atmos, or mixed with 5.1 surround sound, or in a special headphone-specific version, and sometimes with 4K video attached as well.
You do not stream the tracks from the site; You can download them in FLAC and use the MKV format so you can choose which of the above formats you want to listen to.
Albums cost £14.99 or £18.99 (about $20, AU$30 or $26, AU$36), making it a cheaper option than physical releases. For now, however, there are a couple of pitfalls.
Limited offers
As of this writing, there are six albums available through Headphone Dust: four remixed albums from Steven Wilson, one newly mixed live album from the artist, and one album from Wilson’s solo project, Bass Communion.
This is no accident, as Wilson confirms that Headphone Dust will, initially, be for his own catalogue. He proposes using it to release work he’s mixed for other artists and bands, but that will likely depend on various deals and arrangements being made down the road.
That’s obviously quite a limitation to its popularity, but we present it because it represents a lifeline for audiophiles, offering a way to download high-resolution music that will sound as close to the original master as possible, but with the option of more interesting mixes if you have the equipment to make the most of them.
But that’s also the other limiting factor to the idea right now: not only do you need the right equipment, but it also needs to be connected to your PC, if you’re relying on the MKV format to choose which version of the track to listen to.
Obviously, there are plenty of people who have one of the best headphone DACs plugged into their PC, so that’s at least one way to get music out of it, but how many people have a laptop plugged into their Dolby Atmos system as standard?
We hope Wilson can find a way to deliver his idea of uncompressed music with selectable mixes through a more user-friendly system (and that he can bring in other musicians, of course) because it’s a great idea. Media ownership, format control, top quality… even if this doesn’t take off, at least it gives us something to point to and say ‘Look! It can be done! That is what we want!’
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