Tokyo – Sony is teaming up with music group Foo Fighters to promote high-resolution music and will bring high-resolution versions of Foo Fighters songs to the U.S., Europe, Japan, Latin America, and Asia.
Sony “will be engaging in various marketing initiatives aimed at further promoting Foo Fighters and high-res audio,” the company added.
“Sony considers Foo Fighters a particularly important partner with great potential for conveying the incredible allure and value of high-res to audiences worldwide,” Sony continued, saying the band “has always been uncompromising in regards to audio quality.” The group is “renowned for proactively demonstrating the highest standards in audio technology,” whether live on tour, at the band’s own 606 Studios, and in “the various legendary studios in which the band’s current album Sonic Highways was recorded,” Sony said.
For its part, the band said in a statement that “preserving the human element in the recording of music has been a huge part of Foo Fighters’ mission, and our commitment to high resolution audio is a major part of this.” The band said it “always wanted the flesh and blood and emotion of our songs to get through to every listener, and high-res audio is the best way for our fans to hear the music as we want them to hear it: in its purest quality and truest form.”
Since 2013, Sony has been expanding its selection of high-resolution products and establishing partnerships across the music industry to ignite high-res demand. In 2014, Sony gave purchasers of any Sony high-resolution product a free high-resolution download of Xscape, the second posthumous album of previously unreleased Michael Jackson tracks.
Sony’s other high-res marketing campaigns included a 2014 cross-promotional campaign featuring a high-resolution Walkman portable and the Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga album Cheek To Cheek. In 2013, Sony partnered with Sting and John Mayer in a promotional campaign.
The 2014 campaign, which ran into early 2015, involved Interscope Records, Streamline Records, and Columbia Records to let music enthusiasts know about high-resolution albums. The campaign targeted 23 million impressions with a mix of digital and print advertising in both music- and audio-centric publications and research portals.
Last month, Sony and Best Buy announced plans to roll out Sony-featured demo areas for high-res audio products in more than 70 stores this fall within the chain’s Magnolia Design Centers.
Foo Fighters is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its 1995 debut album this year. Band members Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear have sold more than 20 million albums to date and won 11 Grammys.
