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I am just concerned with how the files got there in the first place.
Well Qobuz/Deezer/7Digital, etc appear to take almost anything from any "label". Personally I'm not so concerned about one problematic Intrada release, but more about the fact that maybe 5% or more of the music stored in these servers consist in fake files. That's the main reason quality control is expected, and not for the one-off mistake. It would be the same with your favourite online CD store. How would you react if their stock was flooded with MP3 CDr and bootlegs, with no way to filter them out?
Agreed. That is a real issue and a real problem.
And Intrada has shown themselves to be one of the most concerned about quality (control) labels there is.
I'm sure whatever the case with the INCHON files is, there is an explanation.
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That's why it's so important to check which label actually supplied the files.
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That's why it's so important to check which label actually supplied the files.
At least it could be expected from such streaming platforms that they are able to distinguish between an existing official CD label or company which offers them upsampled files and one which in fact doesn´t exist at all and whose name is more or less "fictitious" or rather has been "invented" only for such streaming/digital download purposes by individual persons/collectors. And the platforms are full with those later ones which you can´t even properly call "labels".
With all the many infos about official labels so easily available on the internet nowadays, that´s not such a difficult task, but it seems that nothing at all happens in this regard.
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Not sure if it is all that simple to tell as you say. I mean, it's not as if the folks deciding it are experts on film music labels, experts who can do research on the (worldwide) legitimacy on record labels and the files they provide. You are probably way more qualified to judge the legitimacy of a soundtrack record label than anyone at Qobuz/Deezer/Tidal etc., but are you qualified to make that same call on an indie hip-hop label? If you have six minutes time max because of other obligations? Like answering customer complaints? 
It´s always the same nowadays: No time, no money, no knowledge.
However, in my opinion the basic requirement for operating such a streaming platform which deals only with music should be that you at least have a few competent people at hand who have some knowledge how the music business works worldwide and which labels are the essential and legitimate ones in which musical genres. If that´s not the case and if they can´t even afford that, then why operating such a business at all? Just to make some money and then forget about everything else? This is one of the reasons why I am not really interested in these streaming platforms as they are so much dominated by anarchy and chaos nowadays. Just terrible in which way music has often become no more than a disposable product.
Something like this was at least not the case with former larger record shops in bigger cities during the 80s and 90s where in most cases you had a few people who had some knowledge about the various musical genres and who of course knew exactly which labels were the legitimate ones on the market: They had someone for the classical department, for jazz, for pop, for easy listening, for world music or whatever. In comparison with that, the folks operating those streaming platforms nowadays seem to be just musical amateurs who admit almost anybody who provides them with some music files.
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However, in my opinion the basic requirement for operating such a streaming platform which deals only with music should be that you at least have a few competent people at hand who have some knowledge how the music business works worldwide and which labels are the essential and legitimate ones in which musical genres.
And I'm sure they do. The vast, vast majority of files on Qobuz are from legitimate, well known labels such as Warner, Universal, BIS, EMC, Virgin, and so on.
Something like this was at least not the case with former larger record shops in bigger cities during the 80s and 90s where in most cases you had a few people who had some knowledge about the various musical genres and who of course knew exactly which labels were the legitimate ones on the market: They had someone for the classical department, for jazz, for pop, for easy listening, for world music or whatever.
Lord, yes, the days when it was really fun to browse well stocked record stores, with informed sales people. I remember these days of yore. (But even back in those days, bootlegs or "semi"-official recordings often slipped into the shelves as well.)
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Qobuz is selling Inchon as "Hi-Res 96 kHz" as depicted in the graphic above. When purchased from them, you get WAV files containing 24-bit/96 kHz audio data. But when that data is analyzed, it's readily apparent that you're getting up-quantized/up-sampled audio, not true 24-bit nor true 96 kHz audio.
As a sneak peak to what we're doing, here are plots of the quantization level analysis and frequency analysis of one file from Inchon:
Note that the frequency content drops precipitously at 22.05 kHz, which would represent the original bandwidth of a 44.1 kHz recording. And between 22.05 kHz and 48 kHz (the bandwidth of the 96 kHz audio), you have noise and no true audio content.
As for the quantization level analysis, it essentially depicts a bar graph on the vertical axis representing the number of occurrences of samples at each possible quantization level at 24-bit. See how the bars are spaced out at intervals of 256 levels? That means the 16-bit audio samples are simply up-quantized to 24-bit by adding eight 0s to each sample value. When you add eight 0s to the end of a 16-bit number, you are multiplying it by 256. In the end, you have no audio samples in the 24-bit signal with anything but a value that is a multiple of 256. Here's a graph that illustrates what true 24-bit audio would look like and what simple 16- to 24-bit up-quantized data looks like:
Now, where the blame lies is still in question, as pointed out repeatedly. But one thing's for sure, Qobuz has been put on notice and is still selling the up-quantized/up-sampled files.
I don't want to belabor the issue, but this is really an interesting story. I mean, what really happened here is the question.
Thank you for providing the excellent graphs here, they are very telling indeed. I have the 2-CD release of INCHON from Intrada, so my own ripped files are certainly 16/44.1.
So those data are from the Inchon 24bit/96kHz files from Qobuz? Would be interesting to compare them to Intrada's own issued files or files from HD Tracks. I mean, if they differ and offer actual 24bit/96kHz audio, then obviously Qobuz has the files mislabeled.
Would be interesting to find out what actually happened.
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There are many more possibilities than that.
Yavar
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I just did a cursory check on some of my high-res files from Qobuz, and when I look at the spectograms (via Spek), they all seem perfectly legitimate and not upsampled. In fact, just yesterday I bought a set of a high-res release of Beethoven Trios, and they are the "real" thing (not upsampled).
I have found however two obscure recordings that I bought as "lossless/CD quality" (which is the lowest quality Qobuz even sells), that were clearly upsampled from inferior sources, probably MP3. However, I suspected as much even when I purchased them (dubious label, otherwise not published stuff), and I got them with that knowledge (and didn't pay much for them), so I am not actually complaining. The same files are sold at other retailers as well (from the same "label"), so I don't suppose that this is a Qobuz specific problem.
I am still curious about INCHON though. Intrada announced a 24-bit/96kHz release, and so it is no surprise that that is what the retailers are selling. The question is why are the files not what they claim to be? (Can't check these files myself, I have an actual Intrada CD release of the score.) There is hardly a record label with better customer service and Intrada goes through lengths to replace CDs even if there are only VERY minor problems with it. So what happened here?
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Inchon is still sold at various places like Qobuz, HD Tracks, etc ( https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/60805d317894fb11c5001223 ) as a 24bit/96kHz download. Has anyone ever actually got a true 24bit/96kHz download of Inchon anywhere? Or are they all 16-bit/44.1 audio put into a 24bit/96kHz container?
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