Immersive music masters have no stable target playback format.

Evidence

The industry is still in the early stages of providing immersive content to the consumer. Streaming platforms and binaural rendering formats are constantly evolving, as new research continues to inform on best practices within the immersive community. Mixing and mastering engineers are currently at a loss when it comes to delivering high-quality immersive music masters. There is no way to know with any confidence what the listening experience will be for the end user, the consumer. As binaural profiles and various encoding processes keep changing, immersive masters delivered even a few years ago risk sounding vastly different when streamed today and will most likely change again into the future. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 870

Categorization

• QUESTION: What would a stable, future-proof immersive master even look like, if binaural rendering keeps changing?