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Rock With You 4K

R1chard said:
Um, what? You realise that's just a random site that's nothing to do with the estate?
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It is the store I get to when I click on "MJ Store" on https://www.michaeljackson.com/

(I agree, it would make things "clearer" (and safer) if companies and such keep all their stuff on the same domain name... But sadly the world doesn't care anymore.)
 
It's run by a third party who just pays a licensing fee. It's nothing to do with the estate or Sony, they have nothing to do with what's offered for sale.
 
R1chard said:
It's run by a third party who just pays a licensing fee. It's nothing to do with the estate or Sony, they have nothing to do with what's offered for sale.
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You do realize MFSL needs to license a title before being able to work on it and release it, right? It means clearance from either Sony or the Estate, maybe even both.
 
MJbr2 said:
You do realize MFSL needs to license a title before being able to work on it and release it, right? It means clearance from either Sony or the Estate, maybe even both.
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They are obviously just releasing this without notifying anyone and got access to the necessary materials without contacting anyone at the estate, LOL.
 
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MJbr2 said:
You do realize MFSL needs to license a title before being able to work on it and release it, right? It means clearance from either Sony or the Estate, maybe even both.
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Yes. "The estate" is just a massive team of lawyers and publicists. None of them know anything about music, ie none of them know what a SACD is, none of them have heard of MoFi. Most of them are too young to know what an LP is.

To them, everything is just paperwork and spreadsheets. And with only 6000 copies of the MoFi, it's a pretty small number in their spreadsheet, lol.
 
R1chard said:
Yes. "The estate" is just a massive team of lawyers and publicists. None of them know anything about music, ie none of them know what a SACD is, none of them have heard of MoFi. Most of them are too young to know what an LP is.

To them, everything is just paperwork and spreadsheets.
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The people who make the decisions there aren't young.
 
All I'm saying is that MoFi are gonna have to promote their own stuff. It's not on Sony's radar, it's far too small for them to want to get involved with. They're certainly not gonna spend any money restoring a video to promote it.

It's not a joined up campaign. You're giving them too much credit.
 
R1chard said:
It's run by a third party who just pays a licensing fee. It's nothing to do with the estate or Sony, they have nothing to do with what's offered for sale.
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That's possible... Wouldn't be too surprising if this is outsourced in various ways. I don't know.

R1chard said:
All I'm saying is that MoFi are gonna have to promote their own stuff. It's not on Sony's radar, it's far too small for them to want to get involved with. They're certainly not gonna spend any money restoring a video to promote it.
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It was easier when Thriller MoFi came out as the same time as Thriller 40, promotion around Thriller happened anyway (well to some extent).



Someone suggested to me that this Rock With You restoration may have been done in a few minute with a 100 EUR software... I'd say... that may be true. The restoration isn't satisfying, in my point of view... The event that triggered this whole discussion is almost a non-event.
 
Since they don't have the film master for Billie Jean, this is the only option. I'm surprised they even bothered tbh. They will probably do this for most of the Films since it's much easier and cheaper lol.
 
Not sure if this has been posted yet or if yall post messages from the estate, lol. But they sent out this message earlier:

Upscaled Michael Jackson Short Films for Off The Wall Album to be Made Available on YouTube
As you may recall, the Estate and Sony Music announced at Michael Jackson's birthday celebration last year, the release of Off The Wall on audiophile vinyl and SACD. That release will happen this Friday (1/17) and, in conjunction therewith, the Estate and Sony Music worked to create an upscaled version of each of the 3 short films associated with that album which will become viewable on Michael Jackson's YouTube channel over the coming weeks ā€“ with the first of those short films, ā€œRock With Youā€, coming this week.

Before you watch the upscaled versions, the Estate wanted to make sure you understand that these are NOT 4K.

Unfortunately, the low quality original source material did not make a true 4K version possible; there are serious limitations on what could be achieved, especially with the type of effects that had been used on each of the original short films.

After testing various available technology, a decision was made on which technology offered the best option and that was used to enhance each of the short films to the extent possible. While not true 4K, we hope that you will appreciate the upscaling that the Estate and Sony Music have been able to do on these short films.

Thank you for your support of Michael Jackson's legacy and we hope you enjoy the upscaled Off The Wall short films.
Copyright Ā© 2025 The MJ Online Team on Behalf Of The Estate of Michael Jackson, All rights reserved.
MJOnline The Official Online Team of The Michael Jackson Estateā„¢
 
Maxym said:
That's possible... Wouldn't be too surprising if this is outsourced in various ways. I don't know.


It was easier when Thriller MoFi came out as the same time as Thriller 40, promotion around Thriller happened anyway (well to some extent).



Someone suggested to me that this Rock With You restoration may have been done in a few minute with a 100 EUR software... I'd say... that may be true. The restoration isn't satisfying, in my point of view... The event that triggered this whole discussion is almost a non-event.
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What were you expecting from something that was recorded on tape and likely doesn't have high quality source material available?

I think this restoration looks fine. It is not horribly overdone like a lot of these "restorations" labels have been doing of music videos recently.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
What were you expecting from something that was recorded on tape and likely doesn't have high quality source material available?

I think this restoration looks fine. It is not horribly overdone like a lot of these "restorations" labels have been doing of music videos recently.
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I'm not much into music videos, I don't know much on "how they have been shot". But I think I'd prefer having lower resolution videos that look clean rather than things like this one which is full of very visible artefacts.
And In think a lot of "fans"/amateurs would do better.

Ok, talking about "overdone", I've seen worse (though, again, I'm not into music videos, music videos for me is mostly an MJ-thing, so I even more rarely check those by other artists).
 
Some precisions:
MJ France (translated with Deepl just to save time) said:
As you may recall, the Estate and Sony Music announced the release of Off The Wall on audiophile vinyl and SACD at Michael Jackson's birthday celebrations last year. The release takes place this Friday (17/01) and, together, the Estate and Sony Music have worked to create an enhanced version of each of the 3 short films associated with the album, which will be available to view on Michael Jackson's YouTube channel over the coming weeks - with the first of these, ā€˜Rock With Youā€™, being released this week.

Before you watch the enhanced versions, the Estate wanted to make sure you understood that this isn't 4K.

Unfortunately, the poor quality of the original source material did not make a true 4K version possible; there are serious limits to what could be achieved, particularly with the type of effects used on each of the original shorts.

After testing various technologies available, a decision was made on which offered the best option and which was used to enhance each of the shorts as much as possible. Although it's not true 4K, we hope you enjoy the upscaling that Estate and Sony Music have been able to achieve on these shorts.

Thank you for your support of Michael Jackson's legacy and we hope you enjoy the enhanced Off The Wall shorts.

MJOnline The Official Online Team of The Michael Jackson Estateā„¢

(Source: https://mjfrance.com/une-meilleure-...-off-the-wall-seront-disponibles-sur-youtube/ )
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The "it's not to be considered as actual 4K argument" is similar to what I said when I made a Ghosts "upscaled-4K" restoration in 2021, so I can hardly disagree with that transparency. Yet, too much visible artefacts for me.
 


ā€˜Rock With Youā€™ music video upgraded​




The Estate of Michael Jackson recently made a surprising move by giving one of his classic music videos, ā€œRock With You,ā€ a visual upgrade. The video is now available on YouTube with a higher resolution option, labeled as ā€œ4K.ā€ While this unexpected update caught fans off guard, it raises an interesting question: could this be a sign of more updates to come? Perhaps the Estate is planning to remaster all of Michael Jacksonā€™s iconic short films in preparation for the upcoming biopic. After all, Michael Jackson isnā€™t just the King of Popā€”heā€™s also widely regarded as the King of the music video.
However, while the ā€œRock With Youā€ video is advertised as 4K, the actual quality doesnā€™t quite match the label. When compared to the genuine 4K restorations of ā€œThrillerā€ and ā€œBeat It,ā€ ā€œRock With Youā€ appears to fall short. The resolution feels softer, suggesting the use of AI-based upscaling tools rather than a fully invested remastering process. While this approach does give the video a noticeable lift, it lacks the sharpness and clarity fans have come to expect from true 4K restorations.
This raises speculation about the Estateā€™s strategy and level of commitment. Are they testing the waters with AI enhancements before committing resources to full restorations? Or was this a quick attempt to bring attention to the catalog without a major overhaul? Fans will undoubtedly hope for more comprehensive remasters of Michaelā€™s groundbreaking music videos, which have played a significant role in shaping the visual and cultural legacy of modern music.
Have a look

Change the Quality setting when you play the video.
UPDATE:
The Estate of Michael Jackson has confirmed that, to join with the release of ā€œOff The Wallā€ on Audiophile Vinyl and SACD, they have updated 3 ā€œOff The Wallā€ videos, the first one being ā€œRock With Youā€.
The Estate also confirmed that while those videos are upscaled versions, they are not 4K due to the low quality of the original source. The Estate and Sony have tested various technology and a decision on which technology offered the best option was selected.
 
Maxym said:
Some precisions:


The "it's not to be considered as actual 4K argument" is similar to what I said when I made a Ghosts "upscaled-4K" restoration in 2021, so I can hardly disagree with that transparency. Yet, too much visible artefacts for me.
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yeah. I watched it last night in a half asleep state and was wondering if it was just my brain seeing stuff. Lol. I was like "y'all could have left this alone." But I'll look at it today when I have more clear vision. šŸ˜‚
 
LucianoWalker said:
That's the official site (sadly) dude
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In name only. Read the smallprint. It's a rebranded Shopify, and is owned, operated and maintained by Musictoday, based in VA.

They simply paid a fee to Sony so they could call themselves official.

Maxym said:
It was easier when Thriller MoFi came out as the same time as Thriller 40, promotion around Thriller happened anyway (well to some extent).
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Yeah, people got confused and thought the SACD was part of the Thriller 40 project. It wasn't. It was just a happy coincidence of timing (or more likely, good planning from MoFi).


MJsAngelOfMusic said:
in conjunction therewith, the Estate and Sony Music worked to create an upscaled version of each of the 3 short films associated with that album
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Ah. Wow. Guess I was wrong on that one. I'm extremely surprised. I would have put money on them being unconnected.

Put it this way, there are only 6000 copies, and they're gonna sell out regardless, so I'm surprised it's worth the effort to promote it. Sony are probably not gonna receive much more than $10k, probably the three videos are gonna be a couple of grand each.
 
Just saw it on apple music and it looked very good to me!
I might be wrong, but framerate seemed higher than expected, though not to a disturbing extent. Just... smooth. Mesmerizing.

Rock With You was the most prominently updated one, but unless I'm out here imagining things, I caught the upgrade of She's Out Of My Life too, which looks quite soft and natural, honest to the original format.
It's much better than what we had, and that's good enough for me.
 
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Kazu MJ Wilson said:
Iā€™m personally skeptical for this DSD remaster by using 46 years old original analog master tape. Analog tapes gradually deteriorate, and with them the sound quality. Some artists start using another copy master or degital master to deal with this. but if they use original mastertape, it must be corrected with modern mastering techniques strongly, which are unlikely to compete with the original vinyl in 1979. In my opinion thošŸ¤”
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Nothing to worry about, if the tapes were stored propperly.

I'm pretty sure, they'll use Bruce' 1999 master, like it was the case with Thriller.
 
R1chard said:
In name only. Read the smallprint. It's a rebranded Shopify, and is owned, operated and maintained by Musictoday, based in VA.

They simply paid a fee to Sony so they could call themselves official.
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Well, it's obvious the estate is outsourcing the merch department to companies that are specialised in that, pretty much every artist does that. Just like they work with Sony for the music publishing. You don't expect Branca to design the t-shirts himself, right ?
 
Just saying the word "official" is entirely meaningless. It's no guarantee of quality or exclusivity or anything else.

The only purpose is to give them a reason to jack the prices up so gullible people end up spending $200 on a t-shirt.

And actually, yeah, Nirvana did famously design their own shirt.
 
R1chard said:
And actually, yeah, Nirvana did famously design their own shirt.
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Many artists do, but even when he was alive MJ was never really involved with the hundreds of officially licensed merch they made of him every year. I'm sure he wasn't aware of more than half of the products that were released with his name or face on it.
 
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