Who needs streaming?
And again from BIS and again in hi-res SACD, Autumn Equinox by the Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund. There is so much quality new music coming from Scandinavian composers that is being buried under the current obsession with virtue signalling. Kudos to BIS for recording where others dare not place microphones. I was horrified when I heard that Apple Music had bought BIS, followed by the equally sad news that the label's founder Robert von Bahr had departed. But judging by my recent listening, all is not yet lost with BIS. Or perhaps the Suns of Arqa were right when they famously sung, all is not lost, but where is it?
Comments
All of which predate Apple's involvement and Robert's departure.
But let's keep an open mind. All is not lost, but where is it?
Quality is no longer an issue since 320kbps is indistinguishable from lossless expect in extremely rare and exceptional cases. Nowadays many services have a lossless option.
About the only downside of streaming is the lack of the printed material included with physical media.
The advantages of streaming are highly compelling for almost every music lover.
The merit of audio physical media is that it promotes more involvement with the music. You have to listen to an LP side or the CD tracks.
As for the whole issue of fidelity it is mostly irrelevant in the face of mastering with dynamic range restriction aka the Loudness Wars which is starting to migrate even into classical and jazz mastering.. This is a large part of the appeal of vinyl records since they have physical limitations of loudness. So, the LP mastering is almost always significantly more natural than the digital version.
For example, changing sheet music from handwritten to printed to a screen does not affect the performance. The performer chooses whatever is most practical for them from the available options.
I wish you much listening pleasure with your physical media. It is inevitable that it will not be around for much longer, except perhaps in very limited forms for nostalgic reasons.
One fine example are the liner notes composer and theorist James Tenneyt provided for Wergo when they released Nancarrows Player Piano studies. Even very brief examples from the score were offered. DO you get that from a streaming service? No. And these days it may be some vague half-baked AI explanation.
CDs are more economical than streaming services. One assumes streaming services will last forever, they won't. They may die with the company or be inaccessible due to some buyer deciding to hijack the recordings hoping to speculate on future increase of its value.
I would say streaming services are best for:
A) Sharing music that may not be of great interest to you but heard for educational purposes
B) Gaining exposure to a musical genre you are unfamiliar with but curious to expose yourself to it before a more thorough exploration.
And finally, if you love a particular piece of music no matter the medium through which you listen to it, get a book about that music and NOT one that is solely a biography. Even for non-musicians, there is literature that can explain what are some of the reasons peoploe still listen to composers from hundreds of years ago.