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Apple to Acquire Major Classical Music Label BIS Records
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Wow! I think this is fabulous and it would be great to see Apple become a steward of classical music. I think we are all familiar with the struggles of many orchestras and various companies during these times. An injection of support from the world's largest company is encouraging news.
To me, this is akin to Apple's commitment to preserving and revitalizing the architecture of many of its Apple stores. It's certainly not necessary and one could question the financial return, but it does add to the aura of today's Apple.
To me, this is akin to Apple's commitment to preserving and revitalizing the architecture of many of its Apple stores. It's certainly not necessary and one could question the financial return, but it does add to the aura of today's Apple.
Aging population niche that likes to spend A LOT of money. Like me.
Bis is a fabulous company, I've been buying their releases for years. Very strong in modern music as well.
This is akin to acquiring Beats; an industry foothold, perhaps not the big boys like Sennhenseier or AudioTechnica, but someone who knows just as much what they are doing. BIS has a very strong catalog and is in general quite respected in the scene.
Which would be terrible news indeed. Bad news for music lovers everywhere. There is some really terrific recordings from the analog era and it would be a real shame to destroy the tapes. Shame on Apple if they do that.
It will also allow them to release exclusive content that will entice people away from other streaming services that don't have that content. (Something I'm not looking forward to).
BIS do have an interesting (and variable) collection of artists. They were also a pioneer in using high-res DSD recordings. Their early recordings using DSD were simply absolutely outstanding (circa 2000 to 2004) which were released on SACD (Super Audio CD) and are highly sought after by collectors. Then they stopped using high-res DSD and somewhat scandalously reverted to using comparatively low-res 24 bit 48kHz PCM recordings but still released them on SACD as if they were hi-res (which they were not) but still took advantage of the multi-channel capabilities of SACD. In more recent years, they upped their ante a bit by moving generally to 24 bit 96kHz recordings on their SACD releases, but these releases are, in my view and many others, still a pale shadow of their pure DSD recordings of the early 2000s. Hi-res SACD is very popular in the classical space, particularly for hi-res and multichannel classical music, and BIS are one of the larger producers of SACDs in the classical market.
It’s the other way around: jobs didn’t care (he preferred Dylan, the Beatles, and his onetime flame Baez). iTunes etc were pretty crappy for non-Boomer music.
now apple wants to cater to a larger segment.
And Apple TV! You know, the thing actually hooked up to my sound system...
I doubt it — if that were likely then Apple TV (the service) would have triggered it.
To be fair "exclusive" could mean just some series of new releases. Still, this kind of thing is very concerning. The last thing we all need is for music streaming to go the way of video streaming, where users have to chase the content they want on multiple platforms...
You can still AirPlay from your phone to your sound system via your Apple TV, as a workaround for that strange omission.
AirPlay is garbage for a serious Hifi system, especially for classical music (jazz too). I have a high-end network streamer/DAC on which I stream Qobuz/Roon via ethernet. The crappy sound and flakey reliability of Airplay 2 streamed wirelessly just doesn't cut it for me. I especially don't want my classical music sounding dead and lifeless as a result. I'm sure it's fine for all the overly compressed casualties of the loudness wars, but I'm not having any of it.
I don't use an AppleTV to stream either. There's just nothing compelling to me about using Apple for music. I have an Intel NUC running Roon's ROCK OS as a music server, and that integrates with Qobuz as a streaming service. I suppose if Apple ever opened up an API to stream their service in hi-rez (i.e. 24/96, etc) via Roon that might be something, but when pigs fly...
Apple is mid-fi at best, IMO.
Personally I think yes. Apple Music now streams in lossless formats if the option is enabled. Lossless CD quality 44.1KHz 16bit audio is wonderful, unfortunately it is compressed when sent over AirPlay. Anything higher than that is a placebo though, the human ear physically can't detect higher frequencies and you'd need to be listening at deafening volumes to get the benefit of higher dynamic range.
Record labels selling music in a shop isn't new nor is it uncommon. BIS has been doing that for years before being acquired. Their online shop eclassical.com sells music from numerous classical labels. A lot of the other labels (at least jazz and classical) have online shops too.
Why would it be illegal for a label to run a shop for albums?
That fight was about Apple being able to host music and stream music. I highly doubt Apple Corp would have relented in allowing Apple to actually be a music label during this 'fight'. That fight was back in 2007. I think the lawyers at Apple Corp will be going over the settlement agreement both signed back in 2007.
Very good news for apple classical fans! BIS has made some really fantastic recordings of contemporary music as well as the standard repertoire.
I hope that it will continue to be different, given that music streaming platforms for the most part do not produce their own content, which is in contrast to video streaming. But I can imagine a dystopia where Apple has BIS and Naxos, Qobuz has DG and Warner, Tidal has Decca and Chandos, and to listen to them all, you need to have at least three subscriptions.
I would hope that the way people listen to music is different enough from watching video--creating libraries of music they like as opposed to simply browsing to see what's available, and listening repeatedly--to prevent this from happening, but you never know. Right now we're in a situation where people temporarily subscribe to a video streaming service to watch one show. This acquisition could invite a situation where you might temporarily subscribe to Apple Music to hear a new BIS release.
Yeah, NVM -- I thought I was responding to the poster who was asking about ATV support for Apple Classical.