Apple to Acquire Major Classical Music Label BIS Records

[lazyrighteye]

I forgot about Classical (app). I just cracked it open for the second time, instantly remembering how much I dislike the UI. Specifically the selection of serif font as it breaks from the Apple Music aesthetic - which is likely intentional.

Anyway, any bolstering of their overall Music offering is welcomed.

 

[carswell]

Being a fan of the BIS label and having just abandoned Apple Music/Classical for Qobuz (mainly because Apple doesn't do hi-res or even lossless on SONOS) with zero regrets, I find myself wondering whether Apple is going to monopolize the BIS catalogue for its own platforms and remove BIS recordings from competing platforms. Probably not but I wouldn't put it past Cupertino, in which case, let the anti-trust lawsuits begin.

 

[gumbyhw]

Isn't this like a huge conflict of interest? Apple owning record labels and also running a music shop. How is this legal?

How is it leagal that Apple runs a video streaming service and also owns a film and TV studio?

 

[djcraze]

How is it leagal that Apple runs a video streaming service and also owns a film and TV studio?

It's different because as a label, they need to distribute the content to other vendors, not just to themselves. It is also different because Apple didn't buy studio, they made their own. Buying a label means they can take the content and charge a premium for other vendors to use it.

 

[djcraze]

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?

Apple has a much larger marketshare and is in a better position to stronghold other vendors.

 

[BellSystem]

I doubt it — if that were likely then Apple TV (the service) would have triggered it.

The courts/lobbyists wait until they have a case before jumping. Someone’s sitting there waiting to stir the pot…you can bet on it.

 

[webkit]

Apple has a much larger marketshare and is in a better position to stronghold other vendors.

There is a fair amount of competition in the music streaming business. I'm not sure the breakdown county by country but Apple Music's global market share is currently around 14%. Spotify is the largest with around 31% share.

 

[svish]

Good to know about this

 

[ackmondual]

I never heard of BIS till now, so that's neat to learn! However, I do wonder if I ever purchased stuff from them in the past, without knowing them by label (like CD)

 

[mazz0]

BIS is a splendid label, ever since the very first LP albums. In a way I am very surprised that von Bahr went for this acquisition, though knowing that he is 80 he has likely been looking for a way to safeguard the survival of the company once he is no longer there to run the ship. It does remain a fairly small operation. BIS is one of the few classical labels to not relegate itself to laziness in recent years, there are still interesting projects cropping up all the time. They're still getting Suzuki to publish new Bach cycles almost 30 years after he started working with them.

Here I can mention a funny story about Robert von Bahr; when he founded BIS it was basically just him running the show, he did everything down to delivering the records to local shops in Sweden. However, he found the cost of transporting his albums through the Stockholm underground to be leviable, so he found a loophole. A baby pram is not charged any fare, so he loaded the albums in the pram and carried them with him. His argument was that there did not need to be a baby in the pram!
View attachment 2255269

So he robbed the underground system to help his business?

 

[adamus]

What is apples obsession with classical music lately!?

Primephonic august 2021​

 

[adamus]

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.

cd quality is more than enough. aac256 is transparent - they understand iota of ( classical)music. They care about shareholder value.

 

[adamus]

So he robbed the underground system to help his business?

Swedish spotify dolarized and now ‘Bank of International Settlements’. Digital has no value 🤫

 

[eelpout]

This isn't a good thing. It says it right there in the article: "exclusive" content. That means that BIS albums will no longer be available on other streaming services and you will need an Apple Music Classical subscription to listen to BIS content. So far I've noticed that Tidal and Qobuz largely share the same classical content: BIS, Ondine, Mirare, Decca, DG, Chandos, Naxos, Warner, etc. But once one of these labels gets acquired by a streaming service, watch it vanish from being widely available...

agree, I listen to a lot of BIS on Tidal. Some of the early two-track tape von Bahr recordings I use as references. Now I imagine those will slowly disappear.

Guess I'll have to start buying up more of their CD's.

 

[Surf Monkey]

What is apples obsession with classical music lately!?

Nothing new. Besides, “classical music” is a VAST swath of human creativity that people make deep connections with. It’s music that has stood the test of time.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I forgot about Classical (app). I just cracked it open for the second time, instantly remembering how much I dislike the UI. Specifically the selection of serif font as it breaks from the Apple Music aesthetic - which is likely intentional.

Anyway, any bolstering of their overall Music offering is welcomed.

The app is still relatively new. They’ve been refining it fairly aggressively as they go along. The UI isn’t the best, but neither is Apple Music’s UI, and it’s even worse for orchestral recordings.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Isn't this like a huge conflict of interest? Apple owning record labels and also running a music shop. How is this legal?

If Apple was purchasing Warner Music (for example) you might have a point, but BIS is so small that no regulator will care.

 

[VisceralRealist]

Either way, this all means little to me until Apple Classical is available on macOS, and it's been a while now and still nothing.

 

[tomtad]

And yet still no iPad or Mac app