Niche Market
Posted on | April 28, 2008 |
A few days back I mentioned how the home theatre system is really driving the hi-fi market, as the music industry isn’t so focused on quality as it is convenience (.mp3s and iPods). There are, however, a handful of music labels that are still dedicated to top-quality music recording and production.
Chesky Records, Waterlily Acoustics and Blue Note come to mind.
Chesky and Waterlily are “audiophile” labels. But don’t let that scare you off. Chesky’s stuff is really accessible to “average” listeners as well as very satisfying to discerning audiophiles, with a lot of their catalog based on jazz and folk-influnced artists.
Waterlily is more “world” and classical, with their classical being based around some of the best orchestras of the modern era and their “world” consisting of interesting pairings of small ensembles. It’s not the Peter Gabriel or Putumayo “world”, but more organic and complexly structured improvisations based on sort of a jazz sensibility of theme/development-improvization/theme.
Blue Note is the label probably everyone here is aware of. They’ve got an amazing catalog of old jazz and blues classics, as well as modern jems like Norah Jones. They’re one of the best examples of a label that is focused on the music and the artist, yet still makes a good profit.
If you haven’t already, check something out from each of these labels. Whether it’s CD, DVD-A or SACD. You’ll be glad you did.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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