Art of Listening with Keith Jopling #2
Last month, we launched a new series called Art of Listening by the ever-incisive Keith Jopling. This week, we’re excited to present the second installment: Are We Selling Ourselves Short on Audio Quality?.
Bringing a new angle to the FAC’s output, with an under-explored area of music which is both critical yet very rarely discussed - how we listen. As fans - our tastes change and our attention spans compete constantly between music and everything else! The role of artists, formats, marketing and discovery platforms is explored as Keith looks to explore just how much we value music.
In a recent conversation with the singer-songwriter David Gray about his career (which spans the entire growth of digital music since the beginning) he kindly reminded me that “the mp3 was shit”. I do love artists that do not mince words. I say this reminded me, because for the past 10 years or so, I’ve hardly thought about MP3s. Does anyone still listen (or buy!) the format? Since the first appearance of the MP3 in the late 90s, we have never looked back in terms of music’s abundance and availability, and yet we traded off how the music actually sounds.
According to a growing community of audiophiles, we are all being short-changed by the current wave of digital music. However, the message has for the most part, fallen on deaf ears. Fidelity is not even a word anyone says, outside of recording studios and consumer electronics factories. Standard quality streaming is about the same as MP3 - possibly a fraction better for most premium subscriptions.
Sometime before the pandemic, it all looked set to change. No less than three of the major streaming players: Deezer, Tidal and Amazon Music, made big splash launches of ‘hi resolution’ audio quality streaming. Meanwhile, the smaller specialist Qobuz has put studio quality streaming at the centre of its proposition since it entered the space. Meanwhile as we waited, Spotify continues to be ambivalent, while Apple Music has gone down a spatial audio wormhole.
But for those services with hi-fi offerings there were numerous hurdles in making the leap to a genuinely better listening experience for the user. The number of ‘studio quality’, ‘master quality‘ or ‘ultra HD’ tracks available remained a fraction of the overall catalogue (the process to mix a track up to these quality levels is not simple or cheap).
Playback is another issue. Wireless streaming solutions do carry 24-bit files, but there is always a compromise or compression along the way. You'll need a speaker that is HD compatible - and those are, still, relatively rare. Only audiophiles have such things as digital audio compressors. And the idea of using wired headphones seems like a step backward.
Perhaps the biggest question is, do people even care? The evidence is patchy. I’ve seen dozens of surveys that say roughly the same thing - a minority proportion of music fans are interested (somewhere between a quarter and a third), and a subset of these say they would pay more for a high(er) quality music stream. However, these proportions drop steeply in the under 35’s. It’s tough to make a business case on that kind of evidence. That puts HD music streaming propositions between a rock and a hard place.
Let me be clear. When I listen to Qobuz (studio) through my wired (mid-range Sennheiser Momentum) headphones, the results are much better: more clarity, greater depth and separation, and the (delightful) ability to hear previously missed details. This is boosted further by a Cyrus Soundkey Headphone DAC - retailing at a mere £49. With this simple upgrade, music listening at least through headphones, is noticeably improved if not totally transformed.
So why do we continue to sell ourselves short? Subscribing to a streaming service to play MP3 quality streams is like buying a vinyl collection and playing it on a Crosley portable turntable, as a permanent arrangement. We don’t go to a gig expecting the sound to be duff. It is madness. And not very respectful to artists or anyone who helps them make records. The care and attention put into the studio craft deserves better. Our ears deserve better. Yet the music industry has been permanently preoccupied with other potential new formats - spatial audio, VR, live streaming - and now AI - to consider high resolution audio a priority.
HD music is perhaps the single most significant way to get the masses more engaged in music at a time when we are being bombarded with ever more entertainment options. Do we really want to spend more time on yet another average Netflix box set, or doom scrolling socials, when we could instead revisit Bowie’s catalogue in a more rewarding audio format? It’s a no brainer for music fans, surely. That should make it a no brainer business case for the music industry.
Personally nothing would make me happier than Spotify shifting to a higher quality music listening experience, if only it was more convinced that it matters. High-definition music really needs stronger brand marketing. HD isn’t just about a better listen, but bragging rights too. Spotify wasn’t ever meant to be cool, it became cool by accident. It seems like the only player who could make high quality music cool too.
Learn more about Keith Jopling:
Keith is a music strategist, advisor, consultant, writer and mentor. In 2021 he started the music podcast The Art of Longevity, featured under Spotify’s “must listen” music podcasts and on all other platforms. The archive sits on his music curation site The Song Sommelier.
Keith has worked with the boardrooms of labels, streaming services, start-ups and investors. He has held previous roles with Sony Music, Spotify, EMI and the BPI. Most recently he was Consulting Director at boutique music agency MIDiA Research (2019-2024) and began his career in music as Research Director at global trade body IFPI (2000-2006).
As an educator, he has lectured in music business, strategy and innovation at Henley Business School, NYU, BIMM, ACM, Belmont, Syracuse, Westminster and the University of Krems, Austria.