Source Material used by streaming companies

[Radioham]

Hi All,

I wonder if any "insiders" know where streaming companies source their material from ?

Most companies claim to have millions of tracks etc, but who supplied all the rips. 

Although I have not been into streaming too long I have noticed some rips have surface noise and pop/clicks indicating the source was vinyl and some times wow and flutter perhaps from a tape.

I recently streamed some vocal music (better than CD quality) and notice the female vocal was very distant  compared to the male, for fun I purchased the same CD and the vocals are better balanced. The only difference in the audio chain is the Blue Sound Node2 for streaming and a Marantz DVD player (for CD).

A friend has also noticed that some new releases don't sound too good for a month or so but then after a few months seem to be replaced with a better quality rip.

Alan

 

[Cable Monkey]

The primary supplier is via a company called 7 Digital. In situations where master tapes are lost or unavailable then lifting rips from vinyl is not that unusual. 

 

[theadmans]

I do use Qobuz Studio for convenience...

...but I maintain a collection of 3000+ CDs ripped to my hard drive.

In this way for albums that are important to me - I can listen to the non-brickwalled 80s masterings - that I prefer.