purchasing, formats... (was: WAYLTL 2025!)

In article <vq51hb$c2t$1@hope.eyrie.org>,
Todd M. McComb <mccomb@medieval.org> wrote:

Ha, well, I have this recording in hand (from jpc.de) & will probably
write the review this week....  It's already on at least Qobuz (&
is supposedly an April release for the US).

Perhaps this is a spot for a tangent that is of interest to me for
public discussion, and had basically been part of this group from
the beginning, i.e. the various options for hearing or purchasing
recorded classical music....

I don't want to pick on Beauty Farm (the group) or Fra Bernardo
(the label), or at least not much, but this situation is perhaps
illustrative.  The recording arrived without notice on Qobuz, and
in high-def.  (I appreciate many of these newer high-def recordings,
including in choral music, but for some reason, that became a flame
bait topic here....)  The only reason I know about it is a younger
colleague spotted it somehow.  It also appeared at JPC (which I
found by searching).  But not at UK or US retailers, the latter of
which should appear in April.  Perhaps that will also mean that
I'll receive further information from the US distributor, but maybe
not, as not only are more of the music files not given out this way
anymore (the feeling being, apparently, that everyone has streaming
anyway at this point...), but the liner note info (etc.) may not
appear.  It hasn't for recent Fra Bernardo releases, and so the
only way to read the liner notes has been to purchase the physical
CD.  (Like the distributor, the label used to be in touch with me,
but now their own website doesn't even get updated, and they don't
respond....)  And remember, this is then a lower audio quality than
I can already stream online!  Anyway, I wanted to lay out these
actual current facts, in the spirit of ongoing consumer information....

And I think I've said this before, but IMO one thing these producers
need to decide is whether the liner notes are a value add or not,
and if they are, how to make those of us who want to read them pay
for it, because this "system" is really dumb.  (And as noted, I do
feel obliged to read notes before commenting on the performance,
because the notes might address something on which I'd comment!  It
just seems like a basic part of not spewing in ignorance, a sense
of restraint of course deprecated in our current world....)