BIS Records taken over by Apple

[71 dB]

He has seven children, non of which are prepared to take over BIS. He views the deal with Apple as guaranteeing BIS's survival after his inevitable exit.

What makes Apple ready to take over BIS? What does survival mean? The label is dead for me the second they stop releasing CDs/SACDs. Do you think I will start using Apple's streaming service (called Music I believe)? Or buy downloads? Not happening.

Simon Perry took over Hyperion upon the death of Ted Perry. That didn't guarantee the continuation of Hyperion as an independent label.

However, the state of that label looks much better looking their website.

[Spotted Horses]

What makes Apple ready to take over BIS? What does survival mean? The label is dead for me the second they stop releasing CDs/SACDs. Do you think I will start using Apple's streaming service (called Music I believe)? Or buy downloads? Not happening.

BIS wasn't directly taken over by Apple, rather by Platoon, a London Based music development company that was taken over by Apple some time ago. Platoon's mission is to find and develop new musical talent (in various pop music genres) and I suppose the rational is to broaden Platoon to develop classical talent as well. In theory it sounds like a good fit. Platoon is supposedly the BIS of popular music. In practice, it is not clear that Platoon's culture will mesh with BIS. I think it was von Bahr's unique loyalty to the music, to the sound, to the artists that made BIS what it is, and it will not survive unaltered without von Bahr. 

I suppose von Bahr is aware that there are some BIS customers who will never listen to anything but a physical disc. But there are an awful lot of people who would never consider buying a CD who will discover BIS. Robert von Bahr has always been forward thinking.

Is the plastic disc really more important than the music to you? I was an LP fanatic, and CD adopter. At first download purchase had no appeal to me, until I realized that it opened up new musical possibilities. Then I rejected the idea of streaming, until I accepted a free trial offer and discovered that Apple Music streams an extensive classical library lossless (and hi-rez). Now I stream music whose FLAC files, burned from old CDs that I used to have on LP, are still on my hard disc. There are advantages to being flexible.

[Le Buisson Ardent]

RvB shares some thoughts this article

https://gb.readly.com/magazines/bbc-music-magazine/2024-01-23/659ce149f39eba640babe544

He has seven children, non of which are prepared to take over BIS. He views the deal with Apple as guaranteeing BIS's survival after his inevitable exit.

Simon Perry took over Hyperion upon the death of Ted Perry. That didn't guarantee the continuation of Hyperion as an independent label.

But what the future holds for BIS and Hyperion is uncertain. Will these labels continue to produce physical media or will the figureheads pull out of manufacturing CDs and opt for digital download and streaming only? Will they continue to work with the musicians that have appeared on their labels or are they going to bump them and search out new talent? Too many questions that aren't answered and that can't be answered right now since none of us have ears/eyes behind the scenes nor have the ability to look into that crystal ball for insight into the future.

This is why I'm telling people in this thread that if they own CDs from BIS or Hyperion to be thankful for that collection, because this could very well disappear.

[Roasted Swan]

But what the future holds for BIS and Hyperion is uncertain. Will these labels continue to produce physical media or will the figureheads pull out of manufacturing CDs and opt for digital download and streaming only? Will they continue to work with the musicians that have appeared on their labels or are they going to bump them and search out new talent? Too many questions that aren't answered and that can't be answered right now since none of us have ears/eyes behind the scenes nor have the ability to look into that crystal ball for insight into the future.

This is why I'm telling people in this thread that if they own CDs from BIS or Hyperion to be thankful for that collection, because this could very well disappear.

I think you are absolutely right.  Undertakings given (even in good faith) at the point of sale of these labels might well be voided due to "market forces" or "changes in consumer habits" etc etc.  Of course there will be a shift to downloads and streaming if physical media is hard and/or expensive to source. 

Its a bit like the argument that says CM should be defunded because audiences are dceclining but does not acknowledge the linkage that removal of music provision in schools - classroom or practical - means that lower exposure to Music will result in lower general engagement as performer or consumer.

[Le Buisson Ardent]

I think you are absolutely right.  Undertakings given (even in good faith) at the point of sale of these labels might well be voided due to "market forces" or "changes in consumer habits" etc etc.  Of course there will be a shift to downloads and streaming if physical media is hard and/or expensive to source. 

Its a bit like the argument that says CM should be defunded because audiences are declining but does not acknowledge the linkage that removal of music provision in schools - classroom or practical - means that lower exposure to Music will result in lower general engagement as performer or consumer.

Absolutely. No exposure means far fewer listeners and this music will see a decline if there's not any money thrown at it in terms of getting the word out and making people aware of it. This music doesn't exist in a vacuum.

[DavidW]

What makes Apple ready to take over BIS? What does survival mean? The label is dead for me the second they stop releasing CDs/SACDs. Do you think I will start using Apple's streaming service (called Music I believe)? Or buy downloads? Not happening.

However, the state of that label looks much better looking their website.

I think Apple bought BIS due to their efforts with surround sound. Apple has been making a big push to separate themselves from the competition through the use of Spatial Audio. I doubt they care one way or the other about the physical media side. I think that is still an important part of their revenue stream so I don't see BIS stopping anytime soon. But if they do, that doesn't kill the decades of cds they've made that will be available on the used market, in addition to your own personal collection.

[CRCulver]

BIS's future release schedule has declined to a mere trickle, and I have to use the Presto Classical shop to see it, because BIS's own website is no longer maintained. With the departure of Robert von Bahr, I would suspect that Apple is mostly winding the label up after having acquired it for whatever purposes of its own.

[Brian]

Dave Hurwitz has a video where he talks about von Bahr's departure and his legacy over the decades of BIS. Neither man seems to have any information on the future of the label but without him it is hard to imagine a clear artistic direction. The bargain basement box set sale at JPC may be connected to this.

Hurwitz' informative and heartfelt tribute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzdaXnon2H0

[Brian]

BIS June releases:

Haydn Op. 33 with Chiaroscuro Quartet - a normal release for them, with their usual engineering team
New York Polyphony - a crowdfunded release that lists all the benefactors, but also with their usual engineering team
Brahms Symphonies with Nagano - live concert recordings

BIS July releases:

There are none. For the first time in my memory, BIS is taking a month off. A sign the end is near?

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

BIS June releases:

Haydn Op. 33 with Chiaroscuro Quartet - a normal release for them, with their usual engineering team
New York Polyphony - a crowdfunded release that lists all the benefactors, but also with their usual engineering team
Brahms Symphonies with Nagano - live concert recordings

BIS July releases:

There are none. For the first time in my memory, BIS is taking a month off. A sign the end is near?

Perhaps there's some new management coming in and there's going to be a bit restructuring.

[Spotted Horses]

Perhaps there's some new management coming in and there's going to be a bit restructuring.

I think that's the issue, that the passion project of a brilliant impresario with boundless energy must be transformed into a record label with management. To make a perhaps far-fetched comparison, Steve Jobs managed instill Apple with an ethos that survived him to some significant extent. I don't know if von Bahr has done the same. It would be a challenge because the classical music recording business is not exactly an economic dynamo. My big hope is that the BIS catalog continues to be available, even if the production of new recordings fails to maintain the standard von Bahr set.

[CRCulver]

Christian Lindberg is performing Pettersson's Tenth with the Norrköping SO in the autumn, and one hopes that this will result in an SACD recording. It would be a pity if Lindberg's own Pettersson cycle were left incomplete.

[Brian]

BIS was long very famous for never letting a single recording go out of print. Not sure if this is evidence of a change, but JPC recently did a clearance sale on BIS box sets, deleting them from the website as each sold out. Now Presto is doing a BIS 35% off sale - and more than half of all the recordings on my wishlist are "out of stock at the UK distributor."

[Spotted Horses]

BIS was long very famous for never letting a single recording go out of print. Not sure if this is evidence of a change, but JPC recently did a clearance sale on BIS box sets, deleting them from the website as each sold out. Now Presto is doing a BIS 35% off sale - and more than half of all the recordings on my wishlist are "out of stock at the UK distributor."

It seems obvious to me that Apple, which is burying its own legacy iTunes Store incentivizing people to switch to Apple Music Streaming, is going to eliminate BIS physical media as soon as practical. I wonder how long lossless download of BIS catalog will continue

It has struck me how few sources of lossless download exist. I suspect in the foreseeable future there will be only streaming.

[Brian]

It seems obvious to me that Apple, which is burying its own legacy iTunes Store incentivizing people to switch to Apple Music Streaming, is going to eliminate BIS physical media as soon as practical. I wonder how long lossless download of BIS catalog will continue

It has struck me how few sources of lossless download exist. I suspect in the foreseeable future there will be only streaming.

Right, why would they sell us a product for $15 when they can sell us a product for $15 per month? I've already been increasingly frustrated in recent years trying to buy seasons of TV shows that - of course - are not available for purchase in any way, subscription only.

[Madiel]

Of course they won't actually succeed in eliminating physical media while places like eBay exist. And those copies don't generate any money for them at all.

Which doesn't stop me from paying for streaming anyway. Just currently not from Apple. The big problem will be if they ever decide that this music is only available on the Apple service. This is the way TV has been, but in general not music. Spotify tried it with podcasts but has actually dialled back on exclusivity.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

All of this talk about Apple deleting BIS's physical catalog and making it only available for streaming is giving me reason to be grateful that I own so many BIS CDs. But, also, to express my heartfelt thanks for all that Robert von Bahr has done for classical music.

Come on, Apple! Come get my BIS CDs! They'll have to pull them from my dead hands.