New releases from Blue Note, ECM, others missing

[earnmyturns]

It's pretty frustrating to read a great review of a new jazz album on Blue Note, ECM, or other labels, and not find it on HDtracks, even though older albums from those labels are available. The most recent example I checked is Lionel Loueke's Gaïa on Blue Note, but the problem keeps happening. Even when the albums eventually show up, it's often with a long lag. HDtracks seems to put a lot more effort on old catalog re-releases than on new music releases. But the reality is that many of us fans of lossless digital music have large collections of old CDs ripped into our systems, and what we want to buy digitally is new music. Fortunately, more and more independent artists are using Bandcamp to offer digital downloads, but some artists signed up to big labels are stuck on CDs or lossy iTunes or Amazon digital because of this blockage in the label to HDtracks pipeline.

[kumakuma]

It's pretty frustrating to read a great review of a new jazz album on Blue Note, ECM, or other labels, and not find it on HDtracks, even though older albums from those labels are available. The most recent example I checked is Lionel Loueke's Gaïa on Blue Note, but the problem keeps happening. Even when the albums eventually show up, it's often with a long lag. HDtracks seems to put a lot more effort on old catalog re-releases than on new music releases. But the reality is that many of us fans of lossless digital music have large collections of old CDs ripped into our systems, and what we want to buy digitally is new music. Fortunately, more and more independent artists are using Bandcamp to offer digital downloads, but some artists signed up to big labels are stuck on CDs or lossy iTunes or Amazon digital because of this blockage in the label to HDtracks pipeline.

 

I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Other than their own releases (Chesky Records), HDTracks is essentially just the digital equivalent of a record store. They sell what the labels give them, when the labels give it to them to sell.

[firedog]

HDT and the other hi-res sites get most of their tracks from middlemen. That's why you often see the same tracks show up at all the sites within a day of each other.

 

I don't think releasing a hi-res version of new music is the first priority at many labels, as it's a relatively small market. So the hi-res releases lag behind, if they occur at all.