55% of Americans Prefer Their Music through Computer Speakers

[Tubelab_com]

The recording industry had always the tendency to mix and master for the "lowest common denominator" aka the most popular playback systems.

Yes, this has always been true. Back in the early 70's I was lucky enough to visit Criteria Studios in Miami. As I was being shown one of the mixing rooms I noticed that there were the usual collection of monitor speakers on and behind the console, but there was this piece of plywood on the wall behind the chair. It had cloth stretched over it. I asked, and was told that half of our music is heard on a pair of 6 X 9 speakers in the rear deck of a car, so we have to listen to our mixes on a similar setup to make sure it sounds good. The mastering was done to fit the delivery format even then. A typical pop music song of the day might have been mastered differently for vinyl, cassette, and 8-track.

Apple has some rather stringent requirements for submitting music to iTunes. They prefer, and often require 24/96 digital files in an uncompressed format. An excerpt from their manual:

Because iTunes Plus is a highly portable format, its files have the potential to be listened to in a wide range of different settings. So while one listener may be using white earbuds while riding in a loud subway car, another may wind up listening intently to a Bach cantata on AirPlay-equipped Bowers and Wilkins speakers or on a similarly equipped Denon receiver in a home media room.

 

[SS4927]

Is it up to Neil's standards now ^