Last holdout label joins the streaming revolution
NewsWhen Universal Music bought fiercely-independent Hyperion in February this year, we predicted on insider knowledge that it would only be a matter of months before the Hyperion catalogue would be put online for all to hear.
Details of the rollout were given last night. Hyperion will stream the entire catalogue of 2000+ recordings by spring 2024. The first 200 albums go online today.
Sir Stephen Hough, Hyperion’s signature pianist, said: ‘I am enormously excited to be part of this moment in Hyperion’s history. I’ve made over 40 albums for the company, pouring my heart, soul and fingers into each one, and now, thirty years after my first, they are to
be made available through streaming to a much wider, indeed Universal, audience. It delights and touches me to be able to reach a vast new family of music lovers in this way.’
At Hyperion, Simon Perry indeed hung on against (free) streaming for as long as he could but, rather as Canute holding back the waves, it was inevitable that he would have to join the streaming revolution. That he decided to do so by selling his company to Hyperion to Universal (rather than doing it himself) gave Hyperion the benefit of the huge UMG digital (and marketing) operation – and clearly Universal must calculate that they will make a profit from buying Hyperion. For with 2,200 releases in the catalogue that presumably cost UMG a few million (Simon Perry latterly had been the only Hyperion shareholder).
Apparently Hyperion’s physical distribution of [quaint old] existing CDs will continue – it will be interesting to see if some of the many releases which had run out of CD stock and not been repressed now do return in physical form. Equally interesting will be to see how the new release programme will look in a couple of years’ time, when UMG see if they are making a good enough return on their investment.
Thanks for that, UK A A. Your words are always like a fierce cordial; and interesting too, of course.
One of the biggest mysteries in the history of humans: The record industry was one of the biggest in the world – and one day they decided to give everything away. And ended up like a punctured dwarf only years later.
Why has not a book about this been written? Mr. Lebrecht, something for you?
Don’t encourage him!
At least in classical music, the sales decline began long before streaming became a big deal.
There’s no mystery.
What happened was a fundamental business principle: supply and demand.
When there was a limited supply of recording — especially stereo recordings and then digital — labels could charge handsome sums for LPs and CDs.
Eventually they got to a place where supply was greater than demand. When there are a thousand recordings available of the Beethoven 5, is anyone surprised that new recordings struggle to sell more than a few hundred copies (especially when the back catalogue is being sold at discount prices)?
The failure of the recording labels was that they were unable to develop other streams of revenue outside of making and selling recordings.
What else was there?
My main hope for Hyperion is that they would implement a wish list function. The music I want appears over the months but I find it difficult to accumulate a set to justify the postage.
Presumably you live outside the UK. Hyperion has always had very reasonable postage charges for UK customers.
No Hyperion releases showing up for me on Idagio, as yet.
For a classical streaming service, that seems unfortunate. Were they snubbed by UMG or just haven’t got it together in time to release today?
A voice from the Age of Impatience.
Thougt that Angela Hewitt was the labels signature pianist!?
Some Hyperion has arrived on Presto streaming.
This is very welcome news indeed. Many albums are now available on Tidal, so it has been pleasant day visiting old favourites and discovering gems that passed me by in way that I could never have done in the days of relatively expensive physical media. NB I pay for the subscription service, so it’s not free for me, at least.