: Serious curators preferred VBR (specifically LAME V0 or V2 settings) because it provided high audio fidelity while keeping file sizes small enough for the limited bandwidth and storage of the time. Perceptual Transparency
Streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music) generally only host what labels choose to upload. If an album is out of print, or if a band was a local hardcore act from Ohio in 1996 that never got a digital distribution deal, they aren't on Spotify. vbr mp3 collection blogspot