Quality of recorded music today has much more to do with mastering than bit rates and codecs. I certainly would prefer a 128 kbps version of a twenty year old mastering than a 192 kbps version of the modern remaster.<p>That <i>has</i> led to a consumer revolt of sorts, for people who care about audio. That&#x27;s not a large enough group to make a difference to the big record companies, but it is large enough that catering to them is a good business model in itself.