October / November / December 2018
Virtual Collection
Editorial By Andrija Curkovic

  Recently consumers in the Croatian market were delighted to hear that HDS ZAMP, the domestic copyright agency, finally signed a deal with the powerful Internet service Spotify on music distribution via streaming services However, the original enthusiasm soon swelled when the details of this contract were provided because, at least in its current state, it only applies to Croatian music distributed abroad but not vice versa For those readers who may not be familiar, in our market, besides the Deezer service, Spotify and TIDAL are still not legally available Of course, the resourcefulness of local users does not know any boundaries, so a lot of them have already found a way to open their accounts in countries where access is possible to reach an unlimited number of music content Among younger users, as well as students, the most popular platform for consuming the virtual audio & video record collection is YouTube First of all, it is easily accessible, functional and free, and the quality of the product itself is not of paramount importance.

The aforementioned virtual collections give the user unparalleled functionality and comfort, but also result in adverse effects on the market as they greatly reduce production and sales of physical media where music and movies are stored The exception is vinyl, which in handling is a pure contrast to simplicity and functionality, but excellent sales results speak in its favour, so that it is a subject for another editorial.

It is indisputable that the future of the use of music and film records will transfer to the virtual collection and the only task the user will have will be choosing the price and quality by which he will consume it In the footsteps of this thinking, in the issue you are just reading, we tested the multimedia player of the French company Zappiti, which provides the user with the ability to store the entire collection of audio and video Additionally, the Zappiti One SE 4K HDR handles 4K video with such simplicity of control, comfort and quality that we kept it in the test room as our new 4K reference multiplayer Apart from that, the Slovenian manufacturer Erzetich Audio has also impressed us with its new line of headphones that are pushing for the high-end audio market Since the headset is nowadays an inevitable addition to every music streaming, we have also tested a new version of the Bose QC35 II Wireless Headset with a noise canceling functionality, which are practically a standard in this product category, as well as other models of Audio Technica, Denon and V-MODA headset models Also, just a few pages further, in the hardware section of the magazine, you will find a test and other interesting AV products.

In our usual, rich, musical and film attachment, I have to single out the deceased soul queen Aretha Franklin, Tom Waits, Buena Vista Social Club, The Bambi Molesters, Amy Adams's portrait and an exclusive jazz music interview with Ambrose Akinmusire, the best jazz trumpeter of today performed in Zagreb at Jazz.hr/autumn festival.

I wish you a pleasant reading,

--- Andrija Curkovic
Editor-in-Chief

Subscribe!
Click here to subscribe to HiFi Media