It’s not necessarily the format of the digital files. Dynamic range is missing because modern music is mastered to be played on earbuds and phone speakers. Everything is just smashed together and has zero dynamics.

Your comment said it’s expensive to record music at a high “quality”. That’s simply not true. I know of at least ten places you could book this week for $600 to $1000 bucks a day, all with some of the best gear you could want. I’m talking hundreds of thousands in instruments and microphones. Some of these places have recorded many albums that made it big.

There is a reason for the exodus in the studio industry over the last ten years which caused so many big names to close their doors. The reason is that digital recording is dirt cheap to produce. Many newer artists are doing it by themselves at home and so are most professionals. It is entirely possible to record 90 percent of an album at home and finish it off in a studio for next to nothing. I know many people who used to charge $200-300 dollars an hour and, today, they are lucky to average ten percent of that. Again, I’m talking guys that have credits hundreds of albums with big name labels.

For perspective, my band was negotiating with a major label back in 2006 and their proposed budget for recording the album, eight songs, was $20K. It’s practically peanuts compared to what it was in analog times.

Again, I didn’t say anything about marketing and publicity. That isn’t part of recording.

“It's incredible expensive to record and produce music at a high quality.”

No, it’s not. Without even getting into how affordable at home recording is, studio time is as cheap as it’s ever been. There are tons of decent studios all over where you can record for less than $200 a hour including an experienced engineer. I know Grammy award winning guys who will mix and master an entire album for a few grand to polish it off.