I have a considerable collection of music in surround sound and I count myself as a fan of the format. My personal tastes skew towards popular music and jazz, but I do have a relatively small collection of classical music that I also enjoy. There are hundreds of classical music recordings in surround sound, the majority of which are recorded and produced such that the musicians are sonically arrayed in the front speakers and ambient/reflected sound is in the rear speakers. I would recommend you to check out
www.nativedsd.com for classical music in 5.1 surround sound.
Popular music, as we all know, is commonly recorded, not as a single performance but, rather, as multiple performances mixed together so as to arrive as a planned music experience. Some people are more skilled than others at mixing popular music for surround sound(Elliot Scheiner and Steven Wilson are examples of people renowned for their expertise in this area). Interestingly, Mark Waldrep’s AIX records company releases recordings that give the listener the option of hearing a live in the studio performance from either a seat in the audience or a seat on stage(I.e., from the perspective of an audience member or the perspective of one of the musicians on stage). Anyway, as
@audiohobbit correctly points out, appreciation and enjoyment of musical releases so produced is a matter of personal taste. I should add that the bulk of multichannel music releases are in 4.0(from the heyday, relatively speaking, of quadraphonic sound) and 5.1. And yes, there is a micro niche of music in three channel sound(L/C/R).
Regarding music mixed for Dolby Atmos, the recordings currently available are exceptionally scarce. Once you get past R.E.M.’s “Automatic For The People” and the Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” for instance, the pickings get (IMHO) quite slim.
