Buying Internet Music

[malvado78]

I was searching Itunes today for a new Album to buy and a question hit me...

When you buy music on Itunes they provide it to you in aac format I believe. This is a lossy format correct?

Am I loosing quality by buying the music from Itunes and putting them on discs to listem to on my HT?

I know Apple supposedly also has a lossless format. Is this what we get when we purchase from Itunes?

Just curious if I should go back to buying hard CD's since they are about the same price.

Although it is quite convenient.

 

[MDS]

Yes, AAC is a lossy format.

I prefer to buy CDs and then rip them myself. That way you have ultimate flexibility - you have an original physical archive of the music (the cd) and you can rip it and make any compressed format of your choice.

 

[racquetman]

When you buy from Itunes, you are getting 128 kbps AAC files (yes, lossy). If you burn them to a disc, they more than likely won't play on any of your hardware in this format. You would have to set your burning preferences to burn this music as an mp3 CD. Converting from one lossy format to another (at the same bitrate) is generally not recommended. I don't know of a player (CD or DVD) that can read AAC files, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong. You can take a CD and encode it with Apple Lossless in Itunes, but everything you buy from their website is at 128 kbps I believe. Obviously if you hook your computer into your home theater, then you can play this stuff through a set of analog cables from your sound card.

If you want higher quality and more flexible options, then I would say buy the CDs. AAC files are tricky because they're protected, and you have to jump through hoops to use them with anything other than Itunes (which is the way Apple wants it).

 

[Duffinator]

I use iTunes for those one off songs from artist I'm not familiar with or when I don't want to purchase the CD. Generally I purchase the CD and rip away. From the AAC protected files you can burn as a CD and re-rip as an MP3 at whatever bit rate you would like. Of course this is not the best way to do it but then you have the song as an MP3 which gives you better flexibility. For playing on an iPod or other personal digital device this works fine.

 

[K-man]

acc format vs mp3 format

I don't have an IPOD so I dont know what you mean when you say aac format ...is that a computer file extension like mp3??

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

I don't have an IPOD so I dont know what you mean when you say aac format ...is that a computer file extension like mp3??

Correct, AAC is just an audio compression like MP3 or WMA

Personal iTunes rant: One of the original selling points was that you could buy a song at a time instead of the whole album. But for many albums to get the one good single (and they always know when theres just one good song) they make you purchase the whole album! (I had this come up with the Donnie Darko soundtrack, all the songs were $.99 except the 'Mad World' cover which I'd only get by paying the $9.99 for the entire album with 17 songs I don't want to listen to.

 

[krzywica]

If you are getting mp3 quality any way why not just go off the gnutella network?

 

[WmAx]

Just curious if I should go back to buying hard CD's since they are about the same price.

Although it is quite convenient.

Buying music from the music online providers is a raw deal for the consumer. When you buy music from one of the mainstream legal services(Itunes, Napster, etc.) you are not 'buying' anything, despite that the services would like you to believe you are. You are in essence leasing for an undetermined but finite period of time, and you will eventually lose any use of the original files that you supposedly purchased when you use up your limited number of key transfers and the origional provider does not want to renew them for you: you are dependant on the future co-operation of the seller to insure your music collection will still work in the future. The way around this is to (1) burn the tracks to cd-r if the service allows this function [or](2) record the analog signal and re-encode to an unprotected format [or](3) use an illegal decryption method to remove the protection from the original file. In any case, you still DID NOT BUY ANYTHING. You can't sell or use the files you supposedly have bought; they have ZERO value. A CD has none of these problems, and is of higher audio quality as compared to the lossy formats/bitrate now offered. I must note that I do think the rental services[that are marketed as such] are a great idea, like Rhapsody or Napster subscription services that provide an all-you-can-use format for one reasonable monthly rate.

-Chris

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

A CD has none of these problems, and is of higher audio quality as compared to the lossy formats/bitrate now offered.

True. However I don't buy whole albums off the internet for exactly that reason but I'd rather pay $.99 for a good single and burn it to CD than pay $17 for a CD which has the one song I want on it (even if it is of higher quality).

Of course the album has more than three songs I like, i tend to pay for the regular album.

 

[Sheep]

I don't knw about you guys, but bands make albums for a reason.

The single is why you buy it, but the album is why you love it. I buy and download cd's because you never know if you will like the other songs, and if you do, you will then like the band more. I generally don't like the singles of most albums anyways.


sheep

 

[malvado78]

Wow this thread arose from the grave.

 

[racquetman]

I don't knw about you guys, but bands make albums for a reason.

The single is why you buy it, but the album is why you love it. I buy and download cd's because you never know if you will like the other songs, and if you do, you will then like the band more. I generally don't like the singles of most albums anyways.


sheep

I think bands should stop making albums. This may be a sacrilegious thought to some of you guys who spent (or spend) hours listening to whole albums at a time, but I think the time of the album needs to end.

There are very, very, very few albums that I just love from start to finish, and even then, who has time to sit down and listen to them? If bands concentrated on putting out quality songs one at a time instead of 2 or 3 decent songs and a bunch of filler on an album, maybe the music industry would be more successful. I say release quality singles more often (instead of a couple over a few months, and then have to wait 2 or 3 years for a new album), and then when you have 8 or so songs released, put them on a CD and sell them. In the meantime everyone can download the singles one at a time from one of the internet services. I don't think many people care about the "flow," for lack of a better word, of an album anymore. They just want to hear songs they like. That's why people burn mixed CDs and shuffle their selections on their mp3 players and computers.

Anyway, give me a cyber-slap if you think I'm way off base.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

I don't think many people care about the "flow," for lack of a better word, of an album anymore.

Its not that people don't care, its that it doesn't exist. What was the last album that flowed smoothly from track to track? (I'll say the middle third of ICP's The Great Milenko), with the exception of Pink Floyd, I know of few artists who aren't better served by singles and 'Best of' compilations.

 

[WmAx]

If bands concentrated on putting out quality songs one at a time instead of 2 or 3 decent songs and a bunch of filler on an album, maybe the music industry would be more successful.

The music industry is nearly at the peak of revenue; that goes for the songwriters as well. I have not noticed many businesses that are willing to change a winning formula. In retrospect, it seems more likely that to effect change they need to LOSE money, and LOTS OF IT. That should theoretically force them to try different things, though what they may change is difficult to predict.

-Chris

 

[noapples]

I don't know if anybody has recommended this: Buy from "allofmp3". You can choose any songs in different formats and bitrates up to original rips of the CD. There are no protection on the songs and you pay according to the size of files. Best of all, it is the cheapest way of buying music. You might acctually end up paying a dollar per CD.

 

[Methost]

I don't know if anybody has recommended this: Buy from "allofmp3". You can choose any songs in different formats and bitrates up to original rips of the CD. There are no protection on the songs and you pay according to the size of files. Best of all, it is the cheapest way of buying music. You might acctually end up paying a dollar per CD.

If you are going to use a Russian loophole site for your Dloads, you may as well just steal them. It's the same thing. Artists get nothing when you use these Dload sites. And if I am not mistaken, they are only legal to use if you are in Russia.

 

[WmAx]

If you are going to use a Russian loophole site for your Dloads, you may as well just steal them. It's the same thing.

What do you mean steal? That stealing a CD from the music shop is the same as using allofmp3.com? I would strongly disagree. Or do you you mean that using allofmp3.com is copyright infringement just as using P2P is copyright infringement?

Artists get nothing when you use these Dload sites.

Ironically, it seems that most artists[unless they are veteran super-stars with the power to get fair contracts] get next to nothing or nothing from album sales in net effect when under a standard major record contract. Judging from many artists testaments in interviews, the main purpose a CD has for them is to promote them, providing for their real money vehicle: the live music performances. Under this premise, it is best for most artists to have their music as widespread as possible, even if it is distributed freely. Just remember that the preceding was based on random artist interviews I have read online or seen on television, therefor the accuracy of this conclusion is not certain.

As for an advantage to using allofmp3.com: I tried the site, and you can encode the tracks in your choice of encoder, format and bitrate. This is hardly an option for P2P downloads -- you are at the mercy of the original file source. The random files that I downloaded[and had the original CD to rip and compare the allofmp3 files to the original lossless wave file] and tested via ABX protocol did not demonstrate readily noticable artifiacts and/or distortions.

-Chris

 

[Rob Babcock]

While I can see why you might want to buy a single song here and there, I agree with Chris- what you think you're buying you're really renting. I won't pay good money for the temporary right to listen to a song. Let's say for the moment that you actually get an unencrypted download of the whole album, and that you can do whatever you like with it. The first thing I'd do in that case would be to burn it to a good quality CD-R. Hard drives are mechanical devices, and even in the best of cases will only last a few years (perhaps 5). What happens if all your music resides on HD with no backup and your HD crashes?

I know some unwise souls who ripped all their CDs to MP3s on their HD only to have just this happen. The end result was the loss of all their music.

 

[Methost]

What do you mean steal? That stealing a CD from the music shop is the same as using allofmp3.com? I would strongly disagree. Or do you you mean that using allofmp3.com is copyright infringement just as using P2P is copyright infringement?

What I mean is that if not for some crazy loophole in Russian law, the record companies would have shut these sites down by now. And I am not saying don't use these sites. Hell I do when I can't find a song I want on iTunes. All I am saying is that if you use these site to keep your conscience clear, save the 14 cents and get a P2P prog.

 

[patnshan]

What I mean is that if not for some crazy loophole in Russian law, the record companies would have shut these sites down by now. And I am not saying don't use these sites. Hell I do when I can't find a song I want on iTunes. All I am saying is that if you use these site to keep your conscience clear, save the 14 cents and get a P2P prog.

I use allofmp3 to keep my wallet fat and my music collection large! You will go broke buying from itunes! I buy the whole albums from allofmp3 because in 192 kbs format, my ears cannot tell the difference and it costs the same as two songs from itunes. I constantly hear music I didn't know I like on there. The other great thing is that the site lets you listen to the whole song (preview mode) before buying it, not 30 seconds of it like other services. You can be sure you like it before spending anything.

I also believe that it is legal to buy from them, and doubt the FBI has any power to shut them down or stop us from using them. They would have already if they could!

Damn the RIAA and Sony is all I really have to say.

Pat