Can a wd My book live be used to stream wave music files to a network receiver

[RainMan]

I was wondering where a person could purchase music in flac format . I am debating to kibosh paying for an entire cd when there's only a few good songs when maybe I should get in the 21st century and download from a pay per song site . Any recommendations ?
Can I keep flacs that I purchase backed up so I don't have to purchase them again .
Say my hd crashes , could I also have them backed up on CDs or is there some weird encryption that only let's you copy them once ?

 

[Grador]

I was wondering where a person could purchase music in flac format . I am debating to kibosh paying for an entire cd when there's only a few good songs when maybe I should get in the 21st century and download from a pay per song site . Any recommendations ?
Can I keep flacs that I purchase backed up so I don't have to purchase them again .
Say my hd crashes , could I also have them backed up on CDs or is there some weird encryption that only let's you copy them once ?

I'm unfamiliar with any stores that sell flacs, but to my knowledge there is absolutely no way to enact copy protection on a flac file.

 

[Lordhumungus]

Unfortunately I am also unaware of a place that sells downloadable FLAC content legally and in quantity. There are a few assorted bands/albums available, but I have not come across any sort of catalog style offering more than one artist or multiple labels. My gut (and personal experience) says that the music industry would never agree to this due to the potential risks that they perceive would be associated with the format. If you attempt to find a place and succeed, I would be very cautious about the legality (e.g. if the site is located in Russia, it's not going to be legal regardless of what they say).

As for DRM, DRM can be developed for pretty much any format as it's simply a container wrapper. That being said, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open and royalty free format, so I don't believe they would allow DRM as part of the licensing agreement. This is purely conjecture on my part though.

Also, as an addendum to the first paragraph, this list might help you find some legitimate sites.

 

[RainMan]

Ok so am I stuck with iTunes to purchase downloadable music and isn't iTunes just a tad better then an mp3 at 386 kbs ? No purpose in buying music online if the sq isn't there

 

[RainMan]

Ok I googled iTunes and that's not looking good as if I'm undestanding it correctly it's 128 kbs aac format .I suspect aac is better than mp3 quality ,but no cd quality .
I guess it's back to ordering CDs . Our store in the mall closed " top40" a song of the times , and all we have now is walmart

I have read that CDs may no longer be available in the near future , hope this is not true . Seems like the industry is catering to the kids who don't have a vague clue about sq ?

 

[Grador]

My understanding on quality of MP3 vs AAC is that AAC has better quality at lower bit rates, being quite noticeable below 100 kbps. At bit rates approaching 200 they become rather equivalent in quality.

I primarily purchase CDs and rip to FLAC, but I do not find amazon's mp3s to be so insufficient as to not purchase songs digitally if i do not want the whole album.

 

[RainMan]

My understanding on quality of MP3 vs AAC is that AAC has better quality at lower bit rates, being quite noticeable below 100 kbps. At bit rates approaching 200 they become rather equivalent in quality.

I primarily purchase CDs and rip to FLAC, but I do not find amazon's mp3s to be so insufficient as to not purchase songs digitally if i do not want the whole album.

Thanks again for the posts guys,much appreciated .I guess I am going to start ordering CDs from amazon or somewhere .
Hopefully CDs are around for a while .I really feel as though the Internet has done more harm than good . I find listening to a portable device in the gym is just fine with mp3s ,but at home I need the real thing

 

[anamorphic96]

Thanks again for the posts guys,much appreciated .I guess I am going to start ordering CDs from amazon or somewhere .
Hopefully CDs are around for a while .I really feel as though the Internet has done more harm than good . I find listening to a portable device in the gym is just fine with mp3s ,but at home I need the real thing

Ordering CD's through Amazon saves me a ton of money. Especially the used deals I find. You can also find a ton of stuff that's out of print or hard to find.

 

[Lordhumungus]

CD sales still account for something like 80-90% of full album sales, so I don't think you have anything to worry about for the next decade or so at least. In my opinion, it's long past time we start looking at DVD and/or Blu-ray audio anyway since storage is becoming increasingly inexpensive.

If you look at the video game industry for example, one of the major advantages to the PS3 is the audio can be uncompressed due to the large amount of extra space available on a Blu-ray.