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#1
12-27-2005, 01:57 AM
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Digital Music - Nothing to do with Sage
What are everyone's opinions of digital music and buying it online and digital rights management and quality of online purchased music? These questions all came to fruition and the forefront of things I haven't figured out my stance on yet, because I just got an iPod for Christmas. So I will encode all of my current CDs when I figure out what kind of quality I think I need to listen to on the player, but that leaves the great-unknown question. What should I do for future music?
From everything that I have seen iTunes only sells music encoded at 128kbps, which seems to be the setting that is just above the setting where every living person could tell the music sounded like crap. I mean I'm not sure how much I can tell yet, but after listening for a while of that size of song I seem to get a little agitated with the music, like there is something wrong with it that I can't quite put my finger on, but if I listen to another song I'll throw something across the room. Like I said it needs more work. Then there is the other issue of not having a tangible thing to own...I mean if my HD gets wiped out as far as I know, there is no way to recover my licenses or music. That is what brings me back to CDs... they are great because I can always go back and reincode them at a higher quality if I did them a little low the first time and also they are like a back up...a tangible thing to hold and own. I mean I could always burn all of my songs to CDs, but we are still talking of starting with a lower quality file. In fact you wouldn't even think of encoding songs from a CD at lower than 128kbps. So what is the answer? Well, I suppose I can keep doing it the old fashion way and buy CDs for all of the songs that I want. The 2 issues with this are that it is typically more pricey though (might be worth it for the tangible and backup all together) and also, in this day and age I don't want to have to buy every CD that has a song on it I like...I typically enjoy seeing the other songs on a disk and listening to them, but sometimes I just want a little piece really. So I guess the answer to that, might be a shop that would actually sell higher quality files that can easily be backed up to audio DVDs or CDs at their high qualities and then reimported into iTunes etc...or even a store that sells the songs and records them at their original quality onto audio DVDs or CDs and sends them off to you. I'm not sure what the licensing issues or implications of this are though. I understand why iTunes and other online stores have to do the digital rights management...because it is just to easy and tempting to share a file with your friends, and then, since they have the song, they aren't going to pay money to download it...but it would be nice if there was a better way that didn't put all of my eggs in one basket so to speak and a way for me to actually get a higher quality file that I buy online in the first place... So everyone weigh in, I know you are all the types that have opinions on this stuff too. Anyone know of any places to buy music online other than the main places? 
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#2
12-27-2005, 05:11 PM
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IMO... Buy CDs Always rip them losslessly in secure mode, so they are perfect rips and you won't have to do it again. Set your software to transcode to desired bitrate for your portable. Quote:
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Portable listening environment Home listening environtment For my portable (Hi-MD player) I generally use 132kbps ATRAC 3, which seems innoffensive in that environment (not to mention I think ATRAC is much better codec than MP3 or AAC). For my home system, nothing but lossless will do. Quote:
Rip them. Transcode to desired bitrate for your portable.
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#3
12-27-2005, 11:08 PM
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How long does that take you to transcode? I assume your MD player includes that with your software for it...I remember that one of my work colleagues had an MD player before they were able to record to the players at more than double actual speed or something, but I hear that has improved. I don't think that iPods are quite set up that way though, but if transcoding could be done as fast as file transfering could be done, that really would be a good answer...I have heard that with iPods you are forced to make a file for every compression of it you want. Anyway, thanks for the input, stanger.
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#4
12-27-2005, 11:28 PM
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#5
12-28-2005, 12:01 PM
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Gotta agree with the buy CD's train of thought. I have purchased music through ITunes, MusicMatch, Rhapsody, basically tried most of them and you know what? I have no idea where any of it is anymore. All you have to do is wipe your hard drive one time because your computer has finally decided to drive you nuts for the last time, forget that you have the silly music files and gone they go. I know I could just burn it to cd and hide it somewhere but the quality isn't good enough in my opinion to even bother.
Technology is neat stuff but it seems everytime some new whiz bang gadget comes out the quality of what it is trying to make simpler suffers. Music is a biggy... I remember when people complained that CD's were inferior in sound quality to vinyl. I had a really hard time convincing myself I didn't need a record album with all the cool pictures, and info inside. CD's didn't give you that. Never really believed they had the ability to make a decent A/D converter at the time. Who knows, maybe CD's still aren't as good as a nice new vinyl record with a really expensive turntable. I know, I talk too much.. Just kinda sick of technology just for the sake of technology. Who really needs a computerized toothbrush I mean??? And who really needs an IPod (which is a glorified walkman) that will hold enough songs that you could listen for the rest of your life and never run out of music?? Or a cell phone that works as a PDA, MP3 player, telephone, internet browser, coffe maker, hair dryer, etc.. Maybe when cars drive themselves that will be cool but for now... I cringe everytime I see come crazed person in there car swapping lanes like Tony Stewart with the above listed device firmly attached to the side of there head. Who are they really talking to, and why does everyone feel they need to always talk to someone?? Oh yeah, this was about music... Buy CD's, and then make what you want with them. Darn kids!!!
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#6
12-28-2005, 01:27 PM
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Music Giants - www.musicgiants.com - advertises itself as "The only Hi Fidelity Music Download Service" - they encode in WMA lossless. I'm not sure of all of the costs, I think there may be a membership fee on top of per song fees - just got a demo CD from a home theater installer...
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#7
12-29-2005, 07:15 PM
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My policy is equivalence at the minimum. In other words, if I have to pay the same price as for a CD, then I want un-DRM'd, lossless files. Period. Until that is available, I stick with CDs and strip any DRM that may be attached. There is no way I would ever pay _more_ money for _less_ access. If I have to accept lower quality files, then I would expect to pay proportionately less (i.e. max $0.30 per song for iTunes/Napster quality). If it includes usage restrictions (DRM), then keep subtracting money - I pay based upon value to _me_.
These goobers are doing everything they can to drive away the customer - I personally can't wait for the day when they succeed.
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#8
12-29-2005, 07:39 PM
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#9
12-30-2005, 07:12 PM
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Look at what happened in the auto industry - unable to admit that the world was changing on them, they waited too long to start catching up. They are drowing in their own failed culture, and while they are still around, they aren't the force in the market they once were. Their influence is rapidly declining, and eventually it will be Toyota buying Ford, instead of Ford buying Mazda. I can't even begin to count the number of people I knew who would "never buy one of those d#!@ jap cars", and now couldn't imagine trusting something from Ford or GM. Attitudes often change so slowly that you never notice it until it's too late. The recording industry won't be going away, but the music distribution industry will - on that day I will dance the dance of joy. Too bad we will never be rid of the promoters.
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#10
12-31-2005, 12:00 AM
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FYI ... Per their site ...Files range from 470-1100 kbps Also ... What Does it Take to Become a Giant Client? A Computer running Microsoft Windows XP, a minimum of 200 MB of hard drive space and a high speed Internet connection. A Love of High Fidelity Music. Downloads cost as little as $1.29 per track or $15.29 per album and deliver supreme sound quality. A Credit Card to pay the $50 annual fee. 100% of your first year's fee will be applied to music purchases.* Each year thereafter, the fee is waived when you spend $50.* T.
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#11
12-31-2005, 01:43 AM
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Hmm, I may be into this music giant's thing if I they have a good library this time instead of like iTunes where you can't get everything you want...when they were running those pepsi free song things I let so many of those laps because I couldn't find a freeking song that I wanted...I would keep searching for that one file that I just wanted to have without the rest of the album, but always found that iTunes didn't have it. OOh, I did find that they say they are the only download service liscensed by the 4 major labels, so I suppose that would give less limitation to files. Also it seems like they are trying to do the iTunes style player and file organizer which seems to be a really good idea for music players. The $50 fee seems kind of steep, but I guess if you make sure you buy that much music a year than you don't actually have to pay the fee. Now they just need to get over the one final hurdle and provide a way to get the files onto all the different variety of players. This whole numerous different files types and players that use differnt ones and services that use different ones have us in a crazy sensless world right now.
Anyway, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that had these issues with all of this stuff...I guess the only problem I have tiwht the Music Giants thing is the WMA since I am sure that includes windows digital rights management stuff...so I would have to jump through hoops to convert the files into the AAC in some way for use on the iPod...darn, and it was such a sexy player that I thought would be so cool. I definatly like the CD idea still, because the only thing I would get through music giants would be the ability to buy on a single song basis... Looks like I need to join another CD club... Last edited by TheraEdge; 12-31-2005 at 01:51 AM.
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#12
12-31-2005, 02:21 AM
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Oh well... Another one bites the dust...
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#13
01-05-2006, 10:54 PM
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Hope springs eternal.... Andy.
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#14
01-06-2006, 02:51 AM
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I haven't purchased any CDs for a few years-I don't listen to much radio and there is nothing worth listening to IMHO. My poor 256mb Creative Muvo has only 10 songs in it
 I haven't looked into online music services for several reasons- the biggie being no broadband to download and I don't want to keep paying for each listen. The few worthwhile CDs I have ripped to HD are backed up monthly with my computer and data files so they won't get lost, plus I have the original CD to re-rip the music onto the HD. I guess I'm anti-trend 
Last edited by Menehune; 01-06-2006 at 02:55 AM.
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#15
01-06-2006, 06:38 AM
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#16
01-09-2006, 01:22 PM
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Well it sounds like a good idea, but that it isn't quite ready yet, especially for a $50 fee. I thought the fee was supposed to be Waived if you spent $50 on the music. Seems kind of funny to me that the fee is only for keeping people from using the software to organize their illegal collections when iTunes can do that anyway. Even with the copy protection though I think it would still work well for players. I mean I know there are some loss issues, but most songs can sound good with some variable bit rate info and 160kbps or 192kbps minimum...this is much lower than the 'lossless' encoding, so I would think that you could easily record the songs to CD and then reincode at the lower bit rates for individual music players so you wouldn't have to worry about file format and size. I'm not sure what you would be looking at for how good they would sound, but I would think that would work pretty well...there are also programs out there to encode files from whatever your soundcard has decoded and would output as well. With both versions though, you are stuck relabeling and adding any metadata yourself though. Unless someone can find a copy paster that could copy all the metadata of one file and apply it to another one with a quick copy paste comand on files in an interface. I would be surprised if one of the editors out there is not capable of the full copy paste yet...
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#17
01-10-2006, 11:39 AM
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I still purchase CDs, or get them as gifts. I have ripped my entire collection as 256 kbps mp3s right now for convience's sake and I am still trying to settle on a lossless codec. I think I'm leaning towards FLAC w/ ID3 tags right now.
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