What Online Music Store do you use.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder

My buddy uses Russian sites where you can get entire albums for 99 cents. Pretty sketch.

Funny conversation I had with him as I see him take out his credit card while surfing the web:

Me: What are you buying?
buddy: more songs from that Russian site. We'll see how it goes. Last time I did it the bank shut down my account for suspicious activity, hopefully that doesn't happen again.
Me: uhhhh. Good luck with that.

Yah, Russian sites, BT, Limewire = nefarious.

I have used that site before. Would like a legit way before I go there. Remember, the way they get around it is Russian copywrite laws. Remember though that new US homeland security laws allow them to search your comptuer for pirated software. Those songs, while legit in Russia, arent so in the US.

[Hack&Lube]

I used to use Yahoo Music Engine/Jukebox and it really was the best deal in terms of legit online music that you could download, buy, or just stream. I had the yearly subscription for something ridiculous like $60 and I could listen to as much music as I wanted from any artist and it had a great setup for finding new music or similar music to what you were listening to.

But then they f***** it up and shut down the service because it wasn't making them money and they wanted to refocus their website and all the paying customers got shunted to another crappy napster like service (I think Rhapsody) that doesn't sell to Canada and so all Canadian customers got summarily dumped.

That soured me on online music services/stores for good. I just listen to internet radio now.

[photon]

Downloading music was still legal in Canada isn't it? The law hasn't changed since a few copyright reform bills have died due to elections etc.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by photon

Downloading music was still legal in Canada isn't it? The law hasn't changed since a few copyright reform bills have died due to elections etc.

You are correct.


And WRT lossless vs lossy, every study/test I have read has found that people cannot tell the difference until the file is really compressed.

That said, I still think it is a good idea to rip to lossless for archival, then create a lossy file for portablility.

[Barnes]

If you can't find it at a reputable store, your answer is here.







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[Russic]

Originally Posted by flip

Until Itunes switches to a lossless format I'll be buying most of my music in CD format or DLing it <removed> in Flac or Wav.

Anyone who is a snob about music should be up in arms about the MP3 revolution that has occurred in the last 10 years.

We have basically gone from DVD to VHS in the last 10 years and no one cares. If you listen to anything but Flac, Wav, Apple Lossless you are ruining your music and destroying your ability to hear good music by listening to lossy formats.

Went ahead and fixed that for you

Originally Posted by OBCT

...

Personally, I highly highly doubt I could consistently tell the difference between any song encoded as a 320kbps MP3 and a lossless FLAC, even when played on ideal equipment. True double-blind testing would offer similar results for most people, I'd reckon

...

I very much agree. I used to go lossless too and then one day I found I was running low on space. I decided to set up a test where I had several songs in both formats. I had a friend randomize them and i tried to tell them apart and I was horrible at picking the file that was many times larger. True I'm not piping it through an expensive system or over expensive headphones, but the lack of difference was still quite staggering.

I notice the same debate over jpeg images vs. lossless image formats. Truthfully the number of times you'd have to copy an image to have any noticeable drop in quality is pretty high. Things like weddings or big vacations I could justify having them backed up somewhere in a lossless format, but not standard everyday stuff. I guess I have the same attitude towards my music ... the most important music in my life I have hard copies for, but anything that doesn't fall within my 5% awesome sphere is given the mp3 treatment.

[llama64]

I buy from iTunes. I own an iPod and do most of my listening to music on either that or through my computer speakers.

Neither is very good quality for sound reproduction so I honestly don't give a crap about the encoding format. It's 256kbit AAC -- already ahead of most things I ripped before. And considering the way most music is mixed these days, you would need to be a snob with too much time to search out the quality difference.

Until I hook up $2000 studio monitors, I'll continue with my carefree attitude.

One note about iTunes purchased tracks. They do embed the name of the account that purchased them into the file information. So if you do end up sharing your music around, keep tabs on it as it's got personal information about you in there.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by kermitology

At a high enough bit rate you cannot tell the difference.

People always say that... yet I can still spot a 320kbs track in my lossless collection within seconds.

Edit: I know, I know. Everyone's going to say I'm full of sh**. I don't care.

I know I can hear the difference. Sound is art. Not everyone can grasp the concept of a painting (I know I can't), and not everyone can discern the subtle nuances between audio tracks.

Even people with lots of sound engineering degrees, etc.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

People always say that... yet I can still spot a 320kbs track in my lossless collection within seconds.

Edit: I know, I know. Everyone's going to say I'm full of sh**. I don't care.

I know I can hear the difference. Sound is art. Not everyone can grasp the concept of a painting (I know I can't), and not everyone can discern the subtle nuances between audio tracks.

Even people with lots of sound engineering degrees, etc.

I guess to me you're putting the focus on the wrong part of the file. The quality of the content is paramount to the quality of the rip. And at a bitrate of 320kbps you'd be hard pressed to find many people, sound engineers included, who would be so outraged that it wasn't an LP.

I consider myself a semi-audiophile. I like good quality music, and I can tell if I'm listening to a song ripped at 192kbps, but at 256 or 320, I don't notice enough.

FLAC and other lossless media are simply too large in filesize to make them useful.

[Igottago]

Its really how much of the decreased quality bothers you or not. For me the convenience of mp3's (I usually keep a bitrate of 192 or more) trumps listening to cd's. Although I can notice a subtle difference depending on what speakers I use, it just isn't enough of a difference to bother me in any significant manner. Given my listening habits, lifestyle, and equipment, the mp3 versions are more than adequate. I would assume the majority of consumers feel the same way. After all, people used to listen to music on cassette and am radio, so I think ultimately if you are enjoying the song that is what matters most.

As a music fan my biggest gripe with the transition to mp3's is that somehow people think they should be able to get and keep music for free. I still believe in buying albums, even though I do choose to buy the digital versions now.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Igottago

As a music fan my biggest gripe with the transition to mp3's is that somehow people think they should be able to get and keep music for free. I still believe in buying albums, even though I do choose to buy the digital versions now.

I've made this argument before, and I stand by it even as a musician myself. What's important is that you're listening. If you want to support the band, then go to the concert. It puts more money in the hands of the artist. How you get the album is largely irrelevant.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by kermitology

I've made this argument before, and I stand by it even as a musician myself. What's important is that you're listening. If you want to support the band, then go to the concert. It puts more money in the hands of the artist. How you get the album is largely irrelevant.

What about putting money into the hands of those surrounding the artists? Managers, marketers, production people, sound engineers, accountants, etc.

There's a lot of money, time and effort that goes into making an album, and it doesnt just involve the artist.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Igottago

What about putting money into the hands of those surrounding the artists? Managers, marketers, production people, sound engineers, accountants, etc.

There's a lot of money, time and effort that goes into making an album, and it doesnt just involve the artist.

The record label pockets 95% of the money and has a major hand in absolutely destroying some bands because they're not as marketable as something easier and crappier.

There are a lot of things that are wrong with the music industry. The people you mention get paid, and the portion of record sales that contribute to it is minimal. Most of the money goes into record label coffers.

[Hack&Lube]

What I used the online music stores (like Yahoo Music Engine) for was not that I really wanted to download music easily...

But I wanted to find new music which is always the hardest thing for me. I get bored of music quickly. These services let me sample lots of music quickly or fine similar songs or similar artists or check out the playlists of people who liked similar music to myself and automatically create a random list of music to play that I had the potential to like.

I gave up since Yahoo Music Engine shut down. I said screw it and just listen to internet radio.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

People always say that... yet I can still spot a 320kbs track in my lossless collection within seconds.

Edit: I know, I know. Everyone's going to say I'm full of sh**. I don't care.

I know I can hear the difference. Sound is art. Not everyone can grasp the concept of a painting (I know I can't), and not everyone can discern the subtle nuances between audio tracks.

Even people with lots of sound engineering degrees, etc.

I believe you ... I just don't have ears like you. Frankly I'm kind of happy I can't hear much difference.

[REDVAN]

I tend to use torrents... and iTunes. Every now and then I go on a torrent binge and get a bunch of stuff I would never pay for, check it out, and lo-and-behold, sometimes find some cool stuff.

Would never listen to half the stuff I currently do if I had to pay for it all.