VeeshanVault

No, this isn't a pirate message.

Today I wanted to buy my dad some music (for father's day) that I remember him listening to and singing during his fighter pilot days. I found the album I wanted on iTunes, planning to go through hoops to de-DRM the music and send it to my dad as a present. I wasn't happy about it being 128 kbps and also not happy that I was going to have to take extra steps so he could listen to the songs.

Thankfully, when I tried to download the album from iTunes, it said "resource not found/available, try back later" or something along those lines. Well fuck that. I already hate Apple with a passion so I looked elsewhere.

I found Amazon.

Amazon offers DRM free MP3s recorded at 256 kbps (VBR). Since I was downloading an entire album, I downloaded their little music helper app which places the songs into iTunes or Window Media Player automatically for you.

I paid my 8.99 for the album, which was 1.00 cheaper than iTunes (and wouldn't iTunes be even more expensive if they offered this particular album DRM free?) for twice the bitrate and DRM free MP3s. From clicking the purchase button to the time I was listening to the music was a minute or two.

Now, I don't know if people actualy buy music from iTunes anymore but it seems crazy to do so with Amazon offering much higher bitrates, DRM free music for the same and sometimes less money:

If you're into DRM-free music, you have a reason to get pretty excited today. As speculated, Amazon has launched its new digital music portal called Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, all without the painful and annoying restrictions of DRM. The press release claims that the site, which will include EMI and Universal tracks (take that, Jobs), will make separate songs available for $.89 or $.99, and boasts that all of the "top 100" tracks will be priced at the former, lower amount. Albums will range in cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with the best selling albums coming in at $8.99. Of course, since there's no DRM, users are free to throw the 256Kbps MP3s on any player they like, as well as burn CDs, copy to MiniDisc, and dump to 8-track.

I'm a known Apple basher but they are greedy bastards. Overpriced hardware and overpriced DRM'd music.

Give Amazon.com's mp3 downloads a try. I was impressed and hate Amazon as well for screwing up my HDTV order.

http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Downloa ... =163856011

gomusic.ru

20 cents a track

boo yeah, i pay for my music.

I know I'm atypical, and I know it's archaic these days, but I hate buying singles and one-off tracks, which is what iTunes, Amazon and others are best for, IMO. I am an album person all the way. Call me old fashioned, but when I buy music, I prefer to find the cheapest source for a physical CD that I can then rip into whatever format I please, without ever having to hassle with any DRM issues. For new releases, I usually have to buy new, but for stuff that's been out a while (or forever), I'll generally buy used CDs online or at local shops. DRM-free offerings take away one of my biggest objections to buying MP3s online, but I still prefer to have a lossless original source. If iTunes, Amazon, etc. ever decide to offer lossless, DRM-free audio at a price in the $8-9 an album range, I'll be all over that.

Xatrei wrote:I know I'm atypical, and I know it's archaic these days, but I hate buying singles and one-off tracks, which is what iTunes, Amazon and others are best for, IMO. I am an album person all the way. Call me old fashioned, but when I buy music, I prefer to find the cheapest source for a physical CD that I can then rip into whatever format I please, without ever having to hassle with any DRM issues. For new releases, I usually have to buy new, but for stuff that's been out a while (or forever), I'll generally buy used CDs online or at local shops. DRM-free offerings take away one of my biggest objections to buying MP3s online, but I still prefer to have a lossless original source. If iTunes, Amazon, etc. ever decide to offer lossless, DRM-free audio at a price in the $8-9 an album range, I'll be all over that.

Winnow,
I guess I don't care that much, but since you asked... iTunes plus offers 256-bit tracks for only slightly more money (iTunes Plus I think it's called). They have the best selection of any online music store.

Xat:
iTunes has addressed that issue. It's called 'complete my album'. You buy a single or two from an artist's album. You like it. You go to 'Complete my album' and buy the whole damn thing for the cost minus what you've already spent.

Personally, I think the single track model is better for the music consumer. No more will you be buying an album with 4 great songs and 6 that were mailed in. I think it's a good thing to encourage artists to put equal quality/effort/etc. into every track on an album. Just my humble opinion.

noel wrote:
Winnow,
I guess I don't care that much, but since you asked... iTunes plus offers 256-bit tracks for only slightly more money (iTunes Plus I think it's called). They have the best selection of any online music store.

Well I guess that's the point. More money for what Amazon offers for less plus all of amazon's music is 256 kbps (which makes an obvious difference in sound quality over 128 kbps, no question about it). I didn't see an option for non DRM version of the album I wanted and the DRM'd 128 kbps version cost more than Amazons double bit rate completely free of hassle MP3s. Amazon also offers the top selling hits for the lower price. If amazon doesn't have what you want, I suppose falling back to crappy 128 DRM's MP3's would be an option. Amazon placed the album in a well organized folder structure of its own as well as also automatically placing it in iTunes for me. Even so, my default Media Monkey played the songs with iTunes only being an option and courtesy placement which iTunes would never do if the opposite were true and I was buying from Apple.

I don't mind the DRM. Given that my whole music storage and listening infrastructure is Apple Hardware and given that I purchase all my music, it's really not an issue for me.

noel wrote:Xat:
iTunes has addressed that issue. It's called 'complete my album'. You buy a single or two from an artist's album. You like it. You go to 'Complete my album' and buy the whole damn thing for the cost minus what you've already spent.

Personally, I think the single track model is better for the music consumer. No more will you be buying an album with 4 great songs and 6 that were mailed in. I think it's a good thing to encourage artists to put equal quality/effort/etc. into every track on an album. Just my humble opinion.

Oh, I agree that for most people, single tracks are a better deal for the consumer, although I'm still not convinced that it's a good thing for the artist (artistically, not financially, although that's an issue for them, too, I imagine). Like I said, I know my preference is atypical, but I am an album person. I don't like to listen to just a couple of random songs, and would much rather listen to the whole set of songs that make up the album. For this reason, I have very few playlists because I just select what album I want to listen to, and go from there. I know that the iTunes store (which I do use occasionally) has whole albums, and the option to complete an album, but that's only one part of my reason for sticking with CDs (for now).

I just prefer lossless originals from which I can encode audio files any way I want to (e.g. lower bitrates for my 1GB shuffle and larger 320 or VBR encodings for my laptop or other higher capacity players). This is, of course, my own quirky preference, and as with the singles vs. whole albums issue, I know that it's not at all typical of the average music consumer. As I said, when iTunes, Amazon or some other online purveyor get around to offering DRM-free (for me, this is just a matter of convenience for portability more than anything else) and lossless audio files, I'll make the switch with no reservations because digital music sales are a far better means of distribution than the boxes of CDs that I've got stashed all over the place.

Xatrei wrote:

noel wrote:Xat:
iTunes has addressed that issue. It's called 'complete my album'. You buy a single or two from an artist's album. You like it. You go to 'Complete my album' and buy the whole damn thing for the cost minus what you've already spent.

Personally, I think the single track model is better for the music consumer. No more will you be buying an album with 4 great songs and 6 that were mailed in. I think it's a good thing to encourage artists to put equal quality/effort/etc. into every track on an album. Just my humble opinion.

Oh, I agree that for most people, single tracks are a better deal for the consumer, although I'm still not convinced that it's a good thing for the artist (artistically, not financially, although that's an issue for them, too, I imagine). Like I said, I know my preference is atypical, but I am an album person. I don't like to listen to just a couple of random songs, and would much rather listen to the whole set of songs that make up the album. For this reason, I have very few playlists because I just select what album I want to listen to, and go from there. I know that the iTunes store (which I do use occasionally) has whole albums, and the option to complete an album, but that's only one part of my reason for sticking with CDs (for now).

I just prefer lossless originals from which I can encode audio files any way I want to (e.g. lower bitrates for my 1GB shuffle and larger 320 or VBR encodings for my laptop or other higher capacity players). This is, of course, my own quirky preference, and as with the singles vs. whole albums issue, I know that it's not at all typical of the average music consumer. As I said, when iTunes, Amazon or some other online purveyor get around to offering DRM-free (for me, this is just a matter of convenience for portability more than anything else) and lossless audio files, I'll make the switch with no reservations because digital music sales are a far better means of distribution than the boxes of CDs that I've got stashed all over the place.

Lossless is definitely the way to go if you A) have the disk space or B) are an audiofile (or both).

I do really like the iTunes store for it's previews and it has a pretty good all in one search which I like.

Podcasts, podcasts, podcasts. iTunes rocks for podcasts. I watched a bunch of video podcasts this weekend and caught up on some of the ones I subscribe to. I also really dig my Apple Keyboard. (with a few key mods to make it work better with a PC, adding multimedia keys, print screen, etc.) It's so easy to clean and so far has held up extremely well with the heavy use it gets from me.

So, if nothing else, the iTunes store is good for finding new podcasts, movies, TV shows, etc to preview and then buy elsewhere.

I haven't checked out the Amazon thing, but http://www.lala.com offers something very similar. In addition, you can pay $0.10 and add a track to your "online" archive or whatever which can then be streamed to any computer when you log into your account. They also offer DRM free downloads for $0.89 per song.

They also own/support WOXY.com, so the extra bonus is that when I buy songs from them I am supporting the station I love.

Oh yeah, you can also trade your hard copy CDs for other ones you want.