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Another reason why I REALLY HATE music download stores with a VENGEANCE

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1kyle

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Apart from the well known DRM irritants and low quality of most music stores we have another one here which is trying to "rip off" people who want better quality

http://www.betanews.com/article/Music_Stor...oads/1128014405

The trick here is that

1) It forces you to use WINDOWS WMA whether you want to or not.

... extract from the site

So far, the service has been able to procure agreements from EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music. All tracks will carry Windows Media digital rights management. The company also says it is actively pursuing agreements with smaller and independent labels to further extend its catalog.

................

2) A Subscription required I really HATE this approach for all sorts of reasons.

3) The price for each track works out MORE EXPENSIVE than a CD so it in my view is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

Why on earth pay MORE for something which only has the same quality as a CD (if that) and is full of restrictions on what you can do with the tracks once downloaded.

(At USD 1.29 a track it makes buying standard 74/80 min Minidisc blanks at around 0.85 a real bargain).

As for the other low quality unspeakable horrors like I-Tunes, Connect etc.

'Nuf Said.

Cheers

-K

Edited by 1kyle
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it's like those new movie download services, i read about one, forgot who or where, opening soon in the US with a retail price of us$28 per movie for a transcoded dvd-5, no extras. most big budget dvds at amazon are what? us$14?

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Really? I like mine...

Why are you downloading???

Why don't you consider -

a) A good music service (I'm a Rhapsody fan);

B) A good FireWire or USB2 audio interface (M-Audio);

c) Good audio software (Sony Sound Forge is my 5+ year fav);

d) Use a good cable modem or DSL connection;

e) Enjoy being *creative* with your steaming subscription;

f) Use either a good Sony MD deck or SonicStage to get things to the MD of your choice...

Folks make such things oh so too difficult... a bit of planning and you can build a tremendous library of music!

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e) Enjoy being *creative* with your steaming subscription;

Folks make such things oh so too difficult... a bit of planning and you can build a tremendous library of music!

Which disappears as soon as you stop paying your subscription or want to swap to another service,

You STILL can't get UNCOMPRESSED high quality sound from ANY music service yet. Even with the best sound card in the universe and a ligtning fast broadband connection your "Streaming Servicve" is still goinfg to be no more than 128 kbs which might be satisfactory for portable music on the move - but for high quality serious music listening this bit rate isn't even off the starting blocks yet.

Anything less than 256 or 320 (better) is really only of quality fit for "bud headphone" use with quite "Low Fi" gear. Might be OK for a car or a noisy train but not for a nice quite listening room with expensive top end gear.

Cheers

-K

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You STILL can't get UNCOMPRESSED high quality sound from ANY music service yet

we still haven't checked if it is really full SQ (and not faked) but allofMP3.com DOES offer flac downloads etc. so this is not necessarily true 1kyle!

beter make sure you are completely certain (and ready to prove it) before stating such 'truths' IMHO

Edited by The Low Volta
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we still haven't checked if it is really full SQ (and not faked) but allofMP3.com DOES offer flac downloads etc. so this is not necessarily true 1kyle!

beter make sure you are completely certain (and ready to prove it) before stating such 'truths' IMHO

One would need to get an original uncompressed track and then compare it with the FLAC from allomp3.com.

Apart from the fact that this paricular site has questionable legalty outside Russia there aren't as yet AFAIK any download sites that offer totally uncompressed music whether in FLAC WMAlossless, PCM/WAV or whatever.

I'm actually trying to clear up the whole issue with allofmp3 as far as the UK goes.

Currently as no one seems to have any definitive issues on it just go ahead and use it for the moment.

Quote from the link I've posted later in this post

....................

The most popular legal download site is iTunes with 44% of the market. This is followed by Moscow-based AllOfMP3.com, which accounts for 14% of legal downloads, according to the report.

The Russian service offers entire albums for a pound, compared to 80 pence per track on most sites.

The IFPI regard the service as illegal and tried to have the site shutdown last year, but failed.

.................................................

I'm sure as soon as this site becomes anything of an irritant to the major players something will happen - remember the original Napster (I mean the old File sharing Napster).

If This site IS legal and really has proper UNCOMPRESSED tracks (compressed LOSSLESSLY in FLAC etc). then it deserves to be supported.

Other countries will have their own rules on this but our Police (UK) can't seem to be bothered with looking after the Streets anymore. Speed cameras and catching a few youngsters doing "Illegal" music downloads seems to be all they are good for now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4875142.stm

Cheers

_k

Edited by 1kyle
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