Jump to content

Connect Store Canada

Rate this topic


maxthrusters

Recommended Posts

Ya know, I'm not one for internet-speak exaggerations, but... OMG that is, like, the awesomest thing EVER! :)

Seriously, I've been waiting for this forever. I actually use eMusic, but I would love to pick up some extra, 'more mainstream' music. Up until this point, the only service I could use was Napster combined with FairUse4WM, but Connect's selection seems better. This is great.

I'm pretty sure that this is being driven by PS3/PSP strategies, but I also don't care, as long as it's here. Now if they can just dump that legacy ATRAC3 support and move on to ATRAC3plus (or, hell, ATRAC4 while we're at it), we'll be all set...

SWEET!

-Nav

P.S. Sorry for the rambling tone, it's Friday, I'm tired...

EDIT: Nuts. I noticed that the store will have 500,000 songs, far short of the 2 million available in the US. Oh well, it's still a start though. Yay.

Edited by navsimpson
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully having the Connect Store here means we'll get the Connect Reader too, the e-book device announced in the US. That is something I would be interested in.

It is pretty good news. I doubt I would want to buy any music from them however as I just am not interested in DRM locked music unless it's free. That's probably what the music biz should do actually: free for DRMed compressed music and pay for non-DRM, CD-quality music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully having the Connect Store here means we'll get the Connect Reader too, the e-book device announced in the US. That is something I would be interested in.

It is pretty good news. I doubt I would want to buy any music from them however as I just am not interested in DRM locked music unless it's free. That's probably what the music biz should do actually: free for DRMed compressed music and pay for non-DRM, CD-quality music.

Yeh, that just reminded me why I have like 40ish CD's! :lol:

I haven't used connect store (besides 4 free tracks I received as a voucher a while back) But I come across alot of them, just I can't use them in canada. :sad:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well well, seems like there is going to be a Canadian Connect store after all. www.sonyconnect.ca

I wonder when the SonicStage update for this will take place. I better not have to initialize my players eww.

though it you have the option to register your player(s) with the service, I'd go for it.. at least check out the benefits of it before deciding whether to or not...

With Connect USA, the only thing you need to register an account is an email address. You dont even have to but any billing information down. And once you link up your email address to your player, you're able to transfer songs to/from 5 different computers. B)

on the flip side, connect EU only allows one computer per e-mail address :blink:

so yeah, depending on how Connect Canada's policies are, if they allow multiple computer syncing, it would allow you to have the ability to transfer music to and from more than one computer, and if you ever needed to format your computer, you just reformat, go reinstall SonicStage, sign into connect and authorize the computer, and you can transfer all the music from your player back onto your computers

That's one benefit of registering for Connect.

I personally still like to buy my own CDs and rip them myself into ATRAC3plus format. The songs that I have downloaded from Connect USA have been from promo coupon codes, and I must say that the quality is alright, though the stuff I ripped myself at a *lower* bitrate sounds better than the LP2 132Kbps ATRAC3 stuff they have on the site....

but anyway, sorry for rambling on and on you guys.. haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I think the use of ATRAC3 is a bit of a drawback. I read somewhere it was done to maintain compatibility with older MD devices, which seems ludicrous in my opinion, especially in North America. If they started selling music in ATRAC3plus 192kbs, Sony could legitimately claim that they sell the best-sounding digital music available - well, not counting eMusic I suppose, since they use LAME VBR. It seems almost certain that Connect will soon be accessible from a PS3, so why not jump to using a better-sounding, more efficient format? And, as I've said a few times before here, use that bloody classical/jazz catalogue to start selling music in 352kbs or lossless - I know it's a 'stereotype', but chances are higher that classical/jazz listeners will have a fat connection to the 'net anyway or, if they don't, that they could afford it.

Since I want to use the service just to grab some music that isn't super important to me, the LP2 thing is prob okay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What they should do is sell music in Atrac Advanced Lossless...and allow conversion from that if the user wants (with the conversion being from the whole file and not the lossy part)

We need to remember not everyone had a broadband connection, and think of the download time! :mellow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^Not everyone has high-speed? News to me, LOL...

But evenso that doesn't limit lower speed users if they would put different download options on there.

Obviously they only have one type (and low bitrate at that) to conserve their server space but why ATRAC3 and not ATRAC3plus? Especially considering Sony likes to use the by-line that ATRAC3plus at 64kbps is somehow equal to ATRAC3 at 132kbps, lol...

The only advantage of using ATRAC3 is that non-Hi-MD NetMD users could use the service. However Sony doesn't even mention those devices on the [uS] site really though they are compatible. (Only limited mention in the FAQs of NetMD is there).

If they offered ATRAC3 132kbps and ATRAC3plus 256kbps that would be alright; but with only the former offered it's a pretty useless service IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

128kbps would rock, lol just they would have to enable that for Hi-MD users.

And any NetMD users would just convert to the nearest 132kbps, probably with minimal quality loss.

Pigs set to fly as hell freezes over

Just noticed. ROFLWPMP

Edited by DannyB37
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, connect is working in canada now, and it looks good. I'd like to download some tracks and see what the quality of the downloaded tracks are like.

Is there some coupon code for free tracks, like I've seen before on this site? If not, could Sony release one to give a taste to users in Canada?

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the tip imagine. It seems that you have to delete all the tracks on your device, which is a pain, especially since I have an old USB 1.1 connection... :( It does seem pretty cool - right now it's a little slow, but I guess that's just opening-night jitters ;)

There are some very ominous warnings to back-up your library and disable anti-virus stuff etc. Stuff we've come to expect from SS, but it's still seems odd to me.

Well, off to dive in. Pray for me.

-Nav

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well folks, happy to report that the upgrade to the now-named "Sonicstage CP for CONNECT" - i.e. SS 4.2 - went completely smoothly. No hiccups, no crashes, no lost files and at no point did my computer randomly catch fire.

Thoughts so far:

- DSEE does make a difference, but it's very slight. Perhaps it's more effective on low bitrate tracks?

- Performance seems a bit more responsive - definitely a nice change. So far, way less hard drive thrashing - good job Sony!

- Connect seems neat - it did make me wipe my player, but I've been meaning to do that for a while anyway, so I guess it's okay (although it'll take me forever to get everything back on...). But generally, it works, is organised well enough and has pretty good selection, especially considering it's the first day. The radio feature is quite cool too. It's nice to finally have that integrated package like iTunes...

- The DRM doesn't seem too heinous - you can use 5 computers, which seems quite liberal.

I do have a question - does anyone know if the sample clips are indicative of the sound quality of the download? They sound highly compressed - was just wondering...

I know I complain a lot, but so far, I'm quite pleased. It seems that SS versions 3 and up have just gotten better and better. Sweet!

-Nav

[Edit] I realised this is more about Sonicstage 4.2 than 'CONNECT' - but, since it's all overlapped, I thought I'd leave it unless a mod just moves it...

Edited by navsimpson
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being a member of atraclife should have its benefits :P.. free downloads would be nice to let us try it out and give our feedback (especially since some of us do not have credit cards).

I tried out the radio, which sounds good but the problem is that when you press 'stop' the software becomes non-responsive for a minute or so... which is VERY annoying.

I don't think that the preview clips are of the same sound quality as the downloaded song.

Does anyone know which bitrate the radio is encoded at?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...