Moving away from napster

[admin_exported]

Hello all!

As you can tell I am new here, I was just wondering if anyone can recommend an online music store where I can download DRM free tracks that are high quality. If anyone can recommend any it would be greatly appreciated. I am currently looking at the obvious (itunes) etc.

 

[John Duncan]

casey232:
Hello all!

As you can tell I am new here, I was just wondering if anyone can recommend an online music store where I can download DRM free tracks that are high quality. If anyone can recommend any it would be greatly appreciated. I am currently looking at the obvious (itunes) etc.

Can't argue with iTunes Store - DRM free, 256k, reasonable value, enormous selection. Also seems that quality is moving in an upward direction, so fully expect lossless files there eventually. One advantage is that when they upgraded to 256k recently, you had the option to upgrade previously bought tracks to higher quality for 20p a pop.

Note however that tracks are AAC format, which may or may not work with your personal music player if you have one..........

 

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Thats what I was thinking - I checked my mp3 player and it is compatable with AAC codec's so not really an issue for me and next time I upgrade it will probably be an ipod - the only reason I got my current one is so it supported napster . What do you do in the way of backing up your music (if anything?) because I have read you can only download them once is this right?

 

[John Duncan]

casey232:
Hi John,

Thats what I was thinking - I checked my mp3 player and it is compatable with AAC codec's so not really an issue for me and next time I upgrade it will probably be an ipod - the only reason I got my current one is so it supported napster . What do you do in the way of backing up your music (if anything?) because I have read you can only download them once is this right?

All copied onto two network hard drives, but I haven't got a huge number of dowloaded tracks - only 75 or so - so that wouldn't be the end of the world. The other 20-odd days of music would be the issue....

 

[cram]

I would also check out 7Digital and Amazon. Sometimes cheaper than Itunes. Tracks are MP3 either 256 or 320.

7Digital also allow you to redownload your tracks

 

[idc]

Amazon is generally cheaper than itunes and their download manager is very easy to use. The itunes site is easier and more interesting to navigate about, and it is the best for organising your music. I would use itunes but tend to buy elsewhere.

 

[Joe Cox]

play.com has 320kbps MP3s, too.

for electronic music, try beatport, boomkat, juno downloads and digital tunes.

 

[Anonymous]

I have to say I find it odd that with the growth of Bit Torrent and illegal file sharing, the music companies don't embrace the online distribution technologies available to them. Until Pirate Bay is shut down, there will always be people who ask why DRM free full versions of songs can't be bought online, when they can already be downloaded illegally.

You can't stop piracy. A proportion of the population will always do it. But what you can do is embrace those members of the buying public that believe in legitimate music purchases and offer them something so good and so easy to use that they have no need to steal and feel appreciated by the music companies for their custom. Honest consumers need to be brought into the fold. I believe that in so doing, music companies would see a rise in their revenues that would outweigh the losses they believe they're suffering through piracy. At least by enough to make the exercise worthwhile and certainly this would help protect their business moving forwards through the recession.

The iron grip on music rights (such as that used by monthly subscription music services where, when you stop paying, your entire library disappears) is a bad way forward. The way I'd like to see it going is towards a high quality (lossless) downloadable, easy to use and DRM free music service where, for a fair price (something between 50p and £1 per track) you are encouraged to buy more music and membership of various clubs (with future discounts etc etc) would ensue if you bought an album's worth or more, etc etc. There is so much more value added that record companies could do if they tried.

Bottom line, the consumer is where the record company's revenue comes from. Embrace the consumer and don't alienate him and that will reduce the amount of piracy suffered.

 

[John Duncan]

Which is what iTunes and Amazon are doing, shirley?

Whether 256k compressed music constitutes 'quality' is another debate, but tbh for 90% or more of the population, it's indistinguishable from lossless. And until we all have 50meg broadband, lossless music is impractical.

But whilst I'm still buying CDs and importing them losslessly, downloaded music isn't going away, and what I'd prefer to see is the companies concentrating on adding 'content' to the downloads - lyrics, links, virtual 'sleeve notes' etc etc - and integrating it into music managers. Then and only then do they have an offering to rival the tangible formats we're used to.

 

[Anonymous]

That'd be progress for sure.

I'm not sure that with music, you couldn't move to lossless right now. When you can download a movie in an hour, I think a handful of lossless songs, in twenty minutes or less is not such an insurmountable feat. I think we're there already. Time to let the web replace the CD.

But in the same way that iTunes came from a vertically integrated family, PC Tool --> iTunes Store --> iPod. There needs to be a vertical tool for lossless audio. PC Tool, Store, NAS all from the same provider. It's so nearly there in items like Apple's TV, but the constraints of iTunes and the devices' compatibility have prevented its adoption. There really should be a NAS compatible version with it's own screen for control. Then we'd really be there!

 

[John Duncan]

Will Harris:That'd be progress for sure.

I'm not sure that with music, you couldn't move to lossless right now. When you can download a movie in an hour, I think a handful of lossless songs, in twenty minutes or less is not such an insurmountable feat. I think we're there already. Time to let the web replace the CD.

But in the same way that iTunes came from a vertically integrated family, PC Tool --> iTunes Store --> iPod. There needs to be a vertical tool for lossless audio. PC Tool, Store, NAS all from the same provider. It's so nearly there in items like Apple's TV, but the constraints of iTunes and the devices' compatibility have prevented its adoption. There really should be a NAS compatible version with it's own screen for control. Then we'd really be there!

Well there's always the Sooloos (if you have fifteen grand sitting doing nothing)

 

[cram]

Will Harris: But in the same way that iTunes came from a vertically integrated family, PC Tool --> iTunes Store --> iPod. There needs to be a vertical tool for lossless audio. PC Tool, Store, NAS all from the same provider. It's so nearly there in items like Apple's TV, but the constraints of iTunes and the devices' compatibility have prevented its adoption. There really should be a NAS compatible version with it's own screen for control. Then we'd really be there!

I'm not actually sure that lossless needs a different approach. Itunes/Windows Media Player can cope with it just fine and storage is relatively cheap.

I'd also dispute that everything from a single provider is a good idea. Arguably Apple's move away from DRM has come after competition from other providers. Monopolies rarely work in the consumers favour.

In terms of lossless playback from NAS devices. That's already possible and happening. In my view a couple of things are holding it back from further adoption.

- as already mentioned for most people lossless isn't that important. They either can't tell the difference between 256 and lossless or the difference isn't impacting on their enjoyment of the music.

- NAS devices and the current crop of music servers are still too techy for most people and for your typical Itunes/IPOD user offer no further benefit.

 

[John Duncan]

cram:NAS devices and the current crop of music servers are still too techy for most people and for your typical Itunes/IPOD user offer no further benefit.

Bingo. Though Apple TV comes close, just needs to accept external USB storage and we're away.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:cram:NAS devices and the current crop of music servers are still too techy for most people and for your typical Itunes/IPOD user offer no further benefit.

Bingo. Though Apple TV comes close, just needs to accept external USB storage and we're away.

Exactly. Why doesn't it????????!!!!!!

Why produce a half baked, almost there but only if you buy from iTunes product? Such a shame. I'm not about to buy my TV shows from iTunes. I'd rather buy the box set on DVD in full (portable and lendable) quality. iTunes store is getting there, but you can't charge the amount they do per show. It's nuts. It's a service, but not that big a service!

 

[Alec]

i dont want my downloaded files full of other stuff. just decent quality music'll do for me.