music download files - quality, from whom?

[Ernest Burden III]

I've got no problem with paying for music. I create stuff, I expect to be paid, musicians have the same right. Great. Now we have a number of services that sell music 'ala carte'. Even better, I can be an annoying fan and just buy songs I actually WANT, to hell with your 'deep tracks'. Let's all be superficial!

 

But I also am a (poor) audiophile. It's because I love music, I don't want a low-res JPEG when a high-dpi 16bit TIFF is available. MP3s are like jpegs, compressed and varying greatly in quality. So whoM to buy from?

 

Does anyone here know if any of the online music stores sell un-compressed files, just like if I ripped it off a bought CD? I see Apple mentions 'uncompressed files' but their stuff is propriatary--or is it?

 

Really, a normal CD is, itself, fairly low-quality sound. DVD-A and other formats that use 96/24 (9600 Hz at 24bit, stereo) are a better way to go. I just don't want to stoop any lower than a CD (44/16).

 

I realize this is a group of 'picture' people, but you gotta listen to somthing while tweeking material settings.

 

Thanks in advance...

[Cesar R]

Does anyone here know if any of the online music stores sell un-compressed files, just like if I ripped it off a bought CD? I see Apple mentions 'uncompressed files' but their stuff is propriatary--or is it?

 

Hi Ernest, actually when you go to the apple music store and buy something you are downloading an MP3 files. Download itunes for windows, I have it on my mac but the windows version is just the same. You will like it.

 

i hope this helps.

[Tim Nelson]

Does anyone here know if any of the online music stores sell un-compressed files,

 

Yea, its called Amazon.com! So really, what you are asking for is just for singles instead of the whole album? I mean, I wonder what they would charge for that instead of just offering the small mp3 files. In the end, maybe its worth it to just order the whole cd. Your hard drive would thank you.

[Frosty]

As far as I know, nobody sells uncompressed or lossless compressed files. Buy the CDs and rip yourself is the only choice if thats what you want.

 

In the legal downloads arena, I second that iTunes is the only way to go. They have by far the most user friendly agreement of all. Their files are a form of MP3 compressed using the AAC codec. I only have a few tunes from the iTunes store (from my girlfriend) as it is still unavailable in Canada.

 

From my experience, the sound is incredibly good. I use Sennheiser headphones and I'm rockin all day everyday

 

I do wish that the iTunes store would sell material ripped at a higher bit rate. When I rip my own, its 320VBR with error checking. This produces files that are perfect to my ears.

[pmanahan]

The Itunes files are something called an m4p file. They are propietory to you and the m4p file will only play on machines that you allow to, up to 5 I think. But if you give permissions to a machine to play your files, so if you sell the machine you must take the permissions off it or you will be down to 4 machines. You can also access others music files on a closed network with itunes. You can burn the songs as many times as you want but can only burn a playlist 10 times and not all CD burners work with itunes. All this being said I love itunes and have bought quite a few songs. It is well orginized and connects you to their site where you can play 30 second clips of all their songs. They also have many different collections of related songs and fun celebrity collections also. A great place to research and explore.

 

pmanahan

[GeraldH]

Has anybody tried this?

 

I have some buddies using it...different levels of quality...cost based on downloaded mb's.

They have been very pleased with the quality and cost...in some instances $1 or less for a cd full of selected cuts.

 

I have not used this site myself...just passing on the link.

 

 

http://allofmp3.com