(no subject)

[theweaselking]

iTunes begins distributing DRM-free music.

It's still shit quality and only EMI's catalogue, but it's a grand step forward.

Comments

[drjamez.livejournal.com]

256kbps is shit quality? You must have a huge amount of space on whatever portable player you own to hold 320 or higher files. :-)

(Although 192kbps is the lowest I prefer to ever get, and even then 256 is better for me....)

- James -

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

#1: 30GB.
#2: "Not lossless" is shit quality when you're paying for it.

[drjon.livejournal.com]

It may be DRM-free, but it's not snoop-free...
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/31/eff_finds_huge_block.html

[paradoxicmotion.livejournal.com]

Your definition of "shit" would seem to be "anything not lossless," if a 256kbps AAC doesn't cut it (AACs at that bitrate are comparable to 320kbps mp3s, or not far off).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I'm paying for the track, at a price where buying the whole album that way is MORE expensive than purchasing it on disk. I want *at least* lossless CD-quality, for that.

[paradoxicmotion.livejournal.com]

Well, you're not exactly going to get better than a lossless file, so I'm not sure what you mean by "at least."

Similarly, it's only more expensive than a reasonably priced CD if you buy the album a track at a time and said album contains more than 10 songs (which is most, but not quite all, albums).

I'd still go with a CD over an iTMS purchase for a number of reasons, but this is a big step in the right direction in terms of file quality, and the price difference has always been pretty negligible as long as you're not buying the album a track at a time.

[jerril]

*at least* lossless CD-quality (emphasis mine).

CD quality isn't exactly perfect. Not that I can personally tell, I downsample everything to 128 because I can't hear the quality difference. But I have it on authority that some people can.

[paradoxicmotion.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, the only way to better CD quality is to go to a higher bit-depth. CDs are all 16bit, however, most audio production software can work with 24bit (and in some cases higher still) files. iTunes will happily play 24bit AIFF tracks, but your iPod, not so much.

However, I shouldn't be considered an authority in the area. In any case, you're not going to be doing better than the CD any time soon (simply because you can't make a better than perfect copy of what's on a CD, anything lost in the making of the CD is going to remain lost).

(For the record, I don't hear any difference between 16 and 24bit AIFF files in the music work I've done, but I'm assuming that's because I'm not listening to them on super high-end studio monitors or anything.)