Re: Music licensing & file downloading

In article <m0cam49enj823add5h4td7p8i77t3r8dt9@xxxxxxx>,
SteveShark <steveATguitarsDOTpowernetDOTcoDOTuk> wrote:

Think - 12 tracks at 79p each is roughly a tenner. You can get most
albums from somewhere like Amazon for that.

Indeed, and what are you actually getting? With iTunes, you're getting a
horribly low-quality file (unless you pay extra for the 256k ones).
Emusic give 192k, and I've seen a couple of others with the same.

If I'm paying almost CD-price for an mp3, I don't want it crippled by
compression... I'd be happy with 320k mp3s, as that's what I use for all
my music at home, but I'm still not paying full whack for that, because
it's not a physical product with all the manufacturing processes that
entails.

Also, one of the reasons for low-bitrate mp3s (ease of downloading) just
isn't as relevant as it was 5 or 10 years ago. Just about everyone has
broadband now, and server space is cheap. I don't really see any reason
why a major online retailer couldn't offer FLAC as a standard option,
with, say, 256k mp3 as a cheaper option.

The sticking point always seems to be the record labels... ISTR the
reason Apple's iTunes Store prices are so high for single-track
downloads is because of the amount they have to pay to the labels. The
industry haven't begun to understand the internet yet, and I'm starting
to doubt they ever will.


adrian

--
http://www.spaghetti-factory.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/adrianclarkmusic
.

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