The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: jough on May 10, 2004, 03:50:55 am
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Hey,
I recently bought an MP3 player (a Rio Nitrus (http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=219&cat=35)) and was looking for an easy legit download site where I could pick up a few albums in MP3 format.
I found eMusic.com, but their selection was awful. I got 100 free downloads with my player and had a really hard time finding 100 tracks to get.
BuyMusic.com, RealMusic.com, and iTunes.com all use proprietary software that uses DRM - not open MP3s.
And the prices on most of these places are AWFUL. I can get new CDs around here for $8.99 and rip them myself, then sell the discs for $5.00 and essentially pay $4 for a whole album on MP3. That's about what the files are worth to me - so $.99 per SONG is just ridiculous - especially for albums with lots of short songs. Do these sites charge $99 for NiN's "Broken"? I wonder.
Anyway, I can't find a legit source to buy non-crippled regular MP3 tracks in decent bit rates with a good selection.
It's no wonder the kids love gnutella.
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I have to say I generally prefer to rip my own mp3s anyway. I, given the DJing, like to have everything in 192 Full Stereo high quality, and can't always guaruntee getting such things online.
I can just hear the difference between 192 and 128 and refuse to put that through 20 or 30k of PA.
I'd like to use 256 or higher, but space is an issue when you already have 29Gb (apparently, having just looked) of music on your machine. And there are still about a million CDs on the list I have of ones to get!
I'd just Soulseek (http://www.slsknet.org) them anyway if I was going to download them. If I'm not willing to go out and buy the CD, especially if you can do so for $4, then I wouldn't get round to getting it if it weren't illegally... So I figure!
Hell, the artist would probably prefer that I had the music than didn't and still refused to give them money. Unless it's like, Phil Collins or some shit but then there's no chance I'll have it anyway.
I do still buy CDs, but only when I can. And Soulseek introduces many new things to buy proper copies of, as well as weeding out the shit I don't want to buy after all.
So yea...
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The only pay site I've used is eMusic because they had a lot of exclusive stuff for a while. Like obscure TMBG stuff and the Pixies Purple Tape. The problem with eMusic is that they've avoided major labels and only have indie stuff and early works.
Slink, have you considered a lossless format like Monkey's Audio?
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Slink, have you considered a lossless format like Monkey's Audio?
Yes, but unfortunately I am locked into using mp3 for the foreseeable future. That and the fact that I have 29Gb of mp3's, means converting, reripping and refinding some of that would be a nightmare or epic proportions.
The software (http://www.deejaysystem.com/) I use to mix with (mk I as I have a hardware mixer) doesn't play anything but wav and mp3.
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Yeah, I downloaded some of the unique content to eMusic, but other than selection, they seemed like the best bet.
But man, they have pretty much no real albums by any decent bands, except for indie stuff I already have, like for instance they have every Pixies album.
So there's no legit site to download MP3s? Is the RIAA aware that we have no legal choice to download popular music?
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Is the RIAA aware that we have no legal choice to download popular music?
Someone may have at one point made them aware of this. As well as telling them that legitimate music sales have increased over the last 4 or 5 years since file sharing became far more prevalant.
ARIA - the Australian RIAA - made some sort of announcement saying that 'wow, p2p has done great things for us', but the RIAA are steadfast fascists.
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Admittedly, when the original Napster launched I thought it was great and downloaded music like crazy - both singles, albums, and a lot of stuff I already had on CD but thought would be cool to have on my hard drive.
What started out as a novelty became the primary medium I use for listening to music. I actually bought a CD a few weeks ago (Kill Bill Vol. 2 Soundtrack) but right away I ripped it to MP3 and have been listening to it that way. I'll keep the CD because I have the other Tarantino film soundtracks, and to re-transfer the disc later if needed to another format, etc.
But in general I only listen to MP3s or Minidiscs (often recorded from MP3s).
I really have no interest in DRM licences - how is this convenient or useful to me? If I buy a CD I can rip MP3s and transfer them to any PC or portable device I'd like. I don't share over file sharing networks.
Now that I have a portable MP3 player I wanted to buy some MP3s legitimately online and so far haven't found a site to allow this.
RealMusic has a feature to burn the downloaded files (FLAC files? They're supposed to be lossless) to CD - so maybe that's an option - download whatever weirdo format they offer, use their software to make a Redbook Audio CD, and then rip that to MP3.
Seems like a hassle, though. What's wrong with MP3s? If I can't buy them I'll download them one way or another.
You try to do "the right thing" but the bastards just won't let me.
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straight out of russia:
http://www.allofmp3.com
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Dude, I said LEGIT.
I would not give these people my CC#. Puh-lease.
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I know Mac people rave about iTunes, but my player doesn't support AAC, and they don't appear to offer MP3s either.
But is there a way to convert from one to the other? I did a little reading up and found that AAC is generally considered an antiquated and inferiour compression format, yet somehow Apple has made millions by selling songs for too much money (i.e. much more than you'd pay for a better quality/tangible item CD) using this codec.
I'm seriously boggled. I figured there'd be 100 different pay download sites by this time and the only thing I'd have to determine is what's the best one to use for my needs.
The RIAA has been annoying me so far with their stance on file sharing, but without anyone offering a viable legal alternative they really need to shut the fuck up.
I'll stop downloading shit for free when I can get as good quality and selection through a legit pay site for a decent price (i.e. LESS, not MORE than a CD).
Fuck you, RIAA, FUCK YOUR STUPID FACE!
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straight out of russia:
http://www.allofmp3.com
I really really like the way that site prefaces every update announcement with "Dear Users!"
See? They are the friendly kind of Russians.
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I know you can buy albums from playlouder (http://www.playlouder.com/downloads/), but I think they're windows media format, not mp3.
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I would've loved to follow this conversation more closely today. Stupid job. But anyway.
Issue 1: the mp3 format itself is not free. Most encoders are actually illegal themselves. Fraunhofer owns the format which is why Blade was distributed from only certain countries and LAME was only available as a .dll until recently (LAME stands for Lame Ain't an Mp3 Encoder) and why we now have ogg vorbis as an open-source alternative.
Album sales dropped around 2000 because of the economy in general, and because this was the exact time Clear Channel and Viacom/Infinity Broadcasting were buying up all the radio stations. The narrowing playlists ensured less diverse music and fewer bands making it thus fewer albums going gold/platinum. But the industry blamed trading and now it's too late to admit the mistake without looking foolish. Hence they'll never support a non-DRM format.
Hell, even mp3 supporter John Flansburg was recently quoted in Wired about how he was dismayed that blank CDs outsell all music CDs.
It is possible to go from one format to another with varying degress of difficulty but unless your source file is lossless (like Monkeys Audio) there will be a noticable quality loss in the resulting file.
A lot of people take an iTunes file which is indeed quite an ugly little format and burn it to an audio CD (which is allowed 7 times or something like that). Then rip and encode from that CD to mp3 or ogg. The problem is even if you make the mp3 file with something like --alt preset insane you can never recover the audio lost by in the original iTunes encoding. And in fact it will just sound worse because each format removes different bits. aac or wma to mp3 is going to sound roughly the same as a tape of a tape off the radio.
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I don't know - I've been converting high bitrate MP3s (256kbps) to mid-bitrate WMA and the resulting files sound pretty good - very close to 160-192Kbps MP3 files, at half the file size.
PlayLouder is another one that doesn't have much content, and certainly nothing mainstream.
I'm looking for Rufus Wainright's albums, some old Rolling Stones albums, some 80s-90s Prince, etc.
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I don't know - I've been converting high bitrate MP3s (256kbps) to mid-bitrate WMA and the resulting files sound pretty good - very close to 160-192Kbps MP3 files, at half the file size.
I was exagerating a bit in my post but this situation is also different. A 256 mp3 is still going to have most of the file, and wma is a suprisingly decent format especially considering who owns it. So you're going from quite good to pretty good. But if you start with a lower bitrate file from a worse format then you'll have more problems.
But if you're sticking to just computer speakers you'd probably be fine either way. Now if you have a nice soundcard going into a nice stereo then you might notice some problems.
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Yeah, I'd rather get four times as much on my portable player than worry about perfect fidelity. The WMA is "good enough" at 128kbps (they say that 96 is acceptable-sounding, but I say they're damn dirty liars).
Considering that I'll use the micro-drive player to drown out the din of the train, and mostly play things like Katrina and the Waves, I think I'll be fine.
I just wish there was a reliable and easy way to get access to a decent selection of mp3s at a reasonable price.
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Dude, I said LEGIT.
I would not give these people my CC#. Puh-lease.
i got a gift certificate from a friend. the service is nice.
"Using of the available electronic payment systems: "PayPal", "WebMoney", "Yandex.Money". You may find payments conditions and other information on the payments/replenishments in the appropriate sections after choosing subscription type. Automatic account replenishment interface is also available."
edit:
and yes, they are rather friendly and pleasant:
"Please, spend several minutes to pass the tour now, and save your time in the future."
edit^2:
this is a good read:
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm#Is%20Allofmp3%20legal?
as i googled for allofmp3, various reports abound.
but, to get to your outrage, from museekster.com's faq:
"
Q- Is it safe to pay by credit card?
A- "I am not going to let my credit card number fall into the hands of Russian mafia". This phrase will appear in almost any discussion about Allofmp3.
Credit card payments are processed by Cyberplat a third party payment processor in Russia that has an excellent reputation, earned the trust of Diners Club as a qualified processor, and operates completely securely.
We have been in contact with lots of users. No one has ever reported credit card abuse as a result of payments made to Allofmp3. You are quite safe using your credit card with this company.
"
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No one has ever reported credit card abuse as a result of payments made to Allofmp3.
If I were a terrible, horrible person, I would say that this is because the Russian Mafia staples their lips shut before they can complain.
Good thing I'm not.
I stick with iTunes, and I am fairly certain there is a way to export in .mp3 format. Pedro? Do you know?
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I stick with iTunes, and I am fairly certain there is a way to export in .mp3 format. Pedro? Do you know?
Sigh.
There were third-party applications, but the new version of iTunes fucked them over.I'll bet there will be new ones in a week or so.
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Even so, re-encoding into another lossy compression scheme will fuck up the sound quality of the files.
Napster seems to be pretty popular with the kids for easy conversion, since they offer a proprietary format that is non-lossy and indistinguishable from the CD. I may give them a shot to burn CDs and then rip them into MP3, which I may then do with as I please.
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No one has ever reported credit card abuse as a result of payments made to Allofmp3.
If I were a terrible, horrible person, I would say that this is because the Russian Mafia staples their lips shut before they can complain.
Good thing I'm not.
ok.
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Jough, I don't know where you buy your CD's but around here they start at $12. Personally I'm an iTunes man. There are some annoying things such as those previously mentioned, but overall it's a good system.
The only ways to convert Apple's version of AAC are to use circumvention tools like PlayFair made illegal by the odious Digital Millenium Copyright Act, or to burn your songs to CD and then rip them to mp3. (There's a setting in iTunes preferences which allows you to rip to several formats and bitrates.) I've done this a few times, and I haven't noticed any loss in audio quality. Still, I don't have the best ears, so you might not want to take my word for it.
Fortunately, it only costs $1 + a blank CD to try out this manner of purchasing music, so I recommend you try it yourself. Really, what else were you going to use that CD for? Apple's hidden rules for burning music purchased through iTunes are as follows. When you purchase a song (or set of songs), you can put it into a playlist, and then burn a CD from that playlist. If a playlist contains one or more songs from the Apple music store, then you can only burn that playlist to CD 7 times. Thereafter, you will not be able to burn that playlist until you add songs to or remove songs from it. This is easy to get around for those who are determined to do so, but lax enough to make you not really care to get around it.
So yes, buy+burn+rip is kind of a hassle, but it's not too bad, and if the dinosaur kings didn't determine what your player could and could not accept, then we wouldn't be in this mess. Also iTunes is a joy to use as far as organizing music and playing it from the PC is concerned.
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Another kind of strange rule involves audio books from Audible.com. You guys might not care about this but, I want to describe it, and it might interest you.
Many people in my office have iPods. Several of us now belong to Audible.com's pay-us-for-books-every-month club. I found out that I can put my purchased books on my iPod using iTunes. I can put my co-worker's book on my iPod using iTunes (if he types his password for me). But I cannot put audio books from three different accounts onto my iPod at any given time. The little doo-hickey is programmed to only accept two Audible.com accounts at a time. I haven't found any documentation on this anywhere. That's just the way the thing works. Incidentally, while I enjoy their products, the no documentation thing is just how Apple works.
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Yeah, to all of the Microsoft h@t0rs out there, at least they provide lots and lots of documentation for their work.
AAC is pretty bad sounding already, at least at the bitrate that iTunes uses (which is very low). I've heard tracks burned to CD from iTunes and they sound horrible.
Converting from one lossy compression algorithm to another just makes things worse. AAC and MP3 are both lossy, but in different ways, so you wind up with an extremely flat wave with neither highs nor lows. Ugh.
So iTunes is out - even if my player supported AAC the quality issue would be enough for me to not use them.
New release CDs are often under $10 at Best Buy and Circuit City around here - many of the more obscure bands (i.e. those I like) are even often $7.99.
But I generally will buy from a local mom & pop if I buy a CD at all, and they generally beat Best Buy by a dollar or two.
So even $9.95 per album, which is what Napster charges, is about the same price as most CDs, which are much higher resolution and a tangible item. I can't believe people are paying a dollar a track - if you buy one of those sound effects discs with 99 very short tracks does it cost you $99?
At least Napster and BuyMusic offer deals for a whole album (although BuyMusic charges more than Buy.com does for some new release CDs - i.e. Prince's new album is only $10.99 on CD, but $12.49 for the downloaded WMA version).
As I said, LimeWire works just great for me - I can download high bitrate MP3s and do whatever the hell I want with them. It's just sometimes harder to find some tracks, and quality isn't guaranteed.
I'd be willing to use a legit service that offered the same product but with guaranteed quality and convenience (i.e. I just log on, select what I want, and download it at high speed).
Since I haven't yet found a legit source to download unrestricted MP3s, I have no reason to not use file sharing programmes.
Is the RIAA aware of how much revenue they're losing with their DRM techniques?
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Is the RIAA aware of how much revenue they're losing with their DRM techniques?
No, they are not. I get the impression that each level of management within the big five is witholding this information from the level above it in order to keep their jobs. There's a lot of nodding and agreeing going on in those buildings. I'm sure the Peter Principle has something to do with it.
If only there were some way to harness this power for the forces of good!
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There have been several stories in the news about the strange pricing for new albums on CD vs. downloads. And some artists are keeping as much of their catalog off of iTunes etc on their own which puts another kink into things. And since Sony now has its own alternative I wouldn't expect to see many Columbia artists on iTunes now.
I've heard that Real's option is surprisingly good but I can't bring myself to trust Real. Plus then I'd have to actually install RealPlayer on my system which I know would be a huge mistake.
So right now I still think the best option is to find the discs Best Buy is selling at a loss and just grab those. Although lowest-advertised-price regulations from the RIAA make that more difficult that it should be.
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Look (http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml) what I just found today thanks to del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us).