Wow, I actually bought digital music today

After being a holdout for year after year after year, I finally broke down and bought my first MP3 cd today online from Amazon. While I thought that I would really miss getting the real cd, having it in seconds, for less than $7, and downloaded to my Amazon cloud and playing on my Amazon Cloud player on my Droid within seconds is pretty awesome. Didn't even have to leave my chair, except to go for my 6 mile run while listening to my new music while tracking my distance via Runkeeper.

Oh well, I guess times change.

I just recently started buying some music digitally. Mostly because it's either unavailable, or out of print/hard to find. Some of the music I love comes from other countries and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for the shopping just to get it here, since for some reason our country has such bad taste in music.

pparks1 said:

After being a holdout for year after year after year, I finally broke down and bought my first MP3 cd today online from Amazon. While I thought that I would really miss getting the real cd, having it in seconds, for less than $7, and downloaded to my Amazon cloud and playing on my Amazon Cloud player on my Droid within seconds is pretty awesome. Didn't even have to leave my chair, except to go for my 6 mile run while listening to my new music while tracking my distance via Runkeeper.

Oh well, I guess times change.

Click to expand...

Join the club.

After much prevarication I've started buying music from iTunes and I've been pleasantly surprised by how easy it was and how good the quality of the music is.

My first purchase was 60 tracks for £15, which is far cheaper than buying a CD and I get to listen to my favourite tracks rather than buy a compilation album and find I only really wanted half the songs.

At this rate, my iPod is soon going to fill up as I have the best of my complete CD collection on it as well.

I held off for a long time because 1). I wanted something physical that I could rip in any format I choose 2). I wanted something that I could potentially resell if I was no longer interested in it 3). I wanted something that would play back in the CD players in my car 4). I didn't want to be tied to anything with DRM or be in a system like iTunes where you can download it once, but you MUST have iTunes backed up or you risk losing everything as Apple wouldn't let you download twice.

With Amazon, I download to the cloud and pull from there. So, my music is always in the cloud.
I'm saving a few bucks per disc for the digtal download versus the physical media...this helps make up for no resell.
This saves me the time of having to bother ripping the cd.

If I want to listen in my car though, I need to either bring my phone or MP3 player and use input through tape deck, or burn to a physical cd. < I can live with this. It's probably faster to burn the CD, than to rip the CD...or at least around the same time.

You make a valid point about Apple's iTunes, but you can use their cloud to store your stuff and access it with whatever you're using at the time. However, they do charge for it at a rate of £21 per year I think.

I refuse to pay that and have my downloads backed up to an external hard drive and DVD-Rs.

I use Amazon because id never touch iTunes since I don't have an I-device. I just back up my music on an external and put what I want on my mp3 player for when in the car.

My boy has an iPod touch, and while it is nice for music, iTunes is pure junk.

Never tried Amazons service, but I use and love Zune. The ability to download and listen to anything I want is nice, without needing to purchase. (well except for the $15 monthly fee)

I still buy physical disc from time to time, but most of my purchases are Digital as well these days, through Zune.
i too do not like iTunes. My biggest complaint is it feels like a chore to find what you're looking for if you have a large library. its not very intuitive. Then again, perhaps its becasuse Im not that used to it.

Wishmaster, do you get unlimited downloads for your $15 monthly fee? Are you able to keep your downloads without restrictions?

Another question for Wishmaster.

I just took a quick look at Zune. It appears that you cannot simply browse their song selection without first installing their software.

Is that correct?

I'd much rather browse than be forced to manually search for any artist of interest. Is browsing possible BEFORE laying down money?

Also---how do you find their selection of highly obscure old stuff--pre 1960?

It's not likely I'd be interested for the long haul, but I might sign up for a month or two and go on a hog wild download spree------IF AND ONLY IF I could first confirm they had anything I want. That's only slightly possible, but I might give it a shot.

Yes, you need the Zune Software. But the Music you download can also be played via Media Monkey, Windows Media Player etc without issue on the PC.
For mobile devices I believe you need tyo have a Zune device, or a Windows Phone.

In regards to the service itself, yes. You can download entire albums, or just a single song. there is no limit. You can also simply stream it if you prefer.
Theres no limit to how much you can download, or how much you listen to or how often. You have unlimited access to Zunes entire library, as long as your subscription is valid.

However, the songs themselves you DL are copy-protected.
You can NOT burn a CD or play the music after your subscription expires, and you can NOT play the music on any PC or Device that is not authorized.
Unless of course they are songs you purchased. Zunes store works like any other. Items that you purchase have bo DRM on them.


You can have 3 PCs, and 3 Devices on a single account at any given time.


Used to, you got 10 free songs every month. But they took those away for new subscribers. they may go back to that plan later, but Im not sure.


-- I find Zune easy to browse. The software itself after you set it up to your liking is very nice. The store isnt too bad.
If you think you may be interested, I believe they offer the service for a 14 day trial. It will give an idea of what its like.


The Zune software itself is free. There no need to buy anything, and its also how you access the Marketplace.
You can download/install it and use it like you would iTunes or WMP. You may find you like it better.

Personally, even without the Zune subscription I would still use the software.

The only problem I have with Amazon is that their bit rates seem to vary and often are way below the maximum. Spotify as far as I can tell always gives 320 Kbps but perhaps the service is not available to you? Personally I can wait for the CDs to arrive and I can then rip them how I want and I'll always have a backup.

:huh:

seavixen32 said:

I refuse to pay that and have my downloads backed up to an external hard drive and DVD-Rs.

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Yeah, I keep my files local and keep them backed up as well. I keep a couple of external hard drives offsite to ensure that if I burn to the ground or am robbed, I don't lose everything. Being able to utilize the cloud a bit more, makes this less necessary

For me, I love being able to access my cloud storage across the web on various devices. For example, my Droid when I am running, or my tablet when I am just sitting on the couch surfing the web. While I "could" download everything and store it locally, it's nice not having to bother.

Amazon cloud is 100% free, and any amount of music purchased from them can be stored free.

pincushion said:

The only problem I have with Amazon is that their bit rates seem to vary and often are way below the maximum. Spotify as far as I can tell always gives 320 Kbps but perhaps the service is not available to you? Personally I can wait for the CDs to arrive and I can then rip them how I want and I'll always have a backup.

:huh:

Click to expand...

Yeah, you do have to accept the bit rates the music is ripped at. For me, the bit rates from Amazon more or less seem to match about what I would have gotten myself, as I use a variable bit rate and don't want massive file sizes. Plus, I listen mostly when I am running, when I am at work, or when I am in the car...and with all of the ambient background noise...the fact that the songs might not be 100% perfect just isn't an issue for me.

Over the past few years, i have found it harder and harder to find the actual physical CD's without ordering them online. I'm a metal head, so my stuff is not uber popular to begin with, and with digital taking over, stores have cut back massively on the disks.

I guess I've reached the point where instant gratification, savings of around $5 per disk, and not having to store all of these CD's has taken top priority.

Wishmaster, thanks for the information on Zune, I think I'll check it out.

I have an iPod attached to the kenwood in my Firebird, I really like the way I can control the iPod from the radio.
I recently bought an inexpensive jvc media receiver for my truck, was $100 shipped with the harnesses and install kit.
Has hands free Bluetooth and plays my music and controls my iPhone from the radio using Bluetooth.
Jvc x50bt I think is the model.

I've been buying digital for the past few years, but recently bought a dozen cd's from amazon since they were so cheap, 69cents to $2.49 for a cd. It was a price error and they honored it. I thought they were just blowing out physical cd's.

I will say this, 320kbps is the data rate you want, it's a noticeable difference to 128 & 192kbps.

Zepher said:

I will say this, 320kbps is the data rate you want, it's a noticeable difference to 128 & 192kbps.

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Well, it's certainly a much larger file. I don't think there is a universal standard bitrate that somebody wants. If you have a smaller sized MP3 player, you probably would want a smaller bit rate to get more files on your player. If you listen with an iPOD and crappy iPod standard headphones you probably don't need as high of a bitrate as you might need with some hi end gear and really nice speakers/headphones.

On music I rip myself, I couldn't really detect a difference between a variable bitrate file between 192 and 240kbps over a constant bit rate at 320kbps using my computer and my Grado SR125 cans.

My iPod sits in my Pure Avanti Flow wi-fi internet radio, with which I use a pair of Sony headphones and I'm more than pleased with the sound quality.

pparks1 said:

Zepher said:

I will say this, 320kbps is the data rate you want, it's a noticeable difference to 128 & 192kbps.

Click to expand...

Well, it's certainly a much larger file. I don't think there is a universal standard bitrate that somebody wants. If you have a smaller sized MP3 player, you probably would want a smaller bit rate to get more files on your player. If you listen with an iPOD and crappy iPod standard headphones you probably don't need as high of a bitrate as you might need with some hi end gear and really nice speakers/headphones.

On music I rip myself, I couldn't really detect a difference between a variable bitrate file between 192 and 240kbps over a constant bit rate at 320kbps using my computer and my Grado SR125 cans.

Click to expand...

I can hear the difference on my computer speakers, the 320kpbs rips are crisper, so I went ahead and re-ripped a few of my CD's that I had previously ripped at 192.
I used 192 in the past due to the file size, but now with 2+TB drives and multi gigabyte media players and thumb drives, file size doesn't make too much of a difference.

^ Yeah, if you can hear the difference, then by all means use the higher bit rate. I don't hear a difference in my files But like I said, I don't use a constant bitrate, I use a variable bit rate....and that could certainly explain my experience. It can go to a higher bitrate when needed and drop back low when it's not required.

I'm satisfied thus far with my purchase from Amazon. It runs around 240Kbps across the board it seems. And it was an entire cd for $6.99. That's certainly cheaper than it would have been at the store.

With Audio, Bitrate really doesn't mean a lot sometimes.

I've typically use a Constant bit rate when ripping to a lossy format, such as 320 MP3. But variable is a very good lossy format.I have some tracks ripped with AAC variable 256ish bitrate.

Really high bit rates when needed, and low when it isnt. I find its quite similar to a MP3 @ 320, and in some cases better than the MP3 alternative.


But Ive found the bitrate alone is not exactly a good indicator of how a track will sound. Alot depends on Sound Card, Speakers, and then the complexity of the track itself.

For example, if its just spoken word, with perhaps very little going on you can get by with 192, sometimes even 160 bitrates as more will not help.
Most music a 320 MP3 or 256ish variable will sound very good. ((These two are comparable IMHO))

But theres some things where it sounds good, but could be better. For example, I listen to a LOT of symphonic metal. You have your Metal Guitar Riffs, Keybaords, sometimes Choirs in the background etc. Lots going on. In something like this I find Lossless is better. Such as a WAV lossless or FLAC.
But even with this type of music not all tracks are the same.


But again, as mentioned your speaker/sound card setup really makes a HUGE difference as well. Playing through my Klipsch 2.1s most everything sounds good with either of these lossy formats.
But, if I plug in my Sennheiser headphones, they start picking up the flaws in the lossy format, with certain tracks. Most still sound good though.

So I truly think with all of these factor considered + the complexity of the track = what bitrate to use.
But I also think for a large majority 256 variable or 320MP3 is just fine.