Comments on: Paying for the music

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 00:19:56 +0000

I hve listened to OGG files and have no doubt they are superior. But, each person has their own preference (and each person’s system has its own limitations). In my case, I’m 54 years old and my hearing is such that a 128k MP3 and an OGG file sound the same. And, I doubt if my hearing will improve as I get older. For me, 128k is my standard … and I will say that I _can_ tell the difference between 96k and 128k. But, beyond that, the ol’ eardrums just shrug.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 02:01:08 +0000

That day is here. Allofmp3 offers lossless music FLAC and other formats. And the good thing is you pat far less than a buck ;))

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 04:38:17 +0000

The day they offer lossless (ie: literally no important data is lost, such as FLAC (oops, no DRM with that)) is the day I consider it (unless absolutely no other option in sight, _anywhere_). B/c when broadband access is mainstream and everyone’s going at >= 1 MB/s, there is no excuse for supercompressed, lossy files for “instant gratification”. If paying for it (and many traditional costs are almost zero), I want quality for my buck.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 19:09:51 +0000

And of course, there’s always the EFF’s ‘Let the Music Play’ [http://p2pnet.net/story/838].

It, and Julian’s model, give the lie to the record label cartel when it cries, “But what else can we do?” - as it pillories yet another schoolgirl.

Nice one, Julian.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:15:54 +0000

Julian,

Great article. I couldn’t agree more.
I hate to see this discussion turning into an mp3-ogg-flac-whatever discussion. That’s completely beside the point.

Your three price point system is exactly what I have been suggesting to the management of Weblisten.com. Too bad even those guys don’t see that this is the way to go.

I have started paying for music once I discovered Weblisten. I have now switched to Allofmp3 and Mp3search because they are cheaper. Mp3search charges $0.05- $0.10 per song.

For those interested in the cheap services a visit to http://www.museekster.com/index2.html is a good place to start.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 13:38:46 +0000

A choice of flat rate, all you can eat or incremental pricing is really just about business models.

The key is that every piece of audio ever recorded is available for download in a reasonable quality and without DRM at a price low enough that you stop thinking about the cost.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 13:36:20 +0000

Unfortunately my Creative Labs Zen Xtra 30Gb doesn’t support Ogg. Nor does my Sony CD-Mp3 player. I’m obviously OK with Winamp on a PC. The good thing about MP3 is that *everything* supports it. As the single market leader, does the iPod support Ogg?

The point here is not really AAC vs MP3 vs WMA, vs Ogg. It’s that the quality of music from the legal download systems is cr*p at 128kb fixed. Not only is it DRM controlled but it’s also considerably and audibly worse than a CD and yet they want the same price for it. 192Kb VBR with the LAME codec is the *minimum* quality where it’s *hard* to tell the difference.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 08:11:10 +0000

Don’t ask for mp3 wich is patented and bound,
ask for ogg! The specification is in the public domain.
The resulting file sounds better.

Do you dare to compare?
http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/listen.html

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 02:23:21 +0000

He has good ideas, but i’d probably only pay if it were a set price for unlimited downloads. You could think of it like a cable or telephone bill. It’s a service that you enjoy and its worth the $10 or $15 / month. I’d pay that. I hate to think of every download as costing me more and more money, instead of a set price ive already paid and its all you can “eat”.

If you continue the resturaunt or food analogy, if im really thirsty, but i go to a resturaunt and after that first drink, im still thirsty, but there are no free refills, i think twice about getting that second drink. If there are free refills, i drink all i want and come back to that resturaunt again. Same with food. If i go to an all you can eat buffet, i dont contemplate what im going to get on my plate as much. I can try different foods to see how they taste without paying anything extra. Same with music.

-MW