What actually is surprising is that people pay for music distributed in crippled formats. Of the DRM schemes that I've seen, Apple's is probably the least intrusive. However, the lossy compression of the music is significant. Considering that video is moving to high definition, it is surprising that people would want lower definition in their music. When the price of an album is factored in, it makes no sense in terms of cost to buy the Apple compressed version rather than the CD uncompressed version.
While I suppose that the earphones supplied with the Ipods have insufficient fidelity to make obvious the deficiencies in the program material, those deficiencies are glaringly obvious on a decent home stereo system. I returned the player I bought after connecting it to the audio system in my Navigator and my wife’s Vanden Plas. The distortion in the sound from the lossy compression was obvious, even on a car stereo system.
Even CD quality is, at best, only mid-fi. Remember that CD was a compromise built with what was the best technology available at the time. They were invented in the late 1970s and the first players and CDs began appearing around 1982-83. The first decent sounding CD player that I heard was a $2,500 Macintosh that appeared some time around 1985. 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling was a big technical challenge years ago. Those specs were determined sufficient to reproduce sound for the average person’s hearing. But 44.1 kHz sampling is not enough sampling to smoothly and accurately reproduce the waveforms of high frequencies; thus resulting in brittle sound. The 90 dB dynamic range of CD is adequate, but not generous. Symphony orchestras typically have a dynamic range of 70+ dB from pianissimo to forte. Live Jazz is nearly as demanding, and in some cases, as demanding as orchestral music.
New standards, such as Dolby True HD fix the limitations of CD audio with up to 8 tracks of 24 bit/96 kHz audio. Instead of moving to low fidelity, music should be moving to true high fidelity. An Ipod and compressed audio is ok for something to carry around. They are fine for non-critical listening, but when one is actively listening to music lowered fidelity does not make sense. Since one can compress a good quality source, why would anyone buy the same music twice? Why purchase once in a higher quality format and once again in a lower quality format when it’s trivial to create compressed versions?
P2P is not a product and is not a legal business. Where the RIAA may be about highway robbery, P2P is basically just theiving in the other direction.
I don't think the point of iTunes is the albums, but allowing you to cherry-pick the song you want rather than having to buy the album.
I hope you don’t think that I’m implying P2P/file sharing is legal – but iTunes is in competition with them. The best way to overcome any competitor, such as physical CD’s and file sharing services, is to exceed in what they offer; beginning with lossless files (not this ‘near CD’ stuff) and an easy way to retrieve it in case its lost, like you could from a physical CD if your drive were to fial or your home made CD's became unreadable .
I'm part of those declining sales. 128kbps just doesn't sound good enough. I thought I couldn't tell the difference at first, but on the nice speakers in the car I can really tell the difference. I'm also finding the CD's I want on eBay and Half-Price Books for a fraction of the price.
Ok, why don't we actually talk about the news itself??
First, the data analyzed were credit card records, which doesn't give a pure picture of the situation, but only a decent estimate.
Second, why has noone realized that Apple has hit its saturation point for iTunes. As the whole iPod+iTunes fad ramped up, tons of people flocked to iTunes as a way to purchase new songs/albums/etc along with those old singles they always liked but never owned. Now, with most people owning at least one iPod, the new user base has shrank dramatically. Apple is no longer getting the steady stream of newbies who are looking to fill up their iPods with musci from iTunes. The majority of iTunes users are now people who like the service and are buying new songs as they like, which generally means small, sporadic purchases.
The importance of this news is that it signals a new period for iTunes that investors should closely watch, has Apple built up a dedicated userbase to keep iTune profitable for the long haul.
Wouldn't it be nice if AI weren't just a part of the stupid echo chamber and actually added a thought about a story? When I first saw the NYT article, I knew something was wrong. If you look at the number of iPods sold per month or quarter vs. the number of tunes sold in the same time period, you can easily see that the number of tunes per iPod is actually increasing.
Wouldn't it be nice if AI weren't just a part of the stupid echo chamber and actually added a thought about a story? When I first saw the NYT article, I knew something was wrong. If you look at the number of iPods sold per month or quarter vs. the number of tunes sold in the same time period, you can easily see that the number of tunes per iPod is actually increasing.
Good link. Now just get Forrester to back up their claim.
The important thing about iTunes is the infrastructure that they are building. Apple could service any model of DRM/encoding/payment that the world desires. Selling iPods is what its all about.
The whole DRM thing was imposed upon Apple by the record labels. Now, the movie people want even tighter restrictions that will be even more unpopular with consumers. If the labels ease up on DRM, we'll all be a lot happier.
As Vinney57 said, it's all about iPod sales.
BTW, AAPL is down a couple bucks today. A month from now, sub-88 is gonna look mighty cheap.
On the whole, I think iTunes could grow by merging services with Netflix (to include movie rentals with the downloads).
I agree. If Apple integrated NetFlix into iTunes like they did the Music store, Apple would become a very powerful force in the movie industry. Apple would be able to get Netflix customers to rent physical DVDs from them, RIP them, and then send it back to Apple.
The movie studios would be banging their door down to go digital then.
Apple could then ween it's rental customers away from physical DVDs to digital downloads over time.
Comments
While I suppose that the earphones supplied with the Ipods have insufficient fidelity to make obvious the deficiencies in the program material, those deficiencies are glaringly obvious on a decent home stereo system. I returned the player I bought after connecting it to the audio system in my Navigator and my wife’s Vanden Plas. The distortion in the sound from the lossy compression was obvious, even on a car stereo system.
Even CD quality is, at best, only mid-fi. Remember that CD was a compromise built with what was the best technology available at the time. They were invented in the late 1970s and the first players and CDs began appearing around 1982-83. The first decent sounding CD player that I heard was a $2,500 Macintosh that appeared some time around 1985. 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling was a big technical challenge years ago. Those specs were determined sufficient to reproduce sound for the average person’s hearing. But 44.1 kHz sampling is not enough sampling to smoothly and accurately reproduce the waveforms of high frequencies; thus resulting in brittle sound. The 90 dB dynamic range of CD is adequate, but not generous. Symphony orchestras typically have a dynamic range of 70+ dB from pianissimo to forte. Live Jazz is nearly as demanding, and in some cases, as demanding as orchestral music.
New standards, such as Dolby True HD fix the limitations of CD audio with up to 8 tracks of 24 bit/96 kHz audio. Instead of moving to low fidelity, music should be moving to true high fidelity. An Ipod and compressed audio is ok for something to carry around. They are fine for non-critical listening, but when one is actively listening to music lowered fidelity does not make sense. Since one can compress a good quality source, why would anyone buy the same music twice? Why purchase once in a higher quality format and once again in a lower quality format when it’s trivial to create compressed versions?
P2P is not a product and is not a legal business. Where the RIAA may be about highway robbery, P2P is basically just theiving in the other direction.
I don't think the point of iTunes is the albums, but allowing you to cherry-pick the song you want rather than having to buy the album.
I hope you don’t think that I’m implying P2P/file sharing is legal – but iTunes is in competition with them. The best way to overcome any competitor, such as physical CD’s and file sharing services, is to exceed in what they offer; beginning with lossless files (not this ‘near CD’ stuff) and an easy way to retrieve it in case its lost, like you could from a physical CD if your drive were to fial or your home made CD's became unreadable .
First, the data analyzed were credit card records, which doesn't give a pure picture of the situation, but only a decent estimate.
Second, why has noone realized that Apple has hit its saturation point for iTunes. As the whole iPod+iTunes fad ramped up, tons of people flocked to iTunes as a way to purchase new songs/albums/etc along with those old singles they always liked but never owned. Now, with most people owning at least one iPod, the new user base has shrank dramatically. Apple is no longer getting the steady stream of newbies who are looking to fill up their iPods with musci from iTunes. The majority of iTunes users are now people who like the service and are buying new songs as they like, which generally means small, sporadic purchases.
The importance of this news is that it signals a new period for iTunes that investors should closely watch, has Apple built up a dedicated userbase to keep iTune profitable for the long haul.
Do the Math: iTunes sales aren't collapsing
Wouldn't it be nice if AI weren't just a part of the stupid echo chamber and actually added a thought about a story? When I first saw the NYT article, I knew something was wrong. If you look at the number of iPods sold per month or quarter vs. the number of tunes sold in the same time period, you can easily see that the number of tunes per iPod is actually increasing.
The interpretation of the Forrester data is flat wrong. Tunes per iPod sold are actually increasing.
Do the Math: iTunes sales aren't collapsing
Wouldn't it be nice if AI weren't just a part of the stupid echo chamber and actually added a thought about a story? When I first saw the NYT article, I knew something was wrong. If you look at the number of iPods sold per month or quarter vs. the number of tunes sold in the same time period, you can easily see that the number of tunes per iPod is actually increasing.
Good link. Now just get Forrester to back up their claim.
The important thing about iTunes is the infrastructure that they are building. Apple could service any model of DRM/encoding/payment that the world desires. Selling iPods is what its all about.
Based on what I see, the drop off is likely seasonal. Even still, the drop is not anywhere near the 65% reported.
Jan 06 to Sep 06 decline of 30%
YoY growth from Sep-05 to Sep-06 is 23%
http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2...ollapsing.html
the main ways i get my music:
senuti / other people's ipods
limewire
CD's
ITUNES
As Vinney57 said, it's all about iPod sales.
BTW, AAPL is down a couple bucks today. A month from now, sub-88 is gonna look mighty cheap.
It concerns me that this research company can access credit card purchase data. How is that possible if they aren't related to Apple?
My sentiments exactly.
This could be a topic in and of itself.
On the whole, I think iTunes could grow by merging services with Netflix (to include movie rentals with the downloads).
I agree. If Apple integrated NetFlix into iTunes like they did the Music store, Apple would become a very powerful force in the movie industry. Apple would be able to get Netflix customers to rent physical DVDs from them, RIP them, and then send it back to Apple.
The movie studios would be banging their door down to go digital then.
Apple could then ween it's rental customers away from physical DVDs to digital downloads over time.
well, ill tell you something for free, limewire's great!
the main ways i get my music:
senuti / other people's ipods
limewire
CD's
ITUNES
Don't forget your public library, hundreds or thousands of CDs and DVDs just waiting for you to rip for free.
I'm sure sales will peak again with the release of Ashlee Simpson's next Album (go on, you know you love her really)!
I'm shorting her record company and investing the proceeds in barf bags.
Don't forget your public library, hundreds or thousands of CDs and DVDs just waiting for you to rip for free.
never thought of that, good thinking!!