What happens when you buy music at the Apple Store, burn to a CD, then rip back to MP3 (or any other format for that matter)?
If the quality of those rips is acceptable, you shouldn't be worried if Apple will call it quits/pull the plug on the Music store after a few years.
Even if you leave your Apple Store music on cds, you'll still be able to enjoy it for years. CDs will be around for ages. You can still buy brand new 8-tracks (saw them at Best Buy) and cassettes. We'll have CD players well into the year 3000 I guess. (Okay that's a reach).
What happens when you buy music at the Apple Store, burn to a CD, then rip back to MP3 (or any other format for that matter)?
If the quality of those rips is acceptable, you shouldn't be worried if Apple will call it quits/pull the plug on the Music store after a few years.
Even if you leave your Apple Store music on cds, you'll still be able to enjoy it for years. CDs will be around for ages. You can still buy brand new 8-tracks (saw them at Best Buy) and cassettes. We'll have CD players well into the year 3000 I guess. (Okay that's a reach).
I tried this and posted my results somewhere back on page 2 or 3. It works fine. An extra step and a wasted cd-r (will have to use cd-rw's for this, methinks), but the quality is acceptable, especially if you're going to be listening to the results in a less than ideal atmosphere (your car, for example).
precisely. it's generally accepted that human hearing drops off at aroun 17 kHz
More precisely, it's known that very high frequencies are used to locate and pinpoint particular sounds. They're not interpreted as notes.
That would explain why some people perceive the encoded songs as fuzzy or vague or muddy.
The high frequencies are the first to go when your hearing fails, so if you have trouble picking out a person's speech in a crowded restaurant, you'll likely never notice the loss of frequencies above 16k.
You did the test I was interested in. So I take it that the Forbes.com comment that mp3 conversions would sound like crap is not true. Call me paranoid; I was just worried they had some hidden data-scrambling going on.
Have you done any tests comparing MusicStoreAAC and MusicStoreAAC -> audio CD -> AAC?
Well, the info I posted about Matador/Beggars interest in iTunes ended up on MacRumors. Maybe that'll speed the process up and get a little more attention for the good people at Matador. Besides, the companies already have a connection-Liz Phair was in the original ads for iTunes, Liz Phair is on Matador, I love both Matador and apple, it would make me happy if Matador was on iTMS and Steve Jobs only wants to make me happy. Hooray for Everything.
You did the test I was interested in. So I take it that the Forbes.com comment that mp3 conversions would sound like crap is not true. Call me paranoid; I was just worried they had some hidden data-scrambling going on.
Have you done any tests comparing MusicStoreAAC and MusicStoreAAC -> audio CD -> AAC?
No, but I can do it later tonight if you're interested. I'd imagine that there would be some loss of quality if I encode at the same bitrate (128 ), but I'll give it a go. Please note that I'm not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination so take my opinions/results with a grain of salt.
Apple should offer a few radio channels that just stream AAC audio. A random rotation of songs, perhaps one channel per genre. A good way to push the AAC codec.
Really though, I'll probably do the test myself as soon as I get some free time. No point in asking you to do something I could just as easily do myself.
This iTunes Music Store thing is all too addictive! I wish there would be a way for a user to set a spending limit or alarm...
I agree with some of the posts above that there are way too many partial albums. I am sure this has something to do with the current Music Studios licensing scheme, but I hope this gets solved soon, specially if all of us having this particular issue send some feedback to Apple.
I know that one shouldn't expect to find 100% of the songs we are after (same thing goes for a regular music store), but there is a band which is seemingly missing: Propellerheads. Just for the reason that one of their songs "Take California" was featured on the very first iPod/iTunes TV ad. I just sent some requests about quite a few missing bands.
I bought 2 songs so far. Overall speaking, Apple did a good job on content and layout design. Right now, the store is limited to Mac OS X 10.2 users (more than 5M).
I do own a lot of CDs and sometimes I rip them in 320k MP3 format, but most of them in 192k (VBR). Then, put all the CDs under the bed or some storage area.
Meanwhile, I also borrow CDs from my local library then store them in my iTunes library. Is it legal? I guess. Moreover, I rarely share music over the Internet.
Absolutely gorgeous, just bought my first 18 songs from the iTunes Music store, found a smattering of artists across most of the genres I enjoy, and they all sound quite good.
It is entirely too easy to drop about $20 at a time without thinking about it, though, he he. According to the numbers on Billboard, Apple sold over 275,000 songs in the first 18 hours, and it's easy to see why.
I like the idea of streaming radio stations for each genre, apple should look into that.
Also, funnily enough, I brought my powerbook into class today and hooked up to the school network. I popped open itunes, and sure enough, no fewer than four shared libraries at my disposal, from freaks around the building on the network. Bumping myself onto the campus-wide lan revealed just fewer than 100 available. That was fast, yes?
Meanwhile, I also borrow CDs from my local library then store them in my iTunes library. Is it legal? I guess. Moreover, I rarely share music over the Internet.
i think some folks are forgetting that this isn't meant to REPLACE retail CD's. it's more of a complement to, with super-high potential. no way the record labels were going to put out super-high quality rips and let them get out into the mainstream on an untested model. but once they start seeing the money they are raking in for very little effort, well, i believe you'll start seeing an increase in quality and additional features. plus, sometimes, i really love a well-designed cd case and booklet art as much as the music it encases. maybe i'm just odd that way...
Apple should offer a few radio channels that just stream AAC audio. A random rotation of songs, perhaps one channel per genre. A good way to push the AAC codec.
Good idea, not to mention that AAC and the Mpeg 4 codec is supposed to be all about internet broadcasting/streaming.
How long do you/we think it will be until Apple automatically adds links into our libraries for the songs of a particular artist that we don't already own?
I'm thinking about how I own a bunch of Neil Young, but what am I missing? I can see Apple adding bold, red songs under Neil Young in my library that link to purchases of songs I don't have.
I'm not saying I like the idea, but I think I could see it happening.
Comments
If the quality of those rips is acceptable, you shouldn't be worried if Apple will call it quits/pull the plug on the Music store after a few years.
Even if you leave your Apple Store music on cds, you'll still be able to enjoy it for years. CDs will be around for ages. You can still buy brand new 8-tracks (saw them at Best Buy) and cassettes. We'll have CD players well into the year 3000 I guess. (Okay that's a reach).
Originally posted by monkeyastronaut
What happens when you buy music at the Apple Store, burn to a CD, then rip back to MP3 (or any other format for that matter)?
If the quality of those rips is acceptable, you shouldn't be worried if Apple will call it quits/pull the plug on the Music store after a few years.
Even if you leave your Apple Store music on cds, you'll still be able to enjoy it for years. CDs will be around for ages. You can still buy brand new 8-tracks (saw them at Best Buy) and cassettes. We'll have CD players well into the year 3000 I guess. (Okay that's a reach).
I tried this and posted my results somewhere back on page 2 or 3. It works fine. An extra step and a wasted cd-r (will have to use cd-rw's for this, methinks), but the quality is acceptable, especially if you're going to be listening to the results in a less than ideal atmosphere (your car, for example).
Originally posted by pesi
precisely. it's generally accepted that human hearing drops off at aroun 17 kHz
More precisely, it's known that very high frequencies are used to locate and pinpoint particular sounds. They're not interpreted as notes.
That would explain why some people perceive the encoded songs as fuzzy or vague or muddy.
The high frequencies are the first to go when your hearing fails, so if you have trouble picking out a person's speech in a crowded restaurant, you'll likely never notice the loss of frequencies above 16k.
You did the test I was interested in. So I take it that the Forbes.com comment that mp3 conversions would sound like crap is not true. Call me paranoid; I was just worried they had some hidden data-scrambling going on.
Have you done any tests comparing MusicStoreAAC and MusicStoreAAC -> audio CD -> AAC?
Originally posted by failedmathematician
Torifile,
You did the test I was interested in. So I take it that the Forbes.com comment that mp3 conversions would sound like crap is not true. Call me paranoid; I was just worried they had some hidden data-scrambling going on.
Have you done any tests comparing MusicStoreAAC and MusicStoreAAC -> audio CD -> AAC?
No, but I can do it later tonight if you're interested. I'd imagine that there would be some loss of quality if I encode at the same bitrate (128 ), but I'll give it a go. Please note that I'm not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination so take my opinions/results with a grain of salt.
Really though, I'll probably do the test myself as soon as I get some free time. No point in asking you to do something I could just as easily do myself.
I agree with some of the posts above that there are way too many partial albums. I am sure this has something to do with the current Music Studios licensing scheme, but I hope this gets solved soon, specially if all of us having this particular issue send some feedback to Apple.
I know that one shouldn't expect to find 100% of the songs we are after (same thing goes for a regular music store), but there is a band which is seemingly missing: Propellerheads. Just for the reason that one of their songs "Take California" was featured on the very first iPod/iTunes TV ad. I just sent some requests about quite a few missing bands.
I do own a lot of CDs and sometimes I rip them in 320k MP3 format, but most of them in 192k (VBR). Then, put all the CDs under the bed or some storage area.
Meanwhile, I also borrow CDs from my local library then store them in my iTunes library. Is it legal? I guess. Moreover, I rarely share music over the Internet.
It is entirely too easy to drop about $20 at a time without thinking about it, though, he he. According to the numbers on Billboard, Apple sold over 275,000 songs in the first 18 hours, and it's easy to see why.
I like the idea of streaming radio stations for each genre, apple should look into that.
Also, funnily enough, I brought my powerbook into class today and hooked up to the school network. I popped open itunes, and sure enough, no fewer than four shared libraries at my disposal, from freaks around the building on the network. Bumping myself onto the campus-wide lan revealed just fewer than 100 available. That was fast, yes?
ciao,
michael
Originally posted by Kenneth
Meanwhile, I also borrow CDs from my local library then store them in my iTunes library. Is it legal? I guess. Moreover, I rarely share music over the Internet.
how could you possibly think that's legal?
Originally posted by bunge
Apple should offer a few radio channels that just stream AAC audio. A random rotation of songs, perhaps one channel per genre. A good way to push the AAC codec.
Good idea, not to mention that AAC and the Mpeg 4 codec is supposed to be all about internet broadcasting/streaming.
I'm thinking about how I own a bunch of Neil Young, but what am I missing? I can see Apple adding bold, red songs under Neil Young in my library that link to purchases of songs I don't have.
I'm not saying I like the idea, but I think I could see it happening.