Universal to test $10 price for new CDs

[zipzip]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

Your DRM free digital song will play fine in 20 years,. A silly piece of plastic...... not so much....

CD's are a wastedof money.... they wear out, warp, oxidize.... etc.

Rarely. I personally own CDs that are over 25 years old that play perfectly. I own roughly 8,000 CDs, and I think I've had four or five that actually went bad, and that was only due to a faulty pressing, where the entire run of CDs was bad.

CDs can't get a virus, be accidentally erased, lost in a computer crash, "corrupted," or erased by a strong magnetic field.

I'll take CD quality over lossy downloads any day.

[zipzip]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

If I'm just interested in a track or two from an album I will buy the mp3 but most of the time I buy the CD.

Rhino.com is selling in FLAC and Apple Lossless now, though they're taking a LOOOONG time to get their catalog loaded into their website.

I bought a couple hundred WMA Lossless tracks from HDGiants (formerly MusicGiants) before they declared bankruptcy last May. Their website is still up, but they won't allow you to buy anything, and all Warner and Universal owned titles have been pulled. It's unclear whether or not they will emerge from bankruptcy. I've burned everything I bought from them to CD, so I'll have them in case the website shuts down. (Most of the tracks were DRM'd, but it did allow you to burn them to CD-R, which got rid of the DRM.)

[Mr. Dalliard]

Not a bad price, but why stick it on a CD - this is 2010.
Not only that, giving money to record companies, rather than to the artists, is also so last century.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dalliard

Not a bad price, but why stick it on a CD - this is 2010.
Not only that, giving money to record companies, rather than to the artists, is also so last century.

what exactly should they stick the 100mb of music on that would be cheaper to sell in shops than a CD? and would work in millions of cars and homes around the world?

Id love to know what device that is.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by zipzip

Rhino.com is selling in FLAC and Apple Lossless now, though they're taking a LOOOONG time to get their catalog loaded into their website.

I bought a couple hundred WMA Lossless tracks from HDGiants (formerly MusicGiants) before they declared bankruptcy last May. Their website is still up, but they won't allow you to buy anything, and all Warner and Universal owned titles have been pulled. It's unclear whether or not they will emerge from bankruptcy. I've burned everything I bought from them to CD, so I'll have them in case the website shuts down. (Most of the tracks were DRM'd, but it did allow you to burn them to CD-R, which got rid of the DRM.)

The problem is that not everything I want to buy is from the Rhino catalog. I never saw much at HDGiants, either. There's just not the demand for lossless tracks. Don't know how many CDs I own but it's probably closer to 1000.

Originally Posted by Mr. Dalliard

Not a bad price, but why stick it on a CD - this is 2010.
Not only that, giving money to record companies, rather than to the artists, is also so last century.

Audio quality is why I buy CDs. There's a huge qualitative difference between CD audio and MP3 even at high sampling rates. If I can, I purchase from the artist but I want the music in a lossless format and MP3/AAC is not.

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

There's a huge qualitative difference between CD audio and MP3 even at high sampling rates. If I can, I purchase from the artist but I want the music in a lossless format and MP3/AAC is not.

Of course, I accept that mp3 is not lossless - the whole point is to be lossy. But do you really hear a "huge qualitative difference between CD audio and MP3 even at high sampling rates"? I've tried really hard to hear the difference - with decent equipment - and from 256kbps, I can't tell which is which. Studies seem to bear this out too. Of course, my ears could be broken ...

[GA Russell]

Here's a March 19 Reuters article on Universal's plan to reduce CD prices.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/godsmack/...ales--62000139

I think that this is the most important sentence:

The pricing adjustments will also bring CD prices more in line with what consumers pay for digital albums at online retailers like iTunes and Amazon.

So it may come to pass that in the publishing world too the price of hardcopy (paper books) and digital (eBooks) will be the same.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

Of course, I accept that mp3 is not lossless - the whole point is to be lossy. But do you really hear a "huge qualitative difference between CD audio and MP3 even at high sampling rates"? I've tried really hard to hear the difference - with decent equipment - and from 256kbps, I can't tell which is which. Studies seem to bear this out too. Of course, my ears could be broken ...

I can tell the difference easily on my car audio system. I have a good quality Alpine system in my Honda. I ripped several different styles of music CDs to 256 kbps and played them back two different ways by burning the MP3s to CD-Rs and loading them on my Zune. I could tell no qualitative difference in the playback of the MP3s. The CDs I tested included Classical, live Rock, studio Rock and studio Jazz.

Then I listened to these same CDs on my car Audio system and was absolutely blown away at how much is missing from MP3s especially with the Classical, Jazz and live performances. I also listened to the same music loaded in WMA lossless on my Zune and to me it sounded as good as the CDs.

Listening to the same music in same formats through my home stereo gave me the same impressions. MP3s are flat and miss many of the nuances on CDs.

The only way I really can't tell the difference is if I'm listening through crappy earbuds on my Zune or one of the kid's iPods. Especially if you don't take the time to set the equalizer for the style of music then it will sound pretty much the same. Normally, I use a pair of Ultimate Ears (picked up for 2/3's off) or a set of Sony Sport earphones and I definitely can tell the difference.

This is all subjective but this is what works for me.

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Then I listened to these same CDs on my car Audio system and was absolutely blown away at how much is missing from MP3s especially with the Classical, Jazz and live performances. I also listened to the same music loaded in WMA lossless on my Zune and to me it sounded as good as the CDs.

Listening to the same music in same formats through my home stereo gave me the same impressions. MP3s are flat and miss many of the nuances on CDs.

If I understand the first comparison, it was mp3 player vs. CD player, so there could be lots of causes. Lossless vs. mp3 on the Zune and home stereo, though, are valid comparisons. I've tried both headphones and home stereo, and can't hear a difference - even switching from one source across to the other on the amp, with the tracks synched together. If someone else does the switching, I can't reliably tell which is which.

The only way I really can't tell the difference is if I'm listening through crappy earbuds on my Zune or one of the kid's iPods. Especially if you don't take the time to set the equalizer for the style of music then it will sound pretty much the same.

I find it easier to hear digitising "artefacts" using in-ear headphones - and I listen to pretty much everything "flat". We seem to live in opposite realities!

This is all subjective but this is what works for me.

Of course - I'm not saying that you don't experience one as better than the other, and lossless is clearly the safer option in that it can't be worse. What surprises me is that you think that mp3s are flat and miss the nuances of CDs! I can't hear any of that difference - and I'm certainly not using crappy equipment.