Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
After all, music has been available DRM-free and rather affordable for what, 2 years now? There are also countless free streaming options, ranging from Internet radio to Spotify to Pandora. Yet music piracy rates are still sky-high, and there are correlations between nations with lax IP enforcement and cratering music sales rates (note: this does not necessarily prove cause and effect).
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I, for one, do not purchase downloadable music because it doesn't live up to my quality standards for the price. At 99 cents per song, a standard album costs more to purchase as downloadable content, than the physical CD. And yet, the physical CD provides a much higher quality recording. But before someone whines that it is 'transparent', what really gets my goat is that these files are not provided in a format for which you can losslessly convert into another format. MP3 and AAC are destructive formats. When you first rip a CD into MP3s, you lose some bits, which everyone already knows. But when you take that 320 kbps file, and transcode it to a 192 kbps file (because you need the space), you actually end up with less information than if you had directly gone from CD to 192.
I simply won't pay more for something ethereal, when a physical, digital, product ensures I can keep my purchase with me. As far as convenience, Amazon 2 day shipping really does wonders for not needing it right this second.
How does this relate to music piracy? Well, think about it, the worst offenders are A) hoarders B) enthusiasts. You can't care about hoarders because those aren't sales anyways. Enthusiasts, you can capture sales from, but you have to provide a high quality product for them to purchase. Right now there's an easier, cheaper,
and higher quality product for the taking.
As far as Pandora and its ilk, they're not eclectic enough for my taste. I prefer to listen to internet radio, like
The Current, because they actually play a decent assortment of styles. I look forward to the day when Pandora's algorithms actually work well, as I prefer not to have humans interrupting my groove
