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Originally Posted by MovieBird
As I noted in my previous post, did you just gloss over the destructive bit?
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No, I'm not saying that compressed audio is identical to uncompressed. I'm saying that the vast majority of people
don't care.
The audiophiles may prefer SACD and HD Digital Radio, but most people can't tell the difference.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by MovieBird
As far as FLAC, you do realize the only reason you have ever heard of it is because of pirates adopting it as a high quality transfer medium?
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Why would that matter? Most people heard of any form of digital audio because of Napster rather than eMusic.
The fact is that lossless simply is not commercially viable. Technically there isn't anything to prevent Apple or Amazon or anyone else from offering lossless downloads at a higher price. They don't, because
people don't want it.
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Originally Posted by MovieBird
Yes, you can find shitty versions of music on the Pirate Bay. Try looking at a music specific tracker....
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Yes, let's ignore the way most people actually operate.
I'll see if I can find a study to either correct or support my opinions on why people pirate, but there are several structural issues with such studies. 1) They'd have to be recent, to reflect changes in the industry accurately. 2) Some people recognize that infringement is not strictly legal and may not give honest answers. 3) Those who are willing to answer may just be rationalizing their actions, and this would be very difficult to detect via surveys. 4) The issue is highly partisan, so almost any study that doesn't give you the Answer You Want will be disregarded for whatever flaws you can drum up.
Without that particular evidence, though, I feel very comfortable in my opinion that "audio quality" is not holding people back from audio downloads. The list of reasons why people can justify piracy is getting smaller and smaller, yet the practice still persists, and recording sales are still falling.
I do not fall into the "piracy means doom" set on this basis. I can only state that to me, it is obvious that piracy certainly is not 100% positive, can clearly have a negative impact, and that so far offering convenient, DRM-free, clean and consistent content from multiple vendors doesn't appear to significantly alter piracy rates.