Quote:
Originally Posted by MGlitch
Piracy had more to do with this than anything else. People were tired of the practice of bands putting out albums with one or two singles in a batch of meh songs.
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That was true for some bands. But it was deliberate Apple and Publisher policy to sell 99c / 99p per track. Last time I looked (ages ago) you had to buy all the tracks and download separately. A CD was cheaper for an Album.
The peak MP3 piracy was per track because:
1) It was piracy
2) Many people still on 19K to 56k dialup, charged at normal call rates
3) People NOT doing piracy bought & ripped CDs. Control over quality.
4) All of this was before iTunes launched on Mac which was maybe a year before the iPod was launched. The iTunes & Apple marketing made iPod quick success, not the user interface or technology or price.
I had to set up a load of Win98 computers for people that bought iPods 2001- 2002 because Apple didn't supply software. Also I think iPod initially used Firewire (which is superior to USB, esp then but was killed for domestic use by royalty costs. No royalty on USB. There later was a security issue with Firewire, but USB HID is worse!).
I still occasionally buy CDs. I had an mp3 player then Archos 4.8" pmp with 120 Gbyte or 160 Gbyte HDD. Phone made it obsolete. I got an emergency rechargeable FM-VHF/AM-MW-SW radio with torch. New for €12 two weeks ago. It plays SD card MP3s too.
I've three working phones with 32 G SD cards good for MP3. I use Musicolet as the player as it does audio books; it "remembers" last location on all files.
Christmas time we put the playlist on one of the PCs with a little FM transmitter (sold to play phone/mp3s on car radio, legal) and any FM radio works. Normally two cheap low power Sat boxes feed those.