55 replies to this topic

[mandolinbryn]

Hezalin said:

Actually, for th emost part if you had a catastrophic problem like that. iTunes willa ctually provide everything you bought form them for free again.

For real?

[poster_torn]

No they certainly do not let you re-download anything you buy.  If you lose it, it's gone.  You'll have to purchase it again.

Other than that fact, the DRM (no ipod = no itunes) AND the lossy compression keeps me from buying itunes.

If they had loss-less downloads you could play on any system/software, for reasonable prices I *might* consider it.

Even then you don't get art/booklets (though with 3" CDs that's not much of a loss... if you were talking 12" double-albums then that's different...) and you have to back it up/hardcopy yourself.

As it happens I just bought REM's back catalog (Murmur thru Document, including Dead Letter Office which has Chronic Town on it.. yay!) for $7.97 each from Amazon.com.

$7.97 (free shipping) for a full-quality physical CD with "artwork" .. vs $9.99 for the album download on iTunes ...  el-oh-el.

[patternshirt170]

Quote

$9.99 for the album download on iTunes ... el-oh-el.

Aye and an extra $1.29 tax usually as well. Totally true, you're paying CD prices for second rate quality files loaded with 'protection'. Amazon Marketplace is great $5.99 etc for new albums...!

...also no I don't think CDs will vanish or become so marginalised but I do think for many people they are even now viewed more or less as ones' back up for digital files, rather than a play each and every time, so when or if something crap happens to your HD you just reburn those files again...

[rsgdodge]

Yep, downloads are fine for those who like 'em, but given a choice I'd take a disc over a lossy compressed format anytime, which is why "download only" releases bug me.  I'm enough of an audiophile that I don't consider the convenience of immediate downloadability to be "progress" when it comes at the cost of sound quality.  But that's just me.  Your mileage may vary...

-Ricardo

[wagtail]

up in Mad Max country, around Coober Pedy in Far North South Australia.....pretty much everyone lives in caves....you all make it out like living in a cave would be a bad thing..but some of those places are pretty funky...and if you need more space you can just dig out an extra room...you could probably sculpt a nice cabinet for all your vinyl...I bet the acoustics in those places are pretty good too.  yep, cave life is probably the way of the future for the serious audiophile.

[MeanCat]

and like i said... caves WILL come back, and all you download-hipsters are gonna look soooo outdated!

[poster_torn]

nah, too much r-r-r-reverberation!

anyway record/CD sales are down but it's not because of itunes.  it's because of all the illegal downloading.  I mean they sell ipods now that can hold 30,000 songs... hmm at $1 each, do you really think people spent $30,000 to fill their ipods?  :D

I think itunes fits a certain segment ok - and that is people who only want to download singles or 2,3 tracks from an album rather than buy the whole thing - AND - who primarily listen to music on their ipods (hence the quality doesn't matter).

folks like us (well myself anyway) who still buy full albums and who listen on high quality stereo/home theater type systems... it's just not for me.  not to mention the copy protection (which honestly is simple to remove)...

As for backups, I have an external USB drive that I back everything up to.  they are real cheap now, you can buy a 300-500 gig model for $100 or less...

[sdaltons]

so when does this come out?  i thought it was today.

[surprisepig!]

Out July 1st according to REMHQ.

[peterjones]

*shakes fist*

What's with the delay? I would have thought Warners would be bending over backwards to sell downloads...

[Leilani]

It's not like they need to package and distribute them!  Look how fast people are getting their boots up on DIME! - and Sibko is pretty nifty with the cover art!

[tingly]

I got a letter a few minutes ago from Apple that you can download now.  I'm in the US.

[peterjones]

I've got it, it's pretty good. West Of The Fields is the highlight, a really great version of it. I'm not that big a fan of the song choices from Accelerate, but they're played well enough. The only slight disappointment is Man On The Moon - sounds a little half-hearted, maybe would have been better off doing DJ or something else that could have been done more enthusiastically instead. It's a minor complaint though, overall it's a decent little record.

[philanders tie]

Yeah i agree i really enjoyed and west of the fields and auctioneer sound really great, just building the excitment for my first gig of the tour on thursday

[Rella]

[quote name='mandolinbryn'][quote name='gazza']Yes i love the band and buy their stuff, but not this time. If it was on a cd or viynl I would do but not as a download.
[quote]

What would you do in the event they would release the album online first? They Might Be Giants did it, Radiohead did it... Would you cave?:p[/quote]
i'd wait for the cd release too, while listening to it on mp3 downloaded for free)

[melpomene]

Personally, i'm disappointed. I don't think MS sounds on top form, and the songs aren't overly tight.

I don't think any of you "anti-lossey" r.e.m. fans out there are missing anything integeral to your r.e.m. collections. My 2-pence