Buying MP3s of OOP albums

[mgraham333]

Having racked up some promotional credits at Amazon MP3 for purchasing some physical music product I decided to buy an OOP album - Don Friedman's A Day In The City. I could have bought the disc for $25, but instead I got the album for $1.99.

I know there are still a lot of discs out there at places like Newbury, Oldies, and Daedalus but those won't last forever. It looks like shiny silver discs are just not going to make a comeback.

I guess downloads are my future. SIGH.

[mikeweil]

Sigh!!!

[mgraham333]

The Day The CD Died

[Chuck Nessa]

It all depends how much you "need" to hear the music.

After spending tens of thousands of dollars to make my masters sound as fine as they should, I find mp3s an insult. I know the "business" is moving this way and will ultimately "go there" to get the music out to interested (or potentially interested) parties.

Edited November 29, 2010 by Chuck Nessa

[marcello]

I agree with Chuck. I'll never download a mp3 again, although I've only done it when the download was a gift.

I just got a full electronic package of Jim Rotondi's "1000 Rainbows" from his label. It has the whole magilla including all hi-res song files and art ( as good as it gets in this form, and it's great for promotional purposes), but I'd rather have the cd any day. I'll buy the regular cd soon.

[Victor Christensen]

Never Mp3 downloads for me, but anyhow I will soon stop collecting, I have not that much space left for more CD's. Just trying to fill a few holes in my collection.

Vic

[Harold_Z]

The MP3s at 256 aren't too bad but I DO prefer cds or(gasp!) vinyl. What I find myself doing a lot of is buying or downloading MP3s of things that I already have on lp. Just to save the time of burning it to cd and separating the tracks etc etc. I've found quite a few items on Amazon at a price low enough for me to say "Hey - for a few bucks I don't have to spend over an hour going through that rigamarole." What really bugs me is the lack of documentation on this stuff. No notes - no personnel listing. How difficult would it be to attach an pdf with liner notes, etc? One example - Amazon actually has the Dixiecats session that was on Roulette available but with no personnel listed. there is just an album called "Dixiecats" with the standard repertoire dixieland tunes. Who are the players? Red Allen, Willie "The Lion", Buster Bailey, Zutty, Milt Hinton, Tyree Glenn and Boomie Richman. Don't you think listing the players might sell more albums? That's just one example - there are a lot more. Usually I recognize them from the tune configurations.

[JSngry]

FLAC

[sonnymax]

FLAC

A-FLAC!!!

ALAC, aka Apple lossless or .m4a files, is equally good.

[Claude]

The main reason why most music downloads are still only in MP3 quality is because it's the most compatible format, which can be played in computers (of course), on all portable players, and most newer generation car radios and DVD players. The hardware that supports FLAC is still quite rare, especially with portable players.

The initial reason for MP3 - limited internet bandwith, limited storage capacity - is hardly relevant anymore.

So I think that as soon as the major electronics companies support the same lossless compression codec, the market for lossless downloads will explode.

Buying a rare OOP CD for $40 on Ebay or paying $10 for a lossless download of the same CD, my decision is easily made.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Claude