A Good Day To Be Canadian

Benjamindaines · Jan 8, 2005

The Trooper said:
It is not! The iTunes Music Store Sucks! I mean sure, you're able to pick and choose the songs you want instead of buying the whole album, and even if you do buy the whole album on iTunes, it's cheaper than the CD. However, it's a major ripoff because:
1)There is no CD with a case and illustrations. Sure, you can print out the album art to make a cover, but it's not the same as opening the CD case, seeing tons of photos, reading the lyrics, band bios, etc. And at least with CD's, tapes or vinyl, you have a physical object of value which you can proudly display in your home. If all you have are a bunch of CD-R's with flimsy paper covers, and a handmade label or a title scrawled on the top, it's going to look pretty pathetic compared to an actual CD collection.

2)The songs available on the iTunes Music Store are not of a very good sound quality. And contrary to what they may have told you, they actually sound WORSE than MP3's obtained through P2P filesharing programs. Apple claims that the songs offered through iTunes are AAC files, all encoded at 128 kbps, which, thanks to more efficient compression, are equal in sound quality to MP3 files encoded at 192 kbps. What they didn't tell you, however, is that the bit rate is only one factor in determining the quality of the song. You also need a good sample rate, equalizer setting, and finally, it all depends on the software you're using. In either case, some of the MP3's on my computer are of high bit rates (160, 192, some even more than 200), but most of them are encoded at 128 kbps, and surprize surprize, they actually sound better than the songs on the iTunes Music Store. Apple also claims that the 30-second previews you can listen to before purchasing a song are of the same fidelity as the actual songs themselves. The previews sound like crap, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. The truth is, any kind of encoding can sound good, but if you don't know what you're doing, it doesn't matter if you import it as MP3 or WAV. It's going to suck. MP3 may be an inferior compressor, but if you have a knack for equalizer settings and digital audio editing and a little bit of patience and good ears, it can sound better than anything the iTunes Music Store has to offer. In fact, someone I met on another forum claims that he imported his CD's to his computer in MP3 format, remixed them, and burned them to a CD, and his new CD made from MP3 versions of lossless audio tracks actually sounded better than the original album.

3)All the songs are encrypted with DRM, which is an infringement of consumer freedoms and fair use. It's really nothing to worry about, because it can be removed using HYMN, just like how Copy Control on CD's can be cracked. So basically it doesn't work unless you're computer illiterate. The point is, unless you have the tools and the knowhow, you can't convert Apple's AAC files to MP3. So if you want to burn an MP3 disk, or if you have an MP3 player that can't play anything but MP3 files, you're completely screwed. If you buy a CD that doesn't have Copy Control (which is starting to die off because of complaints that protected CD's don't work in many CD players), it's no problem ripping it to your computer in any format you like, transferring it to your MP3 player, and even sharing it over a P2P program if you choose.

4)The selection is pathetic. As you may have noticed, there are no Metallica tracks available, apparently because Lar$ and the boys are completely paranoid of their music being available on the internet, even if they get paid for it (although I can't see what the big deal is, they only get about 10 cents a song anyway). This is just stupid. First of all, if people want to download their music, they will, and because of Alcohollica's arrogance, they'll just download it for free instead. And secondly, if people buy downloads instead of CD's, it will actually be harder for them to share it over Kazaa or something than if they bought the CD's, because when you import a CD track, there is no DRM to prevent it from being copied to another computer. But enough about them, I don't really like Metallica. The selection is bad enough in the US and other countries. The least they could do is give us the same catalogue. Instead, we are only given access to 700 thousand of the one million tracks offered on the US store. This doesn't make sense to me; do they have to use separate servers for each national store? Anyway, I can't even find any Iron Maiden tracks on the Canadian store, but the US store is full of them (except for some reason, they don't have the full Powerslave album). If they don't have the music I like, they've lost me as a customer. Whether you buy music from stores, online CD stores, or download it for free, it is very easy to find what you're looking for.

5)You're not guaranteed any kind of secure investment. At least when you buy an album, new or used, you have the disk or cassette in your hand. Everything you paid for is stored safely on a tangible medium, which you can easily back up to your computer, another disk or cassette, if you choose. The odds of ruining your cassettes or scratching your CD's are very slim, as long as you're careful with them, because CD's and cassettes are very versatile and durable. Mac OS X is also very durable, so we don't have to worry about crashes, viruses, etc. But since the iTunes Music Store is also available on Windows, it's easy for them to buy a bunch of songs, and then suddenly their CD burner stops working, or they get a virus and lose everything before they have a chance to make a backup. At least with free filesharing, if you lose all your music to a virus attack, it's no big deal since you never paid a cent for it, and you can easily start your collection over. But who cares about Windows users, right?

Anyway, these are all reasons why I continue to reject the iTunes Music Store and its competitors, and I encourage others to do the same. If you don't live in Canada, and you want good music legitimately without supporting the RIAA, buy used CD's. They're easier to find, they're cheaper, they come with illustrations, they will always sound better than a burned iTunes album, and you can always use iTunes to rip it to your computer in any encoding you like, make a backup copy, transfer it to your iPod, or edit it to achieve better sound quality. And you don't have to deal with any restrictions on how you use it.

wow ur hands must b tired. also about the windows coment i agree but i use mac for everything but hav a dell hooked into my stereo so if that crashes i hav everything on my mac. So to all windows users: The secret is to back everything up on a 200$ external harddrive [likely to b cheeper then rebuying everything]

The Trooper · Jan 10, 2005

benjamindaines said:
wow ur hands must b tired. also about the windows coment i agree but i use mac for everything but hav a dell hooked into my stereo so if that crashes i hav everything on my mac. So to all windows users: The secret is to back everything up on a 200$ external harddrive [likely to b cheeper then rebuying everything]

Or you could just buy albums, because you get better sound, illustrations, and a permanent home for your music. If you download a bunch of songs, your entire digital library is in jeopardy until you back it up to CD's or DVD's. But even when you do that, the backup disk still isn't a secure medium because people don't take care of them the way they take care of purchased disks, so they're likely to become damaged. And since you're constantly adding more music to your library, you need to keep backing it up. But if the music was free to begin with, it's no problem because you can just download it again for free. I love being Canadian.

trpnmonkey41 · Jan 10, 2005

The Trooper said:
3)All the songs are encrypted with DRM, which is an infringement of consumer freedoms and fair use. It's really nothing to worry about, because it can be removed using HYMN, just like how Copy Control on CD's can be cracked. So basically it doesn't work unless you're computer illiterate. The point is, unless you have the tools and the knowhow, you can't convert Apple's AAC files to MP3. So if you want to burn an MP3 disk, or if you have an MP3 player that can't play anything but MP3 files, you're completely screwed. If you buy a CD that doesn't have Copy Control (which is starting to die off because of complaints that protected CD's don't work in many CD players), it's no problem ripping it to your computer in any format you like, transferring it to your MP3 player, and even sharing it over a P2P program if you choose.

I don't want to get back into the argument over downloading music and copying DVD's with you but I do want to say something about the DRM on iTMS. It is by far the least infringing of the DRM's of music stores. You can take an album you buy from iTMS and burn it to an audio cd just like you would with any other audio files in iTunes and the CD you burnt does not have any files with DRM on it. You can take that CD and import it to any computer you want into any format and there will not be any issues. All that iTMS DRM does it block you from listening to the tracks on more than 5 computers that are authorized (Big deal you just burn it as an audio CD and listen to it anywhere you want) and it doesn't let you burn the same playlist more than 10 times (to stop people from mass producing but all you need to do is create a different playlist anyways).

By far the worst of all the DRM's is Sony's Connect Music store. I got 10 free songs from them and decided to just download them and put them on my iMac. The songs you download are ATRAC3 format which can only be put onto Sony Walkman mp3 and minidisc players and can only be put onto a audio cd 5 times before they are locked into your computer. There is no utilities to convert them to any other format and nobody has found any way to break the DRM on them

The Trooper · Jan 10, 2005

That's true. And Puretracks is pathetic, since you can only burn/transfer songs about 3 times. But it's the principle. I mean, sure, you can burn the files to an audio CD and then re-compress them in MP3 format, but you shouldn't have to. If you've paid for the music, you should be allowed to listen to it anyway you want. If you own an MP3 player or Sony Mindisc player, you should be able to convert the tracks to MP3. If you use Windows, you should be able to use Windows Media Player to convert them to WMA if you want to listen to the tracks on a WMA-compatible player. But because of the anti-copying technology, users are unable to do this. That means that if you want to listen to them on a portable device (and not just on CD's), you have to buy an iPod. I mean, come on. Why couldn't they (and all their competitors) just use something like MP3? It may be less efficient compression, but at least it will work with all MP3 players. And besides, everyone knows copy-protection doesn't work. I've downloaded songs from Contraband and Dance of Death, both of which contain Copy Control.

Benjamindaines · Jan 10, 2005

yes i agree. I think itunes is the best because as far as i know there is no limitation on how many cd burns you can make and if you have an ipod [like me] you just plug it in and everything you but gets transfered on auto. no converting or anything requiored and you can autherize 5 computers to play the music i am using 3 [my ibook (main computer {for me}), my dell hoked up to my stereo like a giant mp3 player, and my parents' G5 (just incase)] so its all good.

The Trooper · Jan 11, 2005

Yeah, you know what else lets you do that? FILESHARING!!!! Or, if you simply must pay for your music, buy CD's. They sound better, they come with a case, illustrations, and a permanent home so the music can't get lost. Why pay for something that doesn't sound as good, has no liner notes and can easily get lost, when you can get an even better version for free? And then, you can always use iTunes or something to rip it to your computer, burn mix CD's, transfer it to your MP3 player (even if it's not an iPod)---anything. And you don't have to deal with any restrictions on how you use it, even if it has Copy Control.

The Trooper · Jan 11, 2005

Greenredfield said:
^Preach it brother. There is a used place in town where you can get cd's 3 for $18, not too shabby. It is wat better to have the original work too, as stated above me. Yall can do whatever you want though...obviously.

NIIIIIICE!!!

robbym · Jan 19, 2005

DRM Sucks

shaun89 said:
Right on. I still wont pay for music online though

Agreed, very cool but DRM sucks and I won't buy music online either. Besides it's relatively cheap to buy CD's at a used music store and rip'em.... voila no DRM and encoding your way.

By the way I love your sig. Microsuck LOL

_____________________

Edit: For those you who haven't tried it, download one song that you have the CD for and then rip it at 320k MP3 and then again in lossless and listen to the differences between the three. You'll be amazed.

Steveman434 · Jan 19, 2005

...and here I thought Bush was the best reason to be a Canadian.

hahaha