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Thread ID: 142368	2016-06-21 02:38:00	Do you buy digital music to download and where from	dugimodo (138)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1422160	2016-06-21 02:38:00	Ok so I'm a bit Curious if people do this and how they go about it in NZ. What services do you use and what are their prices like compared to buying a CD locally. I recently discovered I like Janet Devlin and wanted to buy her Album and a couple of EP's. Judge me for my taste if you like, I don't care. After a bit of searching I discovered them on Amazon quite cheap but couldn't buy them because I'm in NZ. I tried Fishpond & Mighty ape - didn't have what I wanted and what they did have was significantly more expensive, tried JB-Hi-Fi and they had one of them on CD for more than the price of all 3 on Amazon, ended up buying them for a bit more from the google play store but I'm not really a fan because google are a bit restrictive in how they let you download or play them (but it works and was only a few dollars more than Amazon). I know iTunes is an option but I don't have an account and didn't really want to make one just for that one purchase. Generally most of my Music I have bought on CD and ripped myself and I don't mind for my favourite bands but we do get charged something of a premium compared to prices available overseas and especially compared to digital downloads.	dugimodo (138)
1422161	2016-06-21 03:10:00	Ok so I'm a bit Curious if people do this and how they go about it in NZ. What services do you use and what are their prices like compared to buying a CD locally. I recently discovered I like Janet Devlin and wanted to buy her Album and a couple of EP's. Judge me for my taste if you like, I don't care. After a bit of searching I discovered them on Amazon quite cheap but couldn't buy them because I'm in NZ. I tried Fishpond & Mighty ape - didn't have what I wanted and what they did have was significantly more expensive, tried JB-Hi-Fi and they had one of them on CD for more than the price of all 3 on Amazon, ended up buying them for a bit more from the google play store but I'm not really a fan because google are a bit restrictive in how they let you download or play them (but it works and was only a few dollars more than Amazon). I know iTunes is an option but I don't have an account and didn't really want to make one just for that one purchase. Generally most of my Music I have bought on CD and ripped myself and I don't mind for my favourite bands but we do get charged something of a premium compared to prices available overseas and especially compared to digital downloads. I used to use iTunes, and in the past have used beatport. Both are MP3 format files with no drm (now). But since getting spotify premium I haven't bought any music since.	psycik (12851)
1422162	2016-06-21 03:11:00	Never can't find what I like in flac format	gary67 (56)
1422163	2016-06-21 03:55:00	I wish lossless downloads were available commonly to buy too Gary, that's part of why I usually buy CDs. A few hundred MB for a lossless Album Is nothing in the days of unlimited 100 Mb fibre connections. I think even now the music industry is scared to release too much in lossless format for fear of piracy even though anyone can do it from a CD. Some music I'll happily buy in a high bitrate lossy format though, like 320kbps MP3 in this case. Format is not important with lossless, as long as there's no DRM it's easy enough to convert. I have my CD collection stored as lossless WMA files because I was using windows Media centre and it works better with WMAs. I have converted back and forth to FLAC with dB poweramp a few times and it only takes a few seconds per song. Actually I like watching dBpoweramp convert 8 files at a time, one of the few programs I use that can actually use 8 threads on an i7.	dugimodo (138)
1422164	2016-06-21 03:55:00	Only a couple of EPs and iTunes Sessions, and one CD that was ridiculously expensive, that one was about $20 on iTunes....and I had to convert those from Apple format to mp3 for my car stereo. Definitely a physical media guy (Amazon UK, CDConnection, importCDs, etc).	Renegade (16270)
1422165	2016-06-21 04:47:00	I ripped to flac both my phone and car stereo can play them	gary67 (56)
1422166	2016-06-21 22:38:00	I usually buy CDs, often 2nd hand and then rip with EAC or morituri (thomas.apestaart.org) For online purchases I have used the following - all DRM free: junodownload.com (MP3 and WAVE) but the prices are stupid, and you have to buy formats separately. bandcamp.com (MP3, FLAC, and many other formats which you can re-download for free - AND they do streaming as well, not to mention you get full previews of all tracks before you buy.) cdbaby.com (MP3 and FLAC and have free re-downloads like bandcamp) I wouldn't bother with anything that has DRM, anything that doesn't provide CD-quality or higher files, at that point I'd rather just buy a CD. But I definitely recommend Bandcamp! It's the best I've ever used.	Agent_24 (57)
1422167	2016-06-21 23:57:00	I wouldn't bother with anything that has DRM, anything that doesn't provide CD-quality or higher files, at that point I'd rather just buy a CD. . Even some CD's used to have a sort of DRM : so they wouldn't play on Euro designed CD players : I couldnt play them in my car or home stereo (as they didnt comply to the Philips standard) I had to rip them on the PC, then burn a copy , making that DRM a joke :banana Not to mention that malware rootkit that Sony put on some of their CD's Some would also argue that CD's werent lossless anyway , and theres losses all along the recording chain. :) Some music can be bought direct from the Bands Website , Ive done that a few times . Its allways been DRM free and often has a choice of format to download. At least that way the band gets all the money, not some tiny %	1101 (13337)
1422168	2016-06-22 01:08:00	Of course you can get better than CD-quality, but compared to MP3, CD is much better. One of the reasons Bandcamp is great is that 85-90% of the sale price goes to the artist directly.	Agent_24 (57)
1422169	2016-06-22 02:12:00	Thanks, I'll Check bandcamp out. As for the whole lossless thing, it refers to the compression method not introducing any extra loss when compared to the original recording and not any losses in the original recording process itself. That's a whole different discussion. A lot of it is personal preference too, and I think quite a few people convince themselves they can hear things that they really can't. Me personally with my ears and my equipment I can not normally tell the difference between a CD and a 192kbps or higher MP3 but I still rip my CD's to lossless format for Archival reasons. I know some people can tell the difference but I'm of the opinion that a lot more can't and claim they can. When MP3s fist became common I played with many codecs and quality settings and because I was younger and had better hearing could easily hear the difference at 128kbps but only occasionally noticed anything at higher settings. Now with my hearing topping out around 15khz 192kbps sounds great to me. Here's a challenge for anyone who thinks they can tell an MP3 from a CD if you're willing to give it a go and be honest. Get a collection of songs in both formats, listen to them through a quality pair of headphones, and get someone else to randomly play them so that you can't tell what you are listening to. You have a 50/50 chance of guessing so if you do significantly better than that congrats, your hearing and/or headphones are better than most peoples.	dugimodo (138)
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