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My opinion: MSN digital music, hmmmmm | |
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| Time: 10:54 EST/15:54 GMT | News Source: Bink Windows XP | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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Well I signed up for the "European" MSN digital music portal which was launched today, MSN in my country doesn't have it yet, as always Dutch Microsoft sites are way behind, they are still promoting "Messenger 6 Preview" and were promoting win2k sp3 while sp4 was out for weeks. Anyway I signed up bought some credits and downloaded 2 songs from Beyonce (just for testing) 1 permanent which I can copy to CD and 1 temporary (just play and no copy, playback is allowed for 1 month. | ||
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| #1 By 6859 (206.156.242.36) at 8/14/2003 12:14:09 PM |
| If he wants quality of sound then he needs to stay away from Apple's iTunes as well. There are some odd things about it that have some people complaining. Best quality: buy the CD. I know that sucks, but at least then you can rip it yourself and make it any bitdepth you want. |
| #2 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 8/14/2003 12:17:00 PM |
| Well, I think the more significant element of his point is that it's using the older WMA 8. Why? |
| #3 By 3 (81.96.64.237) at 8/14/2003 12:23:46 PM |
| #1 - Well I've compared both services and in sound quality iTunes certainly has the upper hand, it is very strange that they have gone with WMA 8. |
| #4 By 2960 (156.80.64.105) at 8/14/2003 12:58:05 PM |
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#1,
I have downloaded over 200 tracks from iTunes, and have had ZERO problems with any of them. Every one has burned to CD fine and sounds perfect. TL |
| #5 By 2960 (156.80.64.105) at 8/14/2003 1:00:41 PM |
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BTW... I do not necessarily disagree with your second statement concerning buying the CD.
However, the 200+ tracks I have purchased from the IMS are _exactly_, and _only_, the tracks I want. Every one of them I like. You can't say the same about CD's, not by a long shot. For me to collect the same 200+ tracks on CD I would probably have to buy 100 or more CD's just to get what I want. TL |
| #6 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 8/14/2003 1:01:02 PM |
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"it is very strange that they have gone with WMA 8. "
... and require WMP9 especially. My theory (and it's just a theory) is that this is an existing library of music that OD2 has been accumulating over the last couple of years and hardly presents anything new except it's pricing and the hooks into WMP9. It wasn't a "decision" to "go with" the older format. Byron, is it true that you pay for "credits" first? Not exactly a subscription, but not exactly pay as you go either... more like a pre-payed phone card. This post was edited by sodajerk on Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 13:02. |
| #7 By 116 (66.69.248.206) at 8/14/2003 1:03:56 PM |
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TL some people can't tell the difference between MP3's, WMA's etc... at low bitrates. Those lucky few can just buy the cheapest available (they wont discern any difference). Personally I can tell a difference and its to the point where it annoys me to listen to music with artifacts. I used to just rip cds straight to wave files, but since wm9 came out I use the WM Professional Lossless codec which saves a lot of space and is pretty much indistinguishable from the source CD.
If a music service offered Lossless downloads then we are talking. I subscribe to pressplay (soon to be napster 2.0) not because of the quality of music. More because its like a radio, and I can hear before I buy. |
| #8 By 2459 (69.22.78.116) at 8/14/2003 5:01:24 PM |
| They changed the compression efficiency of the codecs. WMA9 sounds better than 8 at same (and lower) bitrates. Thus 128kbps WMA9 sounds better than 128kbps WMA8. |
| #9 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 8/14/2003 5:11:43 PM |
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"frankly CDs don't even have that level of sound quality."
Huh? What are you saying? Of course a CD can have a much higher sound quality level than a 256vbr whatever... Any lossy format is going to be lower quality than a lossless format mastered from the originary source. |
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