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iPod Users Buy CDs, Shun iTunes
twitter writes, "The BBC's summarizes a Jupiter Research study, 'iPod fans shunning iTunes store.' From the article: '83% of iPod owners do not buy digital music regularly... only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores. The rest will be from CDs the owner of an MP3 player already has or tracks they have downloaded from file-sharing sites... [T]he only salient characteristic shared by all owners of portable music players was that they were more likely to buy more music — especially CDs.' This is despite years of iTunes promotion and apparent success. Given the outright failure of other music services, it is clear that users prefer DRM-free music, and are willing to pay for it and take the trouble to rip it."
lol. If you had ears worth a damn you would know that encryption of any kind irreversibly changes the data being streamed through it, and thus causes a definite change in the sound. I don't know the exact reasons for it, but you cannot deny that the data is being changed. According to Quantum theory anyway, you cannot help but change something like the resulting wave form simply by observing it, and you NEED to observe it in order to change it into an encrypted form, and then again in order to apply the unencryption key.
In my experience it changes the music in odd ways different to the changes that compression cause. It gives a bass that's more harsh, and increases the midrange while levelling out in the high end. That's an issue totally separate to what happens when you compress with AAC or MP3 or whatever. If you want to test, make an mp3 and then make two identical copies of the file. Run one of the resulting compressed files through an encryption utility (it doesn't have to be Apple's fairplay, even sending it via PGP email will do) and then decrypt it. Play the never-encrypted file and play the encrypted then decrypted file one after another, you'll easily tell the difference.
I just love when laymen kind of figure out EXACTLY what's going on... (dude, you know not of what you speak)
Ssh.
It may not be rational, but if it gets the plebes to opose DRM, it's good for everyone in the long run.
Your own test bears this out -- just do a comparison of the resulting files. The computer has no way of knowing that the "encrypted" file was ever even encrypted (as you aren't replacing the bits -- you're duplicating them)
Of course the computer will identify them as being the same, its job is to work with discrete components in the form of bits, where the human ear can hear on a lower level than that. I'm no digital maven, so I can't say the EXACT reason why, but I've been selling, repairing and setting up high end audio systems for 17 years. It's my job to know what sounds the same and what sounds different. Perhaps the bits themselves are longer or shorter than before encryption, or perhaps they're a bit (pun intended) higher voltage where a computer will still read it as a "1" when it's in a bass waveform, therefore things like md5sum will claim it's the same file, but if you knew anything about signals over a wire you'd know things like a waveform that can be represented digitally can look (and sound) very different depending on the size of the peaks and troughs. That's why a modem connection can sometimes get 33kbps on one connection, then connect at 44kbps on another attempt, where they're both transmitting the exact same data.
As I said, my 17 years experience tells me there's an audio difference, and my business depends on being able to tell. I'm still in business.
It's homeopathy! The bits remember being encrypted!
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
Why would anyone want the cold, lifeless sound of digital music when they can have the warm, refreshing sound of a compact disc?
Actually, it's worse than that. Encryption and decryption tends to stress the bits, so that rather than representing 0's and 1's, the bits can be off by up to 0.01, leading to degradation of the sound quality of the resulting audio data.
Sony has patented a superior bit, which should be hitting the market in late 2007, but in typical Sony style, these new bits, which represent 2 or 3, instead of 0 or 1, will not be compatible with existing bits. So while audio files that utilize the new Sony bits will lose far less fidelity per bit from being encrypted and unencrypted (less than 0.001% according to laboratory testing), they will not be compatible with the iPod without an expensive bit adapter.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I expect that the reality is that people prefer buying physical things to buying something as ethereal as a downloaded file.
Blizzard makes over $100 million a month selling a chance to get a purple sword.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
You could have gone to an out-of-town record store, wore some dark glasses and a stocking cap and bought that album. But no, you had to download it from ITMS, and now you're in a database of Madonna lovers. This fact is already being circulated to investigators, government agents, and companies who might have been future employers but for the fact that your love of Madonna had been lain bare. Nice going :).
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
Brilliant.
Apple rakes in billions of dollars in music sales through the iTunes store and the authors make an observation that a lot of iPod owners are buying music from iTunes store.
Maybe the tooth fairy is slipping the money under Steve Job's pillow at night?
Everyone has a mouth but you do not see a Big Mac in every one of them.
Still, no one concludes that "McDonalds franchises are ignored by most people." If the bottom line matters, someone looks at the bottom line. Looking at how many people do not buy something only computes how much the potential customer base can grow if suitable changes are made.
Let the PC get its zen on, for chrissake!
Apparently you know absolutely nothing about humour.
Fortunately the people who have created real-world humour schemes are far far smarter than you and have worked out the 'miracle' of lossless humour.
Or, to make it short: Woooosh!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.