If you subscribe to EMusic, perhaps you can answer a couple of questions I'd like to have answers to before throwing down $45 for a 3 month subscription.
What bitrate do they encode at? What kinds of download speeds do you get?
I'm up to artist #4670, and I have to say, I'm reasonably impressed. Not overwhelmed, but the good thing is that it's mostly independent artists on there, so there have been a good 30 or 40 albums I'd download right off the bat. I'm happy to pay what they're asking for that, provided the service is good..
I can't see how this works as a viable longterm business model. Serious music fans like myself are more likely to drop cash for the short term subscription, leech everything they want, and maybe check back in a year. Fact is, I still buy a lot of CDs, even though my mp3 collection is up around 800 albums. If services like this exist and get better, why would I ever spend more than 0.30 cents an album? By that logic, unregulated P2P probably leads me to spend more money on music....
Then again, what do I know? My music consumption habits are certainly not the mainstream; the "average" consumer is probably looking for something different. Not to mention with a lot more major label BULLSHIT on it.
I've looked at Rhapsody before and it's trash. I'm not paying for streaming -- If I pay for music, I damn well plan on owning it.
Now, scanning the E-Music listings, there's quite a few things on there I'd like to grab. Forget for a moment that I have means to sample all the music I want (pretty much) via some tasty DirectConnet hubs. I am still happy and willing to pay the piper if they give me a service worth a damn.
So, I might sign up for E-Music. Why not, I can drop $10, leech for a weekend, cancel the service.
Two things though:
What bitrate do they encode at? Can I sign up for just a month?
They do that really annoying thing where they don't want to give nearly enough information on their front page, and try to sucker you into a "FREE" trial before you do anything else. Just give me the info and let me sign up, fer chrissakes.
I think I'd be a bigger fool to attempt to convert all 40 gigs of my mp3s into ogg vorbis, which I would then subsequently NOT be able to load onto my Nomad Jukebox and take with me, everywhere I go.
Thanks anyway, I'll stick with what works.
On the other hand, as a game developer, I'm also happy to have the option to use ogg instead of mp3 for compressed audio, and not having to pay the licensing fees.
But professional applications are clearly a whole different ballgame from personal ones. A format would have to come out with a _significantly_ improved compression to quality ratio, not to mention hardware support, for me to even blink on this one.
That would be because the "news source" as listed is hardly legitimate.
Go to "newsmax.com" and tell me that isn't just a right-winger opinion page in disguise. It'd be like quoting from The Nation, and passing it off as "news."
Has anyone considered that for some users, 5 gigs is too restrictive for a lot of the folks who like these kinds of devices?
I've currently got a 6 gig Nomad Jukebox - why would I downgrade my size when I'm constantly struggling to juggle which 110-odd albums to keep on my drive??
With my Jukebox, I switch maybe twenty albums a month. When it comes time to do a big switch, I have to sit down for a few hours, make sure my ID3 tags are in order, and then I send everything in a batch and go do something else for 10 minutes. Not exactly a huge deal.
I'd love FireWire type speed too, but the storage space and durability are far more important purchasing factors. Not to mention organizational capacity, something the reviewers always seem to gloss over. I'm really tired of using Dr. Tag at this point.
I find it very interesting how the readers here seem to be divided:
1) The rare right-wing fanatics who have bought into the ridiculous idea that Gore and Lieberman are going say, BAN firearms. Which would be a wonderful thing, but our country isn't ready for it. Lots of evolution still to be done before we get to that stage.
It's called character assassination, folks. Same thing that has been going on thanks to our wonderful Republican party for years now (most recently: whitewater, lewinsky, etc.)
2) Then we have those who are scared by a right-wing administration appointing more supreme court justices than any one administration should, thereby doing something drastic like overturning Roe v Wade. Which will never happen, btw. No, really. Right-to-lifers are a minority, and if it did happen, we'd have 20 million people marching on Washington the next day.
Anyway, what strikes me is that NO ONE actually _likes_ Al Gore. People vote for him out of fear, which to me, is the wrong reason.
3) Folks like myself - interested in politics, yet sick of the two party "system" and the way it leverages corporate wealth to perpetuate its own existence. I'm sick of candidates unwilling to lead with their hearts. Bush v Gore is the worst choice Americans have been presented with in my (short) lifetime. Watching the debates makes me want to move to Canada (oh wait, I already did that:)).
IMO, we are idealists struggling against old culture and old philosophy. We vote for Nader because we know someday, our 'radical' idealism won't seem so radical, so long as we make it known that we exist. It makes me happy to know that there are lots of Nader fans up in here who are willing to speak their mind.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for the info.
128k/sec is not sufficient. It's significantly lossier than higher bitrates, and while I'm not the penultimate audiophile, I expect at least 192k.
Oh well, guess the industry heads can keep on trying.
If you subscribe to EMusic, perhaps you can answer a couple of questions I'd like to have answers to before throwing down $45 for a 3 month subscription.
..
What bitrate do they encode at?
What kinds of download speeds do you get?
I'm up to artist #4670, and I have to say, I'm reasonably impressed. Not overwhelmed, but the good thing is that it's mostly independent artists on there, so there have been a good 30 or 40 albums I'd download right off the bat. I'm happy to pay what they're asking for that, provided the service is good
I can't see how this works as a viable longterm business model. Serious music fans like myself are more likely to drop cash for the short term subscription, leech everything they want, and maybe check back in a year. Fact is, I still buy a lot of CDs, even though my mp3 collection is up around 800 albums. If services like this exist and get better, why would I ever spend more than 0.30 cents an album? By that logic, unregulated P2P probably leads me to spend more money on music....
Then again, what do I know? My music consumption habits are certainly not the mainstream; the "average" consumer is probably looking for something different. Not to mention with a lot more major label BULLSHIT on it.
Interesting,
I've looked at Rhapsody before and it's trash. I'm not paying for streaming -- If I pay for music, I damn well plan on owning it.
Now, scanning the E-Music listings, there's quite a few things on there I'd like to grab. Forget for a moment that I have means to sample all the music I want (pretty much) via some tasty DirectConnet hubs. I am still happy and willing to pay the piper if they give me a service worth a damn.
So, I might sign up for E-Music. Why not, I can drop $10, leech for a weekend, cancel the service.
Two things though:
What bitrate do they encode at?
Can I sign up for just a month?
They do that really annoying thing where they don't want to give nearly enough information on their front page, and try to sucker you into a "FREE" trial before you do anything else. Just give me the info and let me sign up, fer chrissakes.
I think I'd be a bigger fool to attempt to convert all 40 gigs of my mp3s into ogg vorbis, which I would then subsequently NOT be able to load onto my Nomad Jukebox and take with me, everywhere I go.
Thanks anyway, I'll stick with what works.
On the other hand, as a game developer, I'm also happy to have the option to use ogg instead of mp3 for compressed audio, and not having to pay the licensing fees.
But professional applications are clearly a whole different ballgame from personal ones. A format would have to come out with a _significantly_ improved compression to quality ratio, not to mention hardware support, for me to even blink on this one.
That would be because the "news source" as listed is hardly legitimate.
Go to "newsmax.com" and tell me that isn't just a right-winger opinion page in disguise. It'd be like quoting from The Nation, and passing it off as "news."
Has anyone considered that for some users, 5 gigs is too restrictive for a lot of the folks who like these kinds of devices?
I've currently got a 6 gig Nomad Jukebox - why would I downgrade my size when I'm constantly struggling to juggle which 110-odd albums to keep on my drive??
With my Jukebox, I switch maybe twenty albums a month. When it comes time to do a big switch, I have to sit down for a few hours, make sure my ID3 tags are in order, and then I send everything in a batch and go do something else for 10 minutes. Not exactly a huge deal.
I'd love FireWire type speed too, but the storage space and durability are far more important purchasing factors. Not to mention organizational capacity, something the reviewers always seem to gloss over. I'm really tired of using Dr. Tag at this point.
I find it very interesting how the readers here seem to be divided:
e w.Science.of.C.html
:)).
1) The rare right-wing fanatics who have bought into the ridiculous idea that Gore and Lieberman are going say, BAN firearms. Which would be a wonderful thing, but our country isn't ready for it. Lots of evolution still to be done before we get to that stage.
It's called character assassination, folks. Same thing that has been going on thanks to our wonderful Republican party for years now (most recently: whitewater, lewinsky, etc.)
http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.The.N
2) Then we have those who are scared by a right-wing administration appointing more supreme court justices than any one administration should, thereby doing something drastic like overturning Roe v Wade. Which will never happen, btw. No, really. Right-to-lifers are a minority, and if it did happen, we'd have 20 million people marching on Washington the next day.
Anyway, what strikes me is that NO ONE actually _likes_ Al Gore. People vote for him out of fear, which to me, is the wrong reason.
3) Folks like myself - interested in politics, yet sick of the two party "system" and the way it leverages corporate wealth to perpetuate its own existence. I'm sick of candidates unwilling to lead with their hearts. Bush v Gore is the worst choice Americans have been presented with in my (short) lifetime. Watching the debates makes me want to move to Canada (oh wait, I already did that
IMO, we are idealists struggling against old culture and old philosophy. We vote for Nader because we know someday, our 'radical' idealism won't seem so radical, so long as we make it known that we exist. It makes me happy to know that there are lots of Nader fans up in here who are willing to speak their mind.
Where's my absentee ballot, anyway?
tasty