If you pirate music, you're downloading communism!

[Steve Swann]

Re: lossy formats
I realize it's bordering on a religious issue, but I find that MP3s starting around 192 VBR or 256 CBR I can barely tell the difference (even on the "big stereo") except in extreme boundary cases...

Actually I guess the real acid test would be my old Sony MDR V5 headphones - now *those* things are revealing of sonic inadequacies, (Sennheiser fanboys notwithstanding).  :)  I've been tempted to go in on a set of MDR 7506 which are purportedly the next step up...

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Edlund Anderson <cea at CARLAZ.COM>
Date: Thursday, Mar 26, 2009 8:23 am
Subject: Re: If you pirate music, you're downloading communism!
To: Reply-    BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET

On 25 Mar 2009, at 09:32, Jonathan Smith wrote:
 Worst of all is iTunes, where you don't even get anything physical   
 for your
 money, but Apple have made billions from marketing this con.


I don't feel like I need anything physical -- the files will do me.  
However, I _don't_ like iTunes because you pay about as much as a CD  
for a lossy format.  This is uncool.  I should pay _less_ than a CD  
for a lossless file, and unless I can, why the heck am I gonna buy a  
download.

However, I would dearly love to see the opportunity to buy lossless  
downloads legally as a regular thing.  I live in a place without a  
terribly developed infrastructure, and ordering CDs through the post  
is not a terribly viable option; if they ever arrived, it would take  
a very long time and there would be all kinds of extra tariffs and  
charges tacked on to make the experience irritating and tedious.  I'd  
probably have to go off to some office and sign forms and pay extras  
-- just to get a remaindered CD that cost less than 10 bucks!

My house doesn't even have an official postal address anyway.  But it  
does have perfectly serviceable broadband internet :) and I could  
download that same CD within a few hours, with any luck .... If only  
someone would let me!

Yes, there will remain issues with pricing and digital copies -- it's  
no surprise that where I live and throughout the developing world  
there is such widespread piracy, as the average person here can't  
possibly afford UK prices -- but for heaven's sake, there is lots of  
music that I effectively can't buy because physical CDs simply are  
locally available, but that I _could_ pirate with speed and ease  
because fast internet access _is_ available.

For anyone in the music business -- at least anyone who wants to sell  
me anything -- there should be something wrong with this picture.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/