iTunes music store

[riceaterslc]

has anyone purchased music from them? i got a gift card for christmas but am not familiar with the store. what file types are available? is it just mp3 (or apples equivalent) or are there lossless formats also? thanks,

[Vinny]

As far as I know they don't have lossless available yet. They plan on doing it in this year but we never know whether Apple's pressing it or not

[pereze]

I could not find an exact answer because it just says " high-quality AAC music files".

I do know, that I can import my music from a CD as lossless.

Eric

[Nick M]

The files on iTunes are called AAC's. I believe it is native to iTunes and iPods.
They allow you to burn the songs five times and thats it.

I use iTunes to browse music, and once in a while I will purchase a single (usually when the rest of the disc sucks and I just want a one-hit wonder). Otherwise I still buy CD's.

[PewterTA]

AAC from iTunes is a 128Kbs MP3 file (basically). Quality wise, I would say it's more like a 224Kbs mp3. They do a lot to make it "sound" good. One thing I have noticed with iTunes (my mother is an itunes fanatic) is that it's a VERY compressed sound. The dynamics aren't really good and the imaging is not really there.

I've taken a track off of itunes and mp3ed one myself from the actual CD and even with me compressing at 128Kbs, with a slight lack of a clearer upper end to the track, my mp3 had much better insturment placement and sound stage representation. The itunes was a lot tougher to figure out where sounds were coming from as it all sounded 'flat' would be the best word.

Now don't get me wrong, if you are listening to stuff like rap/pop/etc where except for the really wide stereo effect you get when they do chorus work (you know to make it sound really good) itunes still gives a good seperation...but you get really nothing in between.

The best way to explain it is it sounds really compressed...a lot more so than ANY of my mp3s made with LAME.

iTunes is built for an iPod and to be listened to with cheap headphones.

I (truthfully) think it's a shame that we are willing to pay $1 for a 128Kbs file, when if you take the average price of CDs, you're paying ~1$ per track. Like it's that hard for itunes and the rest of them to bump the tracks up to 320Kbs and have a GOOD sounding digital music file (that's not lossless).

I did hear, whether true or not, the lossless files were going to be more expensive than the current $1 per song...so in essenance, to get the SAME quality you would on a CD, you're ending up paying MORE per song. Anything to make a buck.

...and they wonder why so many people switch to copying CDs and pirating music... maybe try not ripping off your support base just so you can live your extravagent life style. Greed...

[Brandon B]

AAC is not MP3. It is a newer, more advanced codec which is a bit more efficient on average. Although as Pewter notes, if you really tweak your MP3 encoding to your liking you may prefer that.

I don't think you can buy lossless anywhere as a legal download yet (debatable status of allofmp3.com notwithstanding).

BB

[dknightd]

apple itunes music store sells 128 kbps AAC files. They claim that is equivalant to 196 kbps mp3. So marginally listenable to on any decent stereo imo (meaning with some songs you'll hear a difference, and on some you might not).
I bought one song from the itunes store. Really the only use I see for this is a place to get one hit wonders cheaper than buying a whole CD and still legal. I'd never buy a full album worth of music from there, much better to buy the real thing (and cheaper if yourmusic.com happens to have that cd).

If somebody gave me a gift certificate to the itunes music store I'd either give it to somebody else (who took music more casually, and/or listened mostly on a portable) or try to resell it. You could hold onto it and hope that the lossless rumour turns out to be true.

[Vinny]

I (truthfully) think it's a shame that we are willing to pay $1 for a 128Kbs file, when if you take the average price of CDs, you're paying ~1$ per track. Like it's that hard for itunes and the rest of them to bump the tracks up to 320Kbs and have a GOOD sounding digital music file (that's not lossless).

I did hear, whether true or not, the lossless files were going to be more expensive than the current $1 per song...so in essenance, to get the SAME quality you would on a CD, you're ending up paying MORE per song. Anything to make a buck.

Absolutely! CDs are selling for around $12 nowadays(or even less if you get online and get a couple for free shipping). You get the disk for ripping infinite number of times(Yea your iPod your 360 your PC your car you call it).
I've never tried but I remember they charge around 85 cents for each song.

All they are selling is accessibility and easiness to reach something. But it lost something in between for doing this.

[riceaterslc]

thanks for all the replies, definitely cleared up the questions i had about the music store...i'll probably just end up getting some random tracks with the gift card.

[NMG]

I've used iTunes quite a bit. I look at it as a means to purchase songs instead of albums. Why? Because there may be certain songs I want, and for a buck I'll pay for them, but I don't want to spend 15 or 16 bucks for the whole CD. I can also get it right now instead of shopping around, ordering it in, etc.

It is a service of convenience and for listening to music on my iPod, it works very well. I wouldn't use it to replace my CD collection or to download stuff for critical listening or even extended casual listening on my main system because like others have said, I don't think the sound quality is there. Then again, I work with people who say they can't tell the difference between songs burned off of iTunes and the CD.

It's a service that suits a particular niche and it's quite successful at doing just that.

[JonMarsh]

Well, I'm probably the odd man out- I rip Apple Lossless for my music servers and iPods, but don't buy music from the iTunes Store. TV shows, that's another thing- it's supplanted most of my DVD purchases of TV shows, as you can get them sooner, and it takes less storage on my laptop HD and has good enough picture and sound quality, sometimes fairly good, depending on the source show (Stargate Atlantis, Bones, for example).

Many folks don't realize they switched to 480P video encoding with the new batch of Video iPods in mid 2006. It's not quite DVD quality (well, actually sometime it's BETTER than available DVDs), but it fares just fine played back on a laptop screen. It's rumored that the change in resolution foretells an upgraded player, probably sometime in the first half of 2007.

[Brandon B]

Your not the odd man. I would wager most of us here will not buy lossy songs from iTunes. I only let my wife do so when she gets freebies or there is literally only one song she wants from an artist. Otherwise, I tell her just buy the CD.

In fact, even when they start offering lossless, I would likely still insist on buying the disc for the back up/tangible possession factor.

BB

[PewterTA]

Once it goes lossless, I have no problems with purchasing music then that way...

This is why I like Dave Matthews Band, they do a 128kb, 256kb, and lossless (FLAC) for all their music downloads at 14.99, 15.99, and 18.99 for a disc. So you pay $4 more for the lossless, but it's lossless and equal to the price of the retail disc (you just get the convenience of having it right then and there). To me, THAT is the way iTunes and all these others should work. Give you the option to get it how you want it.

I will admit there's some songs where I don't care for the quality of them, 128kb is fine for it, then MOST I want it lossless.

Though I still like having the packaging and I always seem to find another song or two on the disc I like.

Eh, some day a perfect solution will come along! :T

[Nick M]

Yup. Even if they do offer lossless versions for everything I would still buy the actual CD's.

I use iTunes for browsing and the occasional one hit wonder.