Apple iTunes Store

[tongodeon]

I have never purchased any music from Apple iTunes, nor do I plan to. That's not a declaration of moral standards, that's just a simple and (to me) obvious economic decision. If I buy a CD in a store I've got the music in lossless non-DRM format *and* it's already stored on durable industry-standard backup media with legitimate, legal resale

Comments

[yetra]

The only reasons I ever buy anything from itunes is if it is something that is only available in that method (not for sale via cd order). So, that makes about 10 songs so far? I could see also doing it if I wanted just a single song, and not an entire cd worth of music. But yeah, I'm a hard copy lover. Except for that damn Sony cd I bought.

[tongodeon]

Which 10 songs can't you find on CD? Between Ebay and Amazon it's pretty damn difficult to find something that someone isn't willing to sell you on flat plastic.

[yetra]

Arcade Fire and David Bowie doing songs together at some fashion show, which were available on itunes, (although I am sure someone is selling them on cd now, but it is probably burned from itunes). Some Seu Jorge covers of David Bowie songs that hadn't yet been released, were announced only avail. on itunes. Again, these are probably on cd now, but I was all, NEED PORTUGESE BOWIE NOW. Those are the only things I've bought on itunes.

[tongodeon]

"I just want one song" is a not-unreasonable reason, but I figure an album so atrocious that only one song is worthwhile will show up in the $1.99 used bins pretty soon anyway.

[rwx]

someone get dorsey here to tell tongodeon that CDs are a lossy format.

[mskala]

They really aren't... it's the ADC that's lossy, and there's no further loss when you put it on the CD. But, yeah, I know, tell that to Dorsey.

[palecur]

CDs take too much room to store. I've never been a big losslesness wonk, personally, because I seem to have the opposite of whatever aural dysfunction makes audiophiles get insanely anal about which way the pile on their carpet is pointing and such -- $10 gimcrack speakers sound, effectively, about as good to me as whatever $n000 dollar stereo system someone has set up in an idyllic 'listening room.' I can't tell the difference between a 192 bitrate mp3 and a 128 -- it has to get down under 90 for me to start hearing a difference. So, for me, anything that avoids bringing one more damn box into the house is good.

Of course, these days a lot of what I buy just isn't available on iTunes, so that part of the decision is moot. But for me CDs just take up too much mass/volume to be worth their bit density.

[tongodeon]

$10 gimcrack speakers sound, effectively, about as good to me as whatever $n000 dollar stereo system someone has set up in an idyllic 'listening room.' I can't tell the difference between a 192 bitrate mp3 and a 128

Cripes.

Almost all the crap sold at Circuit City is pretty identical. But the only person I've met who hasn't been able to tell the difference between a decent audiophile setup and random crap is matrushkaka, for obvious reasons

[giantlaser]

You are totally wrong, Soren. I'm sure matrushkaka can feel the effects of a decent subwoofer. Think "Howard Stern subwoofer masturbation". Gimcrack speakers can't do that.

[giantlaser]

I will steal media via Bittorrent tracker sites long before I'll buy anything with DRM. Which is exactly where I get my Lost Season 2 videos.

[tongodeon]

Ayup. I've got HD versions (better than DVD!) of all episodes up to 12... WITH subtitle tracks so that matrushkaka can watch them. I also wrote a nifty Python program to shift the subtitle time codes so that I can correct when they fall out of sync.

[giantlaser]

Ah, right. Subtitle tracks. DivX rips rarely have them.

[tongodeon]

That was the original reason for not getting iTunes Lost in the first place. No subtitles for the midget.