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They're going in the right direction, but they're not there yet. I'll start buying music online when I'll be able to download music files that are not already encoded and if I'm free to encode them anyway I want. For example, I should be free to encode the same song in AAC @ 224Kbps for my iPod and in Lossless for my High Fidelity system. I'm not even sure if its possible.
While the iTMS dominates the (legal) music downloading business, it does so at a price, and it's not US$0.99, but rather 128kbps. Enter MusicGiants.
"If you're listening to compressed music using your iPod earbuds, you won't notice much difference [from a CD]," says Scott Bahneman, founder and chief executive of tiny startup MusicGiants. "But once you play it on a good home stereo, the difference is huge."
MusicGiants provides "high definition" music downloads ranging from 470-1100kbps using Microsoft's WMA codec, DRM included, of course. Each song will cost US$1.29, while albums will go for a dying chain record store equivalent US$15.29. In addition, a $50 per year (waived with $250 in yearly purchases) annual fee will be charged. Hardware requirements include Windows XP, WMA 10, a honkin' big hard drive (40GB is the laughable minimum), and a high-speed Internet connection. MusicGiants will have have the catalogs of the five major labels available for download by the end of June, making it the only high bit rate legal download service, unless you count allofmp3.com, whose legal status remains indeterminate outside of Russia.
The service itself is run through client software (30MB download). The primary selling point of MusicGiants is visualized by a "fidelity meter" that displays the rate at which the music was encoded. The service allows you to integrate you current music library with their catalog in an interesting twist. As an example, looking at an artist would display what music you have in "low fidelity" and what MusicGiants has to sell you at a "high definition" bit rate, as well as exactly how much that would cost you. MusicGiants will also sell you hardware, though it won't be tiny white plastic and shiny metal players. The SoundVault, a 400GB stereo component, including sound processing and networking hardware, will go for a cool US$9,500, and allow you to remove the PC entirely from the audio equation. This does not mean you cannot use MusicGiants purchases with a PC, or portable music players for that matter, but the Terms of Service reminds users it is up to them to ensure that any player has WMA "lossless" support. What the service does not provide for--at least it's not talked about anywhere--is the ability create copies of music at bit rates appropriate for a given device. While 1100kbps might be great for an expensive stereo system, its overkill for a portable player. The ability to derive bit rate versions from a single copy of a file on the fly, or based upon device profiles, is a logical feature that should be included.
Still, despite being aimed at the "discerning" music lover, higher bit rate music is something everyone might be able to appreciate, including those that sell portable music players. As flash players take over the low-end gigabyte market, it makes sense to sell higher bit rate music to fill larger sized hard drive based players, for this reason it remains to be seen if MusicGiants will be the sole reseller of high bit rate music for very long.
"If you're listening to compressed music using your iPod earbuds, you won't notice much difference [from a CD]," says Scott Bahneman, founder and chief executive of tiny startup MusicGiants. "But once you play it on a good home stereo, the difference is huge."
MusicGiants provides "high definition" music downloads ranging from 470-1100kbps using Microsoft's WMA codec, DRM included, of course. Each song will cost US$1.29, while albums will go for a dying chain record store equivalent US$15.29. In addition, a $50 per year (waived with $250 in yearly purchases) annual fee will be charged. Hardware requirements include Windows XP, WMA 10, a honkin' big hard drive (40GB is the laughable minimum), and a high-speed Internet connection. MusicGiants will have have the catalogs of the five major labels available for download by the end of June, making it the only high bit rate legal download service, unless you count allofmp3.com, whose legal status remains indeterminate outside of Russia.
The service itself is run through client software (30MB download). The primary selling point of MusicGiants is visualized by a "fidelity meter" that displays the rate at which the music was encoded. The service allows you to integrate you current music library with their catalog in an interesting twist. As an example, looking at an artist would display what music you have in "low fidelity" and what MusicGiants has to sell you at a "high definition" bit rate, as well as exactly how much that would cost you. MusicGiants will also sell you hardware, though it won't be tiny white plastic and shiny metal players. The SoundVault, a 400GB stereo component, including sound processing and networking hardware, will go for a cool US$9,500, and allow you to remove the PC entirely from the audio equation. This does not mean you cannot use MusicGiants purchases with a PC, or portable music players for that matter, but the Terms of Service reminds users it is up to them to ensure that any player has WMA "lossless" support. What the service does not provide for--at least it's not talked about anywhere--is the ability create copies of music at bit rates appropriate for a given device. While 1100kbps might be great for an expensive stereo system, its overkill for a portable player. The ability to derive bit rate versions from a single copy of a file on the fly, or based upon device profiles, is a logical feature that should be included.
Still, despite being aimed at the "discerning" music lover, higher bit rate music is something everyone might be able to appreciate, including those that sell portable music players. As flash players take over the low-end gigabyte market, it makes sense to sell higher bit rate music to fill larger sized hard drive based players, for this reason it remains to be seen if MusicGiants will be the sole reseller of high bit rate music for very long.
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