While I never purchased music through iTunes my wife used to but stopped because of an experience she and many other tech newbies had a few years back: when accessing iTunes on another device, all of their music, including music purchased from iTunes was deleted. Figuring out how to recover it was a huge pain for her. She was so enraged she now refuses to buy anything Apple.
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Unless the artist has their music directly available, in lossless format, from their own sites, or somewhere like Bandcamp, Bleep, Soundcloud etc., then I have taken to buying my downloads from Qobuz.
Take a decidedly big-studio/label release like “Thriller”:
| Source | Format | Type | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| iTunes | AAC Download | Lossy | $9.99 |
| Amazon | MP3 Download | Lossy | $9.99 |
| Amazon | CD | Lossless | $9.93 |
| Qobuz | FLAC Download | Lossless | $12.99 |
| Qobuz | FLAC Download | Hi-Res | $17.99 |
| Qobuz | FLAC Download | Hi-Res | $9.99 w/ Sublime |
The Amazon CD price will often fluctuate by as much as a couple of dollars over the space of a month, though is nearly always cheaper than even the MP3 download for albums that are still in print.
By being a Sublime-tier subscriber to Qobuz (which is the same price as their Hi-Res tier paid monthly, just you have to pay it all up front), I can get the Hi-Res copy for the same price as a lossy download anywhere else. And, quite frequently, that Hi-Res copy via a Sublime subscription is actually cheaper than any other option too.
I’m paying for the Qobuz subscription anyway, so the only “issue” is that you pay upfront. But in the first month I was a member I’d saved more than the entire subscription cost for the year anyway, so I’m well ahead at this point.
And I don’t have to order, rip and store the CDs, which has multiple benefits.
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Yes, I very much like the idea of Qobuz. Unfortunately they are not yet in Canada.
For older material, like Thriller, I find the used CD market to be a great source of inexpensive lossless music. For some material that was originally released on vinyl and later released on CD, there are releases that are highly sought after because of the quality of the remaster for CD. This is case for all of the early Genesis material, before Steve Hackett left the band. There are many forums dedicated to just this topic. While streaming services sometimes offer alternative releases/remasters and remixes, for the most part one has to seek them out on the used market.
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It can be a challenge. I am not a Mac guy and would never pay the crazy prices for IPhones. It works great for me in Windows and reasonably well in my Sony DAP. Transferring to my Android is a bit of a challenge, but I have a pretty good app.
Shane D
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The used market is, indeed, a good place to find older, specific, CD masters.
I’m much less concerned about cost (I used it in my example as most people are), though, and more concerned about space. I have so much space consumed with physical media as it is (starting with 12,000+ LPs), that the last thing I want is more of it!
As a result, the ONLY way I am buying a CD is if it is the only way I can legally acquire a specific version of music I want to own a copy of. Otherwise, if I can get it as a lossless download, that’s what I’m doing, even if it were more expensive than the CD.
And when I do have to buy a CD … it gets ripped immediately, the insert and jewel case get tossed, and the notes and discs go into off-site storage (in those 480-disc folders).
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Agreed, I’m also out of physical space and while I have a lot of vinyl I certainly don’t have 12,000 albums!
Most of my CDs are also in storage - I keep the newly acquired ones out for a while after ripping to read the liner notes while I spin them. I have also traded many for credit or other CDs at used CD stores, as I do with books. For new music I want to own, I also try to purchase lossless digital downloads, if I can find what I am looking for. . . . .
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What format do you rip or download in if not Hi-Res, WAV?
I use FLAC for both standard Red Book (44.1 kHz, 16-bit) and all higher resolutions as well.
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Can I ask where you buy lossless downloads in Canada?
Shane D
Most of the lossless music I have purchased online, such as the new Glen Hansard album, This Wild Willing (highly recommend checking it out),
has been from Bandcamp. There are other sites such as Bleep, Soundcloud and Boomat. Most are very specialized - EDM, metal, dubstep, etc. and carry for the most part independent artists. I find Bandcamp to have the largest and most divers selection. Some artists also sell their music directly from their website. For mainstream rock/pop and classical music, I find that I generally have to buy the CD.
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He is definitely in the sing-songwriter category.
I hear what you are saying on the “specialty” sites. Many sites have a little piece of the market, by category. I may have to investigate Band Camp. I just cannot go to paying $20.00 to $25.00 per album.
Luckily the back catalogue is built, so I am just looking for new songs now. In the last 12 months I have only spent about $200.00 to $300.00 on music. WAY down from years past.
Thanks for the reply!
Shane D
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This has been on play a lot lately. For the inner teenager in all of us:
and
I bought both of these back in February.
Shane D
Newfoundlanders should adopt this song as their anthem.
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Do you use iTunes at all? They have LOTS of music that would appeal to you under Alternative. There are many albums every single week similar to these two albums.
Even if you don’t buy from Apple it is a great place to find new music.
Shane D
@cstalgis I second @neo_styles On the Dream Theater albums. Huge fan of DT over here.
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I’m a caveman…still haven’t subscribed to any of the pay services yet, though when I do, it might be Qobuz. Came close to buying some U.K. bleeding-edge jazz on Bandcamp recently.
Anyway, had a strange experience in May. I’m a big fan of minimalist composer, Steve Reich. A recent recording of his percussion works came out, heavily praised: “Drumming.” So I order the CD (can’t figure out how to get any digital files except mp3s, and homey don’t play mp3s). So I get this CD, promptly rip it, listen w/my best amp & headphones–and absolutely HATE this music. I mean, dislike to the point where I may not be able to ever try it again.
Between LPs and CDs I have well over >5K recordings, but I this has happened only 1-2 dozen X over the past ~40 yrs. Weird.
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I never have because I never owned any Apple products. I also read something about when you buy music in iTunes you don’t actually own the music? Never verified that, just used Spotify and Rhapsody before it became Napster.
If only Qobuz and Bandcamp had everything.
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You can just download iTunes to your computer and check out new music every Friday. Then just buy where you want.
I think iTunes used to have DRM on the music which placed some kind of restriction on it.
If they officially kill it this week, I will look to other programs for music management.
Shane D
It’s not just iTunes. If you read the fine print in many of the licenses it asserts that you don’t really own the content, you are just licensed to use it. Kindle books are a notorious example. This is really a very thorny legal issue.
In some cases, you own the media, but not the content on the media.
Back in the days when print was supreme, and still a historic precedent, you buy a book, and you are able to lend it or resell it as you see fit. (Something that has always annoyed educational publishers who rely on students buying new books (and hence the 2 to 3 year cycles for new editions)).
Particularly when some type of DRM is applied, at least in the US, the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) prohibits you from cracking the digital rights management. This gets very technical. There are exemptions for software that reads aloud an encrypted book for people who have low or now vision. So what happens if you record that rendition?
Here in headphonelandia, we sometimes look at RIAA and think about equalization curves. But the RIAA was one of the big anti-piracy organizations, and has some rather restrictive rules. At one time they did not want you to make any personal use backup copies, but they have backed off from that extreme stance.
Still, they make it pretty clear that if you buy a CD, and RIP it for your use on computer. Then you get rid of that CD sometime later, they consider that to be piracy.
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In Canada, in exchange for the right to copy music for private use, consumers pay a levy or royalty fee on blank audio recording media. The funds collected are distributed by the Canadian Private Copying Collective to music rights holders:Music authors and publishers: 58.2%, Performers: 23.8%, Record companies: 18%.
The Canadian Copyright Act also allows people to copy music they have borrowed from a friend who purchased the music but a Canadian must perform his or her own copying, they can’t ask a friend to do it! A Canadian also can’t give, trade, rent or sell their copy and they can not broadcast or upload it to the internet but they can download music as long as it wasn’t illegally uploaded. As far as I can tell there is no provision that renders the copy illegal if a Canadian sells the original but as in the US, the Act prohibits you from cracking the digital rights management if it has been applied.
While may amendments have been made to this portion of the Copyright Act since it was enacted in 1997, MP3 players such as iPods and data storage media of all types are not levied as the courts have repeatedly ruled that they are not considered as “audio recording medium.” Interestingly it is the recording industry that has fought against such a levy as in their eyes, it would further legitimate the copying of copyrighted material.
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