iTunes v The World

[b4mmy]

I was just wondering if anyone can tell me where all the other MP3 stores are.

I only ever use iTunes normally, but something I quite fancy is on there for £39 and if I had the time I could nip into town and buy it for about £7.

Any links much appreciated.

[Bender]

I think the second biggest store is the Amazon MP3 store

[Sy]

http://www.tescoentertainment.com/store/browse/mp3/

[gothicform]

itunes is the most expensive, and i think best. it's not the cheapest though. as other people mention there's amazon.

[CityGent]

Price comparison site for MP3s

[b4mmy]

Tesco have it as 320kb @ £7.49 Thanks folks. I love you xXx

[b4mmy]

Interesting that there are so many, I guess as I'm all Apple I never think to look around.

[Medo]

Beware of Tesco Value mp3s, their quality goes down after each listen.

[Paddington]

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Why people buy MP3/AACs is beyond me. Why buy the latest albums at iTunes store for £7.99, when you can buy the CD for £5 in shops like Asda.

I bet you thought I was going to say something else for a moment.

Get uncompressed sound at cheaper prices in a physical format that you can do put on any sound device you have, yes please!

Only time I buy from places like iTunes is if I can't get the CD, or I need the song there and now.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

http://www.pro-music.org/Content/Get...res-europe.php

Here is a list of companies that legally trade in the UK territory (under United Kingdom heading), where royalties are paid and have licenses to sell. Anyone else who you buy from are not legitimate and are selling pirated materials to you.

Only other place is to buy from a publisher or artist directly.

[bigchrisfgb]

Originally Posted by SimonTheSoundMan

Why people buy MP3/AACs is beyond me. Why buy the latest albums at iTunes store for £7.99, when you can buy the CD for £5 in shops like Asda.

I bet you thought I was going to say something else for a moment.

Get uncompressed sound at cheaper prices in a physical format that you can do put on any sound device you have, yes please!

Only time I buy from places like iTunes is if I can't get the CD, or I need the song there and now.

Pretty much every portable media player compresses songs, so it doesn't matter what format you get.

iTunes is usually on par with prices for shops, new releases are always priced around the same mark as the CD version in the shop, and you can get £5 albums on iTunes.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

You have lossy and lossless compression. Lossless audio does matter. Most play both, and even uncompressed WAV/BWAV/AIFF if you really want.

I convert all my CD's using Apple Lossless Encoder. Cuts them down by 50%, with no loss of quality. 384kbs MP3 is around 40% compression saving, and sounds awful. 256kbs, even using AAC, I just can't stand.

[Sy]

I do find that iTunes sound levels aren't very even between songs. I've bought a few albums where I have to really pump up the volume to hear some songs as they are extremely quiet.

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by SimonTheSoundMan

You have lossy and lossless compression. Lossless audio does matter. Most play both, and even uncompressed WAV/BWAV/AIFF if you really want.

I convert all my CD's using Apple Lossless Encoder. Cuts them down by 50%, with no loss of quality. 384kbs MP3 is around 40% compression saving, and sounds awful. 256kbs, even using AAC, I just can't stand.

depends on HOW you compress the music too though. LAME is pretty good for encoding mp3s at high bitrates and my ears cannot tell the difference with a cd, i find iTunes doesn't do as good a job as LAME though. that said i'm not a sound engineer.

Here is a list of companies that legally trade in the UK territory (under United Kingdom heading), where royalties are paid and have licenses to sell. Anyone else who you buy from are not legitimate and are selling pirated materials to you.

totally not true. the music industry claims this, european law says otherwise.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

If there was a European based royalty collection agency, then yes. Unfortunately, the record industry still have their heads up their asses and still use territories.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Originally Posted by Sy

I do find that iTunes sound levels aren't very even between songs. I've bought a few albums where I have to really pump up the volume to hear some songs as they are extremely quiet.

They will all be peaking at the same volume, but their average volumes (LAeq) will be different depending on the amount of dynamic range. The louder, the worse it is as they have compressed (the dynamics, not the audio file) to silly levels.

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by SimonTheSoundMan

If there was a European based royalty collection agency, then yes. Unfortunately, the record industry still have their heads up their asses and still use territories.

european law says otherwise though. anyone in europe can buy anything sold in any territory without restriction this is why they never actually prosecute anyone for this, they merely try to have as many restrictions as possible in a legal way. an example of this in action though would be amazon via the channel islands. cd wow would be another one.

[Mateusz]

I have spent quite a lot on iTunes. It's addictive. I'm thinking like oh well it's only 99p but then again I had a look and I spent like 200 quid since Febraury 2008.

[gothicform]

my main complaint is that the stuff they have is also poorly mastered, the loudness is boosted, there's noticeable compression and it just all sounds so shit. i have level limiting turned on, why is marina and the diamonds 10 db more than led zeppelin?