well considering that with downloading songs you are wiping distribution costs, costs of creating the cd and the cover itself, printing the cover, shelf space costs and youre still paying ?8-10 for an album of mp4's rather than cd quality sound id say you were getting ripped off, it probably should be around ?5
And you're adding sever space, hosting costs, bandwidth cost, order entry system costs, credit card processing (or pay-pay processing) costs, costs to "rip" the original into digital format,? and a whole host of other overhead costs.? While I agree, it's probably not a net zero equation, overall, I'm not sure the discrepancy is quite as large as you think it is
...not to mention you have to burn a cd of mp4's to play in your hifi which in turn does not produce anywhere near the sound of a cd...therefore to get that you have to also buy the cd...of course there is also the added possibility of deleting the track from your ipod/pc or the hard drive failing and losing all your tracks etc and having to buy your collection again
That was my point.? If you're going to play it on your hifi, buy the CD and rip the tracks yourself for your ipod.? If you're going exclusively for you IPOD or other portable music device, mp4's ain't too bad of an option.? On losing your collection:? Back it up in file format.? If you're buying digital media and not backing it up...you're practically throwing money out the window.? Hell, even the CD's that I buy get copied and the original never sees the inside of my car...that way if they get stolen or scratched up...I still have the original at home.
id rather buy the cd and rip the tracks to put onto my creative zen than download tracks unless they were rare or unavailable elsewhere, that means i have the cd's even if anything happened to the mp4 files
btw a 20GB ipod could take 30 cd quality albums
I'd rather buy the CD, too, because it would get played in my stereo at home, or in my car.? But I can see the reasoning behind wanting a strictly digital version, too, especially if I was a college student or urban dweller, since, most of the time, I'm not going to be playing the music on anything capable of showing off the differences between quality.
Capacity isn't the issue.? It's the "delivery method".? In other words, the standard ear buds suck.? And to get ear buds that would actually let you hear the difference between an MP3/MP4 and a CD quality track would run you roughly what the ipod cost you...maybe more.?
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