Comments on: Acquiring Music http://michaelstech.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/acquiring-music/ The musings of Michael Henley on technology, and sometimes other things too. Should be an interesting experiment Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:13:25 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: michael http://michaelstech.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/acquiring-music/#comment-504 michael Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:13:25 +0000 http://michaelstech.wordpress.com/?p=47#comment-504 I agree that the best solutuon from a fidelity pov is to use a lossless format such as FLAC, but I simply don't have the hard drive space. I like to carry my entire library on my laptop's internal drive, which somewhat restricts the quality I can keep in. I also actually don't hear any difference between something which is 192kbps+ and a lossless format. As for using another lossy algorithm - I am basically restricted by iTunes. I have, and like, an iPod and use iTunes as my music player. That dictates that I use AAC or MP3. Plus as I say, I purchase most, if not all, of my music from the Amazon MP3 store, and so it comes in that format. I agree that the best solutuon from a fidelity pov is to use a lossless format such as FLAC, but I simply don’t have the hard drive space. I like to carry my entire library on my laptop’s internal drive, which somewhat restricts the quality I can keep in. I also actually don’t hear any difference between something which is 192kbps+ and a lossless format.

As for using another lossy algorithm – I am basically restricted by iTunes. I have, and like, an iPod and use iTunes as my music player. That dictates that I use AAC or MP3. Plus as I say, I purchase most, if not all, of my music from the Amazon MP3 store, and so it comes in that format.

]]> By: Tom http://michaelstech.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/acquiring-music/#comment-503 Tom Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:22:07 +0000 http://michaelstech.wordpress.com/?p=47#comment-503 "Regardless of the talk that MP3 is still copyrighted etc" MP3 isn't copyrighted. "Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete." "A large number of different organizations have claimed ownership of patents necessary to implement MP3." These patents (under current law, at least) will expire soon. MP3 is open, so you'll always be able to access your music. Maybe in the future your lossy algorithm of choice will not be MP3, and may be some new algorithm with desirable features. Transcoding between lossy formats loses a lot, so maybe the best solution is to store your music losslessly. Disk space is space. FLAC is an open, patent-free lossless algorithm. (FWIW, Spotify streams using Ogg Vorbis (q5 ~160kbits), the patent-free lossy algorithm typically used as the "nicer" alternative to MP3) “Regardless of the talk that MP3 is still copyrighted etc”
MP3 isn’t copyrighted. “Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.” “A large number of different organizations have claimed ownership of patents necessary to implement MP3.” These patents (under current law, at least) will expire soon. MP3 is open, so you’ll always be able to access your music.

Maybe in the future your lossy algorithm of choice will not be MP3, and may be some new algorithm with desirable features. Transcoding between lossy formats loses a lot, so maybe the best solution is to store your music losslessly. Disk space is space. FLAC is an open, patent-free lossless algorithm.

(FWIW, Spotify streams using Ogg Vorbis (q5 ~160kbits), the patent-free lossy algorithm typically used as the “nicer” alternative to MP3)

]]>