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Apple's Lead in U.S. Music Sales Continues to Increase as iTunes Gains and Wal-Mart Falls
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As always this is getting way off the topic of the original post (which is about sales rankings of various suppliers), but, nevertheless, let me chime in.
This is the most
statement I've read today. Got to love those wear/tear/dust/scratch/low-dynamic range formats. Sort of like a '59 Edsel. Here is a link to an excellent pro-vinyl article that honestly details limitations of vinyl compared to CD -- bottom line, people may like vinyl better but it isn't because of accurate fidelity, in fact just the opposite.Hey, it is a matter of personal taste. To each their own.
Everything that I have purchased in the iTunes store was always the same price at Amazon. Songs that are $1.29 in iTunes are also $1.29 at Amazon. Songs that are album only in iTunes are album only at Amazon. I have rarely seen songs that are sold for less in Amazon. I just don't ever see any savings by buying music at Amazon.
Are they really cheaper these days? It's been probably 10 years since I've purchased an actual CD and back then the prices were still $15 or so. Looking at Tower.com just now, I see a few CDs at $10 but most are above that ranging from $12 all the way up to $15 and even higher. Itunes is still cheaper from what I can see.
Silly man... Silly man!
Its called independent record stores. Find your nearest one today.
Why would I want to waste gas by going across town to a CD store when I can have the the CD downloaded in less than five minutes in iTunes? I can even download the CD while I am at work and listen to it there five minutes after downloading.
Because Apples/Amazons 256KBPS rips sucks major and the internet is not always avaliable and you're supporting a local business.
Corrected that for you because it needed it. In my opinion, 256 Kbps is perfect. Yes, the internet is always available, I have my broadband at home, my 3G on my iPhone and my Sprint broadband card for when I have a power failure.
You need to be introduced to Variable Bit Rate formats.
Do you also use the earphones that came with your iPhone?
I've already heard them. I've imported what CDs I do have into iTunes at VBR. I'm fine and happy buying through iTunes. Respect that please.
iTunes hasn't had VBR encoding since about iTunes 7.
AFAIK, according to some quicktime docs, its not actually 256KPBS either. Its 2x128 (L + R).
I know competition in the market is supposedly better for everyone and people sometimes get their stuff for $0.30 cheaper at Amazon or whatever, but the user experience totally sucks on those other sites and the only one I really want to see succeed is iTunes.
Too bad iTunes customer service never does anything. I'm banning itunes purchases. Terrible. Amazon bends over backwards.
I dislike itunes,
It never has any of the music I want and the quality is poor.
I can imagine for most people it ticks all the boxes, its not really surprising the do so well, all most people want is convenience and choice and Apple/Amazon offer that.
It never has any of the music I want and the quality is poor.
I can imagine for most people it ticks all the boxes, its not really surprising the do so well, all most people want is convenience and choice and Apple/Amazon offer that.
I've had nothing but great experiences with iTunes customer service. Several years ago when the Complete Led Zeppelin was released, I bought it the day it was released. I played all the albums and discovered that several tracks ended too early and on many of them were audible pops in between tracks. Apple let me re download all the songs again to see if that fixed the problem. It didn't so they issued me a full $100 refund. A few weeks later, they pulled the Complete Led Zeppelin from the store completely till the problem was solved.
I also had an issue when I upgraded the complete Bob Dylan to iTunes + last year. When I uploaded them to my iPod, nothing appeared by album, it was all just random tracks and on several albums, there were 10 copies of the same track This happened on my iPhone as well. Apple again allowed me to download all 700+ tracks and that fixed the problem.
I have never had an issue with getting a problem download solved and they have been absolutely perfect, just as they are with their computer and iPhone support. Of course I am probably one of their biggest iTunes customers, owning 2094 TV shows, not including several complete series I deleted just because I lost interest in such as the Wire and others.
YOU are not 'a lot' of people.
iTunes is my source when I am unable to locate a digital copy anywhere else. Occasionally, I have bought entire albums / CDs at Walmart and Target. However, we have another choice in our area used CDs and DVDs which someone else bought and may have watched once or twice before trading them.
What I don't understand is how my neighbor 'up the road' could possibly spend $10K on iTunes ... unless he is buying songs for his children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. Birthday presents for LIFE!
Also, MorphingDragon, iTunes 8 still has VBR. When Use Variable Bit Rate Encoding (VBR) is selected, I have an option to set Quality now it is set to Highest.
"A synanym is a word you use in place of a word you can't spell."
That's the BEST sentence in this entire thread.
That's the BEST sentence in this entire thread.
The option to convert is to whatever setting you have already chosen in Preferences AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3 or WAV, and at the bit rate that is already selected in Preferences. In other words, those details have to be set prior to converting a song.
The CDs at the independent stores I shop at are no cheaper than they are at big chains, and often are more expensive. I still shop there -- better selection, more knowledgeable staff, more non-U.S. music. But I've never found independents cheaper than chains, which means they're also not cheaper than iTunes.
Up to 50 billion cash in the bank. But what good to do with it?
How about start paying some dividends? But it seems that it will be a cold night in hell before SJ is going to release any of that cash to the shareholders.
No, no, no! You're going to confuse the trolls with all these pesky facts!
They are happy living in their fantasy world where music is 20% cheaper on Amazon than on iTunes, and they can listen to it on their HP Slate.
Well the world is now on iTunes 9 now, and a lot of people like being able to use their current gen iPods and iPhones.
Looking at the custom import setting i have configured in iTunes 9.1.1 (12) right now, it reads:
224 kbps (stereo), 44.100 kHz, VBR, optimized for MMX/SSE2.