Although I love iTunes, I have to get frustrated when a search on the UK store for "pearl jam" (for example) turns up no results, yet on the USA store theres loads, but I can't buy 'em!
annoying.
annoying.
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iTunes Europe Adds Major Indie Labels
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hob
macrumors 68010
Savage Henry said:
What's there to be confused about? So they made it on analogue equipment. I don't have a record deck, do you? They've chosen to make it on analogue, but distribute it on digital formats (as well as analogue) so that those of us who like to listen to it on our iPods or other electronic equimpent can! It's just them being nice 🙂
Stella said:
THats the stupid thing though. If your buying CD's you can. I can order all my music off Amazon US and have it shipped over here no problem, it doesn't even cost much to ship (takes a while though, 15 days)
Dunepilot
macrumors 6502a
hob said:
Point 1) They're not being nice. They're manufacturing music that can be played on one of the prevailing musical media (i.e. Compact Disc). Therefore, they're also allowing themselves to make a living out of being recording artists. Whatever I think of Jamie Cullum's music, or of the White Stripes, it's just business sense on the band, and the record company's part to make music available on CD. If bands have a special affinity for analogue recording combined with analogue distribution, they may make a special version of the album on vinyl in order to appeal to like-minded purists. The Mars Volta intended to do this with De-Loused in the Comatorium; I haven't seen it myself but apparently the LP version includes the full concept-story behind the album.
In fact, Omar from The Mars Volta is involved in a really cool record label, gold standard labs , and It's labels like this that REALLY need to be added to iTunes. This is stuff that people enthuse about, has lasting value beyond the pop charts, and is less likely to be found on the peer-to-peer networks. It's really important that these genuinely independent labels get on board the iTMS, because it will drive their sales and dramatically increase exposure of artists from niche genres.
Point 2) As hob pointed out, the business of recording and distributing in certain media is quite separate. There is a very compelling explanation for recording to analogue media, by analogue methods, given by Steve Albini at http://www.mtsu.edu/~nadam/downloads/Stevealbiniweb.html. If you have an hour or so to spare, this is a fascinating video of Albini's lecture to recording students. He doesn't talk about how warm analogue recordings sound, or any of the ephemera like that, but he comes to the conclusion that there is a strong case for analogue recording methods because they have greater longevity than something recorded to a hard drive, or other digital medium, and therefore analogue recordings are much better from an archival point of view.
(He does seem to be a vinyl fan himself given that it's the preferred distribution of Shellac recordings, but that doesn't change the matter of recording and distribution being quite separate).
Dune
Windowlicker
macrumors 6502a
/|\ said:
uh oh! that was horrible! the guy who's made it must have made some serious mistake there.. you should inform apple about this.. maybe they would fix it?
anyhow so far I haven't heard a track sounding so bad before (on itms that is)..
Rocketman
macrumors 603
Macrumors said:
I find all this good iPod news to be great for Apple Computer Inc. I find the news to be timely and interesting.
I also find it to be off-topic from "macrumours.com". A Mac is a type of personal computer.
I note this website has tabs for "mac rumours", "page 2", "buyer's guide", "shop", and "forums".
Perhaps it is time to give dominant "iPod" content its own tab?
Pardon my practical comments.
Rocketman
Great...but...
I wonder why Apple hasn't been able to get some of the big acts on the major labels (the first name that comes to mind is Madonna, but I'm sure there are other big or other well known artists, e.g., Don Henley...).
I wonder why Apple hasn't been able to get some of the big acts on the major labels (the first name that comes to mind is Madonna, but I'm sure there are other big or other well known artists, e.g., Don Henley...).
shamino
macrumors 68040
Region codes
These contracts usually have clauses that say company X may not sell outside of country/region Y.
But the stores (and customers) are not bound by these contracts. A store in the UK can ship DVDs to the US, and vice versa. The studios don't like this for some reason (just like the fact that record companies don't like me buying legit Japanese-published CDs in the US)
The region code system was invented to provide a technical solution to a perceived problem that they could not solve through the legal system
It's the same thing with CSS - it does absolutely nothing to stop you from copying a disc, but (in conjunction with laws like the DMCA) it does prevent you from legally playing the disc on players made by companies that haven't paid the CSS license fees.
That's the exact reason. It is to limit distribution. A studio (like MGM) will license different distributors in different countries. They usually get an exclusive license for their respective region. Which is why you don't see two companies publishing the same movie in the same country.Don't panic said:
These contracts usually have clauses that say company X may not sell outside of country/region Y.
But the stores (and customers) are not bound by these contracts. A store in the UK can ship DVDs to the US, and vice versa. The studios don't like this for some reason (just like the fact that record companies don't like me buying legit Japanese-published CDs in the US)
The region code system was invented to provide a technical solution to a perceived problem that they could not solve through the legal system
It's the same thing with CSS - it does absolutely nothing to stop you from copying a disc, but (in conjunction with laws like the DMCA) it does prevent you from legally playing the disc on players made by companies that haven't paid the CSS license fees.
shamino
macrumors 68040
So what changed?
Not too long ago, it was big news that indie labels in Europe were refusing to sign on to ITMS.
Now three big ones have signed.
Has anything changed? Did they negotiate a better deal with Apple? Did they cave in and decide to accept the deal already on the table? Something else?
Not too long ago, it was big news that indie labels in Europe were refusing to sign on to ITMS.
Now three big ones have signed.
Has anything changed? Did they negotiate a better deal with Apple? Did they cave in and decide to accept the deal already on the table? Something else?
Bring on the Metal
This is great that the iTMS is expanding but there is still a large chunk of the music scene that is still missing. Metal!. Three major labels that need to be brought on board are Metal Blade, Century Media, and Nuclear Blast! Bring em on and "Up the Irons!"
This is great that the iTMS is expanding but there is still a large chunk of the music scene that is still missing. Metal!. Three major labels that need to be brought on board are Metal Blade, Century Media, and Nuclear Blast! Bring em on and "Up the Irons!"
About missing genres...
The only albums i've wanted to buy have been goth/industrial/similar-stuff genre music*. But iTunes doesn't really carry such things. The main label, Metropolis Records, carries a lot of the bands I listen to. I e-mailed them today, and they told me that they'll be on iTunes starting October. Yey!
* I know, I'm a goth/industrial wanna-be, but I'm excited about getting Wolfsheim, Project Pitchfork, and some other stuff.
The only albums i've wanted to buy have been goth/industrial/similar-stuff genre music*. But iTunes doesn't really carry such things. The main label, Metropolis Records, carries a lot of the bands I listen to. I e-mailed them today, and they told me that they'll be on iTunes starting October. Yey!
* I know, I'm a goth/industrial wanna-be, but I'm excited about getting Wolfsheim, Project Pitchfork, and some other stuff.
joeboy_45101
macrumors 6502
ARTICLE ON WIRED.COM
wired.com is featuring a really interesting article on the development of the iPod. Most interesting is that they reveal that Steve Jobs is partly deaf, apparently the reason why the iPod is louder than most other digital music players. I don't know, maybe this is common knowledge. It was new to me. 🙂
wired.com is featuring a really interesting article on the development of the iPod. Most interesting is that they reveal that Steve Jobs is partly deaf, apparently the reason why the iPod is louder than most other digital music players. I don't know, maybe this is common knowledge. It was new to me. 🙂
Dahl said:
I have it on CD. The quality has some stuff to wish for, but is still way, way better than what apple give us in the store.
The same clip as in the music store, encoded from the CD right in iTunes:
http://ae.nocrew.org/x/manowar.m4a
http://ae.nocrew.org/x/manowar.mp3
And the Musicstore link to the same clip again:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807
128kbit/s just as in the store. I don't usually encode at these low rates so my actual iTunes playlist sound much better. Sorry, but the encoding is really bad in the store. Steve should stop making fun of p2p networks encodings if he can't get it right himself..
/|\ said:
I believe it's up to the record companies to either encode or hire someone to encode the music, not Apple.
They do have a specific feedback option for "Audio Quality" for cases where the encoding is bad -
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html
I disagree with you. How did all of us switchers hear about Apple Computers if no-one talks about them? 😉 I sure wasn't sitting there thinking "I like the look of those iPods - say, I wonder if they make computers?" 🙂MacSA said:
I wish the threads of global capitalism weren't quite so complex, so we could all download the music we liked. But they are, and we're stuck with it. It's good that Apple is making progress, but you can always order a cheap CD on-line if you can't find something...
