07-06-2005 23:56									#1
	MusicGiants: an internet music store for audiophiles Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

They're going in the right direction, but they're not there yet. I'll start buying music online when I'll be able to download music files that are not already encoded and if I'm free to encode them anyway I want. For example, I should be free to encode the same song in AAC @ 224Kbps for my iPod and in Lossless for my High Fidelity system. I'm not even sure if its possible.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050603-4969.html

quote: While the iTMS dominates the (legal) music downloading business, it does so at a price, and it's not US$0.99, but rather 128kbps. Enter MusicGiants. "If you're listening to compressed music using your iPod earbuds, you won't notice much difference [from a CD]," says Scott Bahneman, founder and chief executive of tiny startup MusicGiants. "But once you play it on a good home stereo, the difference is huge." MusicGiants provides "high definition" music downloads ranging from 470-1100kbps using Microsoft's WMA codec, DRM included, of course. Each song will cost US$1.29, while albums will go for a dying chain record store equivalent US$15.29. In addition, a $50 per year (waived with $250 in yearly purchases) annual fee will be charged. Hardware requirements include Windows XP, WMA 10, a honkin' big hard drive (40GB is the laughable minimum), and a high-speed Internet connection. MusicGiants will have have the catalogs of the five major labels available for download by the end of June, making it the only high bit rate legal download service, unless you count allofmp3.com, whose legal status remains indeterminate outside of Russia. The service itself is run through client software (30MB download). The primary selling point of MusicGiants is visualized by a "fidelity meter" that displays the rate at which the music was encoded. The service allows you to integrate you current music library with their catalog in an interesting twist. As an example, looking at an artist would display what music you have in "low fidelity" and what MusicGiants has to sell you at a "high definition" bit rate, as well as exactly how much that would cost you. MusicGiants will also sell you hardware, though it won't be tiny white plastic and shiny metal players. The SoundVault, a 400GB stereo component, including sound processing and networking hardware, will go for a cool US$9,500, and allow you to remove the PC entirely from the audio equation. This does not mean you cannot use MusicGiants purchases with a PC, or portable music players for that matter, but the Terms of Service reminds users it is up to them to ensure that any player has WMA "lossless" support. What the service does not provide for--at least it's not talked about anywhere--is the ability create copies of music at bit rates appropriate for a given device. While 1100kbps might be great for an expensive stereo system, its overkill for a portable player. The ability to derive bit rate versions from a single copy of a file on the fly, or based upon device profiles, is a logical feature that should be included. Still, despite being aimed at the "discerning" music lover, higher bit rate music is something everyone might be able to appreciate, including those that sell portable music players. As flash players take over the low-end gigabyte market, it makes sense to sell higher bit rate music to fill larger sized hard drive based players, for this reason it remains to be seen if MusicGiants will be the sole reseller of high bit rate music for very long.

	08-06-2005 00:11									#2
	Put an end to popups!

This would not be possible with Apple's lame business model.

Kudos to Microsoft for allowing competition.

	08-06-2005 00:56									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

A Stereophile interview with a MusicGiants representative

http://www.stereophile.com/news/051605musicgiants/

quote: We are the only company right now that is licensed by all of the majors for lossless downloads. Everyone else is focused on quantity and we are focused on quality. We are much more focused on home audio; we are the only source for full-resolution downloads, and most of our customers are not being drawn up in the music being driven by that 14–24-year-old group."

quote: WP: So who do you see as your customer? SB: "Our customer is definitely the person who has made an investment in home and car audio and who is not interested in listening to music that has all the fidelity of an eight-track tape through equipment that was designed to play back high-resolution recordings. Today, a tremendous number of people have quite a lot invested in their audio systems—and I'm not just talking about audiophiles who have tubes in their amplifiers, I'm talking about people like you and me, who have nice stereos and just are not going to be satisfied listening to compressed music. These aren't necessarily the guys who are still spinning records trying to get that rich sound out of vinyl. Our interest is in continuing to push the high end of this envelope and move on into 5.1 surround and 24-bit stuff at a real high frequency rate that begins to rival the sound that you would get out of vinyl. What you're seeing today is the highest fidelity available, and I can tell you that as we move forward, it will just get better."

Hell yeah!

quote: WP: What music is available on MusicGiants? SB: "We have signed deals with all five of the majors and are in varying degrees of moving that over to production servers. We've ingested most of it, but we have to DRM it. That will happen in the coming weeks. What we have available on the site right now is the music from EMI—we have a heavy emphasis on classical and jazz. Obviously, we'll have popular, but our audience is older and more mature." TF: "Symphonic music is very under-served in the downloadable music market." SB: "Our music interface lets you browse by artist, which is great for classical, jazz, and pop, but it also allows you to browse by composer as well. We spent extra time making sure we could serve that market because that's who our customer is.

	08-06-2005 01:17									#4
	Re: MusicGiants: an internet music store for audiophiles Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by nostromo They're going in the right direction, but they're not there yet. I'll start buying music online when I'll be able to download music files that are not already encoded and if I'm free to encode them anyway I want. For example, I should be free to encode the same song in AAC @ 224Kbps for my iPod and in Lossless for my High Fidelity system. I'm not even sure if its possible. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050603-4969.html

Allofmp3.com lets you choose the format and the coding. The price also depends on the quality. The larger the file, the higher the price. If you want to have different codings you'd have to buy the file twice though, or you download it losless once and encode it on your HF system for your ipod.

Anyway you are either a freak or you have pretty sensible ears... or both

	08-06-2005 01:38									#5
	Re: Re: MusicGiants: an internet music store for audiophiles Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by Atahualpa Anyway you are either a freak or you have pretty sensible ears... or both

I may well be a freak. Ask a shrink Otoh, my ears aren't that sensible. All my songs are encoded in AAC @ 224Kbps, just in case... I'm not sure I could hear the difference between the same song encoded in AAC @ 192Kbps. MusicGiants is clearly aimed at the audiophile market. And I don't own a high fidelity system. So it doesn't really concern me right now. But, really, its more a question of principle. If I buy music, I want the best possible reproduction. Why shell out money on compressed crap that will only be listenable on your iPod? I prefer buying a CD and then ripping and encoding them myself.

	08-06-2005 01:52									#6
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: If I buy music, I want the best possible reproduction. Why shell out money on compressed crap that will only be listenable on your iPod? I prefer buying a CD and then ripping and encoding them myself.

I don't care about that. Allofmp3 is cheap, I mean real cheap.. it's 8-12 cents a song (for me) and the better the quality the more expensive.

quote: Why shell out money on compressed crap that will only be listenable on your iPod?

There are some considerations:
a.) HD space
b.) For me Music is probably most of the time running in the background, there's hardly the time I sit down and just listen to music, especially at home so my brain doesn't have the full attention towards it and thus it doesn't mind the quality difference so much
c.) 160kbps abr mp3 is far away from crap
d.) High quality music needs a high quality sound system, nothing of which I own or plan to buy in the coming years. I mostly listen on my laptop speakers, which are - thank god - quite okay or some headphones.

It's different for everyone of course...