Computer Audio Polkies: Rhino Records Lossless Downloads

SolidSqual

To all you Computer Audio Polkies,

Rhino Records has a massive library containing lossless media for download including The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Chicago and a ton of others from other genres. I've been living at HD Tracks . . . until now.

Mike

http://www.rhino.com/shop/format/Digital

heiney9

SolidSqual wrote: »

To all you Computer Audio Polkies,

Rhino Records has a massive library containing lossless media for download including The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Chicago and a ton of others from other genres. I've been living at HD Tracks . . . until now.

Mike

http://www.rhino.com/shop/format/Digital

Finally lossless dl's are coming around. One thing I can tell you I don;t like is how they charge a $4.50 premium for FLAC files over an mp3. It doesn;t require any more cost other than perhaps minimal storage for lossless formats. It's another way to get extra money from an "audiophile" and for $13.49 I'll buy the physical version.

Still it's moving in the right direction and than god iTunes isn't the only place to dl digital content.

H9

zingo

Looks like another great option.

heiney9

To be fair prices do vary but from what I've seen a lossless format commands a premium about 30-40% in many cases. No reason I can think of other than they feel people are willing to pay this much for lossless downloads. It can't cost them any more money to sell lossless vs. mp3's. I guess they will rely on perceived value.

Still I think it's a step in the right direction offering lossless formats for download. I hope the pricing doesn't shoot them in the foot. HD Tracks charge about the same for their lossless dl's so I'm not just picking on Rhino. They have cut out the middle man, cut production costs of printing/jewel cases, shipping, labor to pack, etc. and are still charging the same or more of the music.

H9

maximillian

I can see where bandwidth on lossless is probably the only real cost adder.

The whole $1 per mp3 doesn't make sense to me. Why spend $1 when you get a lossy format and no physical media. As someone already mentioned, might as well buy the physical disc. I guess for one-hit-wonder type artists it would be OK. However, where possible I would prefer to buy Flac or other lossless format.

Now if I can find a good none-iPod portable player that plays Flac.

heiney9

I would buy more FLAC files, but I'm not paying a premium because it's lossless and I'm not paying much of a premium because of the perceived convenience. They (being the record companies, seller's, etc) get to cut out all sorts of costs associated with a physical product so they are saving money. I'll jump on board of lossless dl's as soon as they start passing that savings on to me as a consumer.

Like this

http://new.music.yahoo.com/godsmack/news/universal-betting-on-lower-prices-to-boost-cd-sales--62000139

I hope it works for them and becomes the model the rest follow. Artists deserve to get paid for their work but after 20+ years cd's still cost about the same and now dl's aren't really any cheaper.

H9

unc2701

I gotta say my favorite trend recently is the vinyl+download. Buy the vinyl and you get an instant download of the music... or the vinyl comes with a coupon for a download. Bit rates I've gotten have been from 256 to 320 to lossless.

Even the 256 makes it worth it: Most the time when I'm listening to music on the computer, I don't really care about the quality, but for serious listening, I've got the vinyl.

Cpyder

maximillian wrote: »

Now if I can find a good none-iPod portable player that plays Flac.

Sadly, Ipod doesn't even play flac. You have to convert to Apple Lossless. Which brings me to my next point, why doesn't every portable media player/software player/car audio system play FLAC? How difficult would it be to add FLAC support. There's no royalties, it would be free to add support for it to any device and you'd be making so many people happy.

Cpyder

It's kind of funny that you can download in either flac, wav, or wma from that site. No cost difference, but you can just convert to the other formats once you download one. Maybe it's just for lazy people?

heiney9

unc2701 wrote: »

I gotta say my favorite trend recently is the vinyl+download. Buy the vinyl and you get an instant download of the music... or the vinyl comes with a coupon for a download. Bit rates I've gotten have been from 256 to 320 to lossless.

Even the 256 makes it worth it: Most the time when I'm listening to music on the computer, I don't really care about the quality, but for serious listening, I've got the vinyl.

What lossless codec is used to get bit rates of 256-320Kbps? Is this a new codec I've never heard of?

Typically 256-320 is lossy? (as in mp3) Do tell if there is a new lossless codec that allows for this type of compression since typical true lossless compression is usually around 650-800+ Kbps.

H9

heiney9

unc2701, I think I misread your post you are saying you get a range of free dl's from 256-320 and also sometimes lossless.

I thought you said the 256-320 was lossless, my bad.

H9

SolidSqual

You can get The Doors Perception in Lossless for about $75. That's $75 dollars less than if you bought the physical version, which also contains DVDs I would never ever watch. So, in this case, the price is cheaper and I buy what I want.

That being said, I will not be buying any albums from Rhino unless they can't be had for much cheaper through a physical purchase at Amazon or elsewhere.

unc2701

heiney9 wrote: »

I thought you said the 256-320 was lossless, my bad.

H9

Bingo. I didn't phrase that well.

SolidSqual wrote: »

You can get The Doors Perception in Lossless for about $75. That's $75 dollars less than if you bought the physical version, which also contains DVDs I would never ever watch. So, in this case, the price is cheaper and I buy what I want.

That being said, I will not be buying any albums from Rhino unless they can't be had for much cheaper through a physical purchase at Amazon or elsewhere.

Check amazon $72 for the physical set.

SolidSqual

unc2701 wrote: »

Bingo. I didn't phrase that well.


Check amazon $72 for the physical set.

Ugh, I stand corrected.

unc2701

SolidSqual wrote: »

Ugh, I stand corrected.

It's worth the $3 to not have to rip it...

maximillian

I would still rip it. However physical media gives you a backup in case your HD crashes.

heiney9

BlueFox wrote: »

I suspect there is a premium for lossless since it will probably end up on some file sharing site and copied infinitely for free. Or course, the same thing can happen by ripping a CD and sharing it, but the record companies probably want some revenue for making these files available.

I understand what you're saying, but if that is the case it's absurd because those that go to the effort of "sharing" music can buy the cd for less than $5 used, in most cases, and still share it. And by buying used the record company get nada, zero, zilch.

Also if that's the case then they should charge a premium for actual physical copies as well, because it takes less than 3 minutes for me to rip an entire cd to FLAC so the convenience thing doesn't hold water, other than instant gratification.

I recently went to several "old school" record stores with the express intent on buying new (to me music) I bought roughly $160 in used cd's. One of the guys I went with made the comment "look how we are supporting the music industry". I thought we didn't support the music industry at all, we supported the Mom & Pop dealers. Now if I could Dl'd the same music for say $5 or 6 a cd I'd be willing to support buying "new" music, but when I can on avg. pay $3-5 for a used cd, why on earth would I pay $10-14 to download a lossless copy?

Granted not every single cd I want I can always find used.

Anyways sorry for the derail into the greedy music co's. 2 decade practice of overcharging for music. It's finally caught up with them and for the past 10 years I have tried my damndist (sp) to buy used rather than be raped by the cost of new cd's.

H9

dc55110

heiney9 wrote: »

Anyways sorry for the derail into the greedy music co's. 2 decade practice of overcharging for music. It's finally caught up with them and for the past 10 years I have tried my damndist (sp) to buy used rather than be raped by the cost of new cd's.

H9

The only way I buy music is either direct from the artist or label (indie stuff) or used. And I buy lots of music... lots of music.

Face

Thanks for the link Mike.

John30_30

maximillian wrote: »

I can see where bandwidth on lossless is probably the only real cost adder.

The whole $1 per mp3 doesn't make sense to me. Why spend $1 when you get a lossy format and no physical media. As someone already mentioned, might as well buy the physical disc. I guess for one-hit-wonder type artists it would be OK. However, where possible I would prefer to buy Flac or other lossless format.

Now if I can find a good none-iPod portable player that plays Flac.

Did someone say Rio Karma? I'll quit tooting the horn about the karma, but do google Rockbox and the various players that you can flash with it that will then play flacs. Cowon, Gigabeat, some of the older iPods...

heck, here: Rockbox wiki

punk-roc

just wanted to say thanks for the link heads-up.. nothing significant to add!

Jason

iaamap

extra for flac is a rip off however, for certain albums where only 2 songs are good and the rest crap, nice to pick off only what you want