Entertainment For Lively Minds
Buying the digital download vs the actual CD - how do you decide?
Posted by Mousey on 17 January 2010 - 8:53am.
I recently bought "Them Crooked Vultures" and the Paul McCartney Live in NYC albums as iTunes downloads, also the Clapton/Winwood live concerts.
Then today I was in a CD store buying a present for someone and saw these on the shelves and thought wow I'd love to have the actual CD - maybe it's got something interesting to read on the cover etc etc.
Yet when I bought them as downloads I just wanted to hear them straight away and thought if I want any more info I can look it up on the internet etc.
Does anyone else do this - download something and then wish you'd waited?
Or is this just the old record collector in me - need the LP, the cover etc, to hold in my hand.
- More from Mousey.
- Login or register to post comments
-
They aren't the same thing though.
When you buy the download, you're buying a technically inferior version of the recording. The MP3 processing has deliberately thrown away lots of the sonic information that was in the original. If you believe it sounds exactly the same to you when you play it back as the physical artifact would, arguably you haven't lost out. If you feel that the higher sonic quality of the CD version makes a positive difference to your listening pleasure, then the download version is a lesser thing. So to answer your question; I never have this quandary. I very, very rarely download MP3s. I certainly wouldn't pay for one. In fact, as a rule of thumb, I'll only do it if no better version is available anywhere.
...assuming the download is an MP3 then you're right
I'll only go for mp3 download as an absolute last resort. I do, however, download lots of FLACs with a reported provenance.
It's then pretty easy to determine if the file has ever been through an mp3 encoder at any time during it's life.
It's the vertiginous
drop in the upper frequency spectrum that gives the game away. Like you, I'm happy to download FLACs or SHNs, but then it's relatively rare that they are options you actually have to pay for, the KCCC aside, (sheepish grin). Personally, I'd like to make the re-encoding of MP3s into a 'lossless' format a capital crime.
KCCC and dead.net are the only two I know of
re-encoding
If you can't avoid importing an MP3 into Audacity and then re-encoding to MP3, don't believe what you sometimes hear that using the same or higher bit rate as the original file will prevent quality loss. This is incorrect. All you can say is that the higher the bit rate you re-encode to, the less will be the quality loss that results.
If you only want to perform simple edits on your MP3 (cut, copy, paste, join, fade or normalise), you may prefer an application that can edit MP3s directly without having to decompress then re-encode them as Audacity does. MP3 DirectCutfor Windows and Audion for OS 8, 9 and X are two such applications. For more advanced edits such as effects, the audio needs to be decompressed in an editor like Audacity, so you must then accept any perceptible quality loss from re-encoding the MP3.
If you're just getting started in home recording, you can't go far wrong with products from Shure. Recently, tried to record friend' Halloween costume party into video. Models SM58 and SM57 are workhorse microphones of the professional audio world, and as long as you don't mistreat them terribly their resale value holds up quite well.
Encoding to mp3 should be a one-way only process
as *any* re-encoding has the potential to cause artifacts and quality loss.
If you need to edit a digital track at home then I'd always recommend going back to your original lossless 'master' (WAV/FLAC/whatever), edit that and then do a fresh mp3 encode.
I don't think I've ever...
...bought an entire album via download. Indeed, I think I've probably only downloaded a couple of dozen songs ever, preferring always to buy LP or CD. I download podcasts and other content available only via download, but if there's a physical piece to be had, that's what I want.
If I'm in town..
and I see a CD I want - I'll buy that.
If I'm at home and I see/hear/think about something and I haven't got it then I'll download it.
I do want to own physical versions by a select few, I'll generally know when the release date is for them so the shopping trip will be pre-planned.
Only buy special editions these days
Downloads all the way otherwise. The last two CDs I bought were the Travelling Wilburys linen-bound box set and the Dylan triple-CD set for the postcards, flyers, ticket stubs etc. Oh, and the Eilen Jewell CD that the professor flagged up some time back - couldn't find it for download anywhere. As a bloke with the luxury of a 'vinyl room' in my house, I never thought I'd get to this stage, but nothing compels me to own the product these days.
Special Eds
Me too. I also only buy downloads that I can get at 320k or above. At least that way I know that the file quality will stand the test of almost every bit of kit that I could possibly throw at it.
I defy anyone to tell the difference between a 320k file and a CD copy with anything but the most expensive bits of kit.
In 99.99% of cases, I defy anyone to tell the difference
between original CD and a well-encoded 320kbps mp3 on ANY kit, even the most expensive.
I will usually buy the cd
then copy to i pod. I find the price of buying the physical product is not particularly more expensive than buying the download.
Exactly what I do.
30% discount does me no harm either.
Personally...
...I will only buy the digital download if it is somewhat less expensive than the cd release, or if I am convinced that the sound quality is not compromised too much. In other words, high bitrate MP3 is acceptable if it's cheaper than the cd, otherwise I'd rather buy the cd, rip to FLAC and keep the cd as a 'backup' just in case.
Most of my listening is done via a heavily modified Logitech Squeezebox 3, so I like to have a digital version for streaming, but ripping to FLAC is just as easy as buying an MP3 would be... and will probably sound slightly better*.
* but not necessarily so; some albums appear, to my ears, to actually benefit from the effects of lossy compression. Can't explain that one, but I'm trusting my ears. Most don't, or I don't really hear too much of a difference...
The McCartney live album
The McCartney live album solved this if you bought it via his website as it gave you an immediate digital copy with the hard copy following in the post shortly after release.
Generally buy
I've never downloaded a full album of "new". Only downloaded odd tracks which I don't have on CD, need for a compilation or just interested to listen to.
I'll tend to use something like Spotify, the old fashioned "borrowing method" to find out about newnew or oldnew stuff.
Its probably an OCD-type thing ("I must have the product, otherwise I don't feel I own it. And it must be kept in alphabetical order")
The correct form of alphabetical order, of course.
Where the definitive article is ignored, but not the indefinite. Oh, and by surname or nickname first rather than initial. It's important to get these things right. Don't get me started on the protocols of removing stickers from the jewel cases...
Alphabetical Order
Exactly as you describe
Various Artists/Compilations - Alphabetical Order by Title, by Genre (50s, 60s, Soundtrack, Punk/New Wave, Rock, Soul, reggae etc)
Stickers from Jewel Cases - if a price tag/stock sticker: a slight application of lighter fluid either onto lint-free cloth, or directly to sticker in the case of excessively stubborn adhesive
if an "official" sticker (eg Special Edition) it stays on.
OCD - a gift and a curse rolled into one
When you compare cd prices online to download prices
When would you buy the download? Amazon/play prices are 90% of the time the same or less than (legally) downloading.
depends
cost vs immediacy. this afternoon i nearly downloaded a Midlake album. then i saw the cd was £2.50 cheaper and decided to wait. then i played some snippets and decided not to bother with either.
Downloading
Is like recording off the radio, back in the day. If you really like, it you'll buy the physical product....
I could be wrong, but I would say that just as years ago casual music fans probably bought lots of singles, but not a lot of albums, these days the casual fan will download, the "serous" music fan will buy the CD....Discuss??
a (dumb?) question
if I copy a track from a cd into iTunes thus making it an mp3 and if I downlod said track as an mp3 from iTunes or Amazon - will they both be of the same quality?
I don't have I tunes....
.....so I don't know what options you have for ripping music to .mp3. Normally, when you rip a track from CD, you can set it to whatever quality(bitrate)you choose.
The higher number the bitrate eg 64kb/s, 192kb/s, 320kb/s the better the quality of the mp3.
Also I don't know what quality you download from I tunes.
So, for example... you download a track from I tunes and it is at 192kb/s. If you rip the same track at a bitrate below 192 it will be of inferior quality, and of course, if you rip it at a higher bitrate than 192 it will be higher quality.
Remember though....a track at 320kb/s is twice the size of one at 160kb/s. This means that if your ipod is full holding 1000 songs ripped at 160kb/s, then if you want to rip the same songs at the higher quality 320kb/s, you'll only be able to get 500 on before it's full.
Although
If you just listen to them on CD, you don't need to worry about such things...other than shelf space of course....!
conscious choice
If it is something I really want then I tend to buy it on CD. But I also have an emusic account and so use that to experiment and try things thhat i otherwise probably wouldn't buy, or at at least might buy 1 in 5 at best. That way I end up hearing more things.
The price is right
For me it's mainly down to price. These days, the vast majority of my CD buying is Emusic downloads, with Emusic albums working out at about £1.45 each it's pretty unusual for a physical CD to be priced competitively. I If Emusic doesn't have what I want then I'll usually get the CD as I value the booklet etc more highly than the 50p-£1.00 difference you normally see between CD & download.