iPod and digital music

[etgadsby]

Dear Friends,

In my neck of the woods it seems the iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod) is the hottest new toy this year.  Who’s got one, or something like it? What are folks views about MP3 downloads and how Apple’s Music Store and the "new" Napster fit into that?

I don’t personally have an iPod, or even a Walkman (ok I might have a broken walkman someplace) but I’d like to see what other people think. Are digital music player’s awesome or just hype?

[Yonkey]

I'm with Alex on this one.  I find them way too expensive for my use.  If I'm going to shell out that kind of money on something, I'd rather get a PDA or laptop, which could play music and do other stuff.  

[etgadsby]

I’d like to have an iPod for a weekend, just to play with it but I don’t particularly want one. I’ve heard good things about them and I have noticed a lot of them around my campus and at my gym. So the price must be right for a lot of folks.  

I’ve looked at Apple’s Music store a little and I like how that works. The price right if you want one song off of a CD and not the whole album. It’s also a fairly elegant way to have licensed digital music on your computer… having your playlist and being legal at the same time.  

Personally, I know some people are just crazy about music. I like music a lot but I’m not one of those”I need a soundtrack for my life” people who are constantly listening to their walkmans, iPods or whatever. I have great speakers at home, I listen to music there!  

[Jeysie]

I'd never spend that much money on something that only did one thing, unless it was a supremely useful one thing. And I don't listen to mp3s *that* much.

The whole paying-for-an-mp3 concept isn't horrible, though. My question is, what is the selection like? I mean, recent songs, and really popular older songs I can just tape off the radio and listen to them that way. The only stuff I'd want to download (and have downloaded) is old, obscure stuff... songs from musicals, not-as-popular 80's tunes, oldies tunes, that sort of stuff. Things they almost never play on the radio so you can tape them.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[copycat]

When you buy singles or albums you're getting more than just the music. You can hold it in your hand, you can look at the sleeve, you can read lyrics (if included or relevant of course) and any other amount of little extras an artist/label will throw in.

When you burn an mp3 to CD you can also hold the CD in your hand. You can download the sleeve, print it out and put it into a CD-case. You can read lyrics online. Little extras an artist/label will throw in here in Belgium?: None.
Anyway, AFAIK, Apple still hasn't struck a deal with the Belgian music distribution companies, so iTunes is rather useless.

[Drunken Chinchilla]

And is it ever as nice as when you buy it from a shop? Also if you're going to make a CD it's not very likely you're going to put just one song on it, morelike 10+ songs which is what an album usually consists of anyway making it $10+. Why go to all the trouble of doing that when you can get a superior product for say a couple of dollars more (lol and I'm not even American) how the artists wanted the album to sound (playorder, mixing of tracks etc)?

By little extras I meant music videos, photos, interviews etc included on CDs which is quite common on CDs now.

[copycat]

And is it ever as nice as when you buy it from a shop? Also if you're going to make a CD it's not very likely you're going to put just one song on it, morelike 10+ songs which is what an album usually consists of anyway making it $10+. Why go to all the trouble of doing that when you can get a superior product for say a couple of dollars more (lol and I'm not even American) how the artists wanted the album to sound (playorder, mixing of tracks etc)?

By little extras I meant music videos, photos, interviews etc included on CDs which is quite common on CDs now.

Oufcourse, if I make a CD, it's going to have as many number on it as I can. Most importantly, that CD will only have numbers I like to hear. You see, most of the CDs I bought have at least one song I don't like. What makes you say a CD you buy is a superior product? A couple of dollars more is not much these days, but a few euros more is.
I must confess it's been a while since I bought a music CD (and no, I don't do illegal downloading either), but when browsing the net I still have not seen any extras added to music CDs.

[Drunken Chinchilla]

Heeeyyy dollars and euros are worth around the same so i dunno it shouldn't be worth that much more/less

[Drunken Chinchilla]

oh and by superior product i meant the quality of the printer, paper, case, CD art, etc etc I could go on but its boring so yeah....

[Yonkey]

Stepping away from the legality issues for a sec:

The reason I'd take an MP3 CD over an Audio one is that you can fit way more songs on the former.  You can fit 80-minutes worth on an Audio one, but the limitation is based on time length.  With mp3, the limitation is on file size.  So 700mb worth, and if you compress them right, you could fit a LOT.

Anyway, that's comparing a CD, mini-discs hold half the amount (duh) and IPods can hold up to 40gb.  Of course, you have to look at battery life as well in an mp3 player.  It may be able to play a week's worth of music, but obviously doesn't have enough power to do that.

[Jeysie]

Mp3s are still superior in a few ways for old obscure songs, IMHO.

Personally I think $1 is reasonable enough for an mp3, considering that commerical singles are usually $2-$3, and factoring in the cost of things like storage and bandwidth. And I, too, generally prefer buying single songs, since it's very rare I like even most of the songs on an album, unless it's a "Greatest Hits" type thing. One of these days I should get around to converting my mix tapes into CDs.

And they must sell different CDs over yonder, Alex, or it's a very recent trend, because none of my CDs have any extras over perhaps some stories in the cover notes (which total info is usually available online somewheres anyway), and maybe occasionally a "hidden" track.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Say]

lol you all suck


I WANT AN IPOD it rules and it kick ass and it looks pwetty!

I also wanna learn how to dance like the comercial woo *dances*

[racx_00]

iPod

[Drunken Chinchilla]

Yeah that commercials so cool, although I'll never be that hip lol

[racx_00]

im sorry but what is iPod , cos i dont think we have it here

[Yonkey]

im sorry but what is iPod , cos i dont think we have it here

Psst, check out the link in the first post of this thread.  

[racx_00]

im really blind, lol

BTW we dont have iPod

[dew7]

   IMHO, Ipods are overpriced and they may be cool but I am not ready to part with 200-300 dollars just to have one.  However, I would like to test one just for a free trial run.

[copycat]

Heeeyyy dollars and euros are worth around the same so i dunno it shouldn't be worth that much more/less

Latest rate: 1 dollar = 0.839631 EUR, meaning I just have tgo pay 0.84 euro's to get one dollar. With a price of 20 $ that's already a difference of 3 euros.

I guess iPod's are sold overhere, but I don't see any use for it.