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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Sunday, July 04, 2004

From a High-Tech System, Low-Fi Music

New York Times (free registration required): "Love the iPod, but don't jump too hastily to fill it with thousands of dollars of iTunes. The tracks are not carbon copies of the CD originals, but compressed versions. The smaller files are handy for speedy downloads, space-saving for storage and perfectly serviceable for listening through ear buds when riding on the subway. Not what you will want, however, when your desktop computer becomes the home jukebox and wirelessly sends these simulacra to the entertainment center in the living room ... Apple has elected to use a compression standard that, to put the best face on it, creates an awfully small file. This music lite is a response to the data transfer problems entailed in downloading the music that resides on anyone's collection of CD's ... Customers are led to believe that they are getting a CD in all respects except the trouble of going to the mall. The iTunes store does not warn about the permanence of its method of compression; once freeze-dried, there is no way to reconstitute the music into CD quality for playing through a good stereo."

Apple fans will tell you, correctly, that music purchased from the iTunes Music Store sounds great on both a Mac/PC and on the iPod. But this fact belies the problem the NYT is trying to convey: A 128 Kbps Protected AAC file doesn't make for a good source when you want to do more with your music. After I bulk converted my iTunes purchases to unprotected MP3 files a while back, the results were muddy and tinny sounding. Meanwhile, I'm not a big fan of the MusicMatch online store, but that site offers much higher quality 192 Kbps WMA files; these files convert quite nicely to unprotected 128 Kbps WMA files which, in turn, are useful in far more devices than Apple's format. For this reason, I'll always seek out music on the MusicMatch before turning to other services, like Napster.

[ Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink ]