Friday, July 16, 2004
Apple's iTunes downloads are currently into the millions, so I can hardly be called a pioneer at having just paid for and downloaded the latest EP and album from They Might Be Giants. But one of the things that has never appealed to me about the iTunes service is the relatively low bit-rate they offer -- 128kB -- even if their own sound file format sounds better than an equivalent MP3 of the same bit-rate. I did buy a Frank Black and the Catholics album for download a few years ago, but the album was only so-so and the sound quality offered was only adequate, and I guess it detered me from buying music for download, even when directly supporting the artist in doing so. Having just finished ripping all of the pop music CDs I own at 320Kb, I knew I would be able to hear the difference in quality. And having been "stung" all these years replacing existing vinyl with equivalent CDs, I could see the same thing happening from wanting to upgrade from a relatively lo-fi 128Kb music file to a higher bit-rate latter.
So when I heard last week that They Might Be Giants were not only selling the contents of their own CD online on their own site, but were offering it at a CD-equivalent 256Kb, I became sorely tempted. I enjoy the band and want to support them in their efforts, and when I saw that they were bundling their latest album and EP release together, I gave in and bought it.
The download process gave me both albums a track at a time, which took about 10 minutes total this morning -- mostly me clicking on "OK" buttons to initiate the next song transfer. All of the artwork is also supplied, so I will end up printing copies of the covers on my colour printer and convert the MP3 files to a CD-playable format.
Now I've got some fresh TMBG tunes I will listen to while at work later today. If only they will come back to town -- I would love to take my girls to one of their kid-friendly concerts.
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