UK iTunes shelves music price cut

Please excuse my ignorance.... I just looked at the itunes site and couldn't find an answer.

What formats/bitrates are available to buy on Itunes??

For example, say I want George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

Can I d/l in full WAV? If not are there options for quality? If so, are there different prices?

thanks in advance.
Patrick

Sorry Patrick I don't know - anyone else?

Itunes offers 2 download options..... Itunes at 192k and Itunes Plus at 256k. Not everything is offered on Itunes plus though, but either way both options are crap from a quality point of view.

Ryan

quote:

Originally posted by ryan_d:
Itunes offers 2 download options..... Itunes at 192k and Itunes Plus at 256k. Not everything is offered on Itunes plus though, but either way both options are crap from a quality point of view.

Ryan

I think you should qualify that quality remark Ryan....... ??

Seriously????? 256 is as good as you can get?

Wow, i am shocked. I simply have no idea how people can listen to that!!!!

Ryan, i wholeheartedly agree. No wonder Ive NEVER even considered looking on there.

I;ve bought about two dozen songs off itunes.

Just as a taster it's fine - for songs I wouldnt want to buy a whole album for.

What I am ecstatic about is the rush of people dumping their tangible media - I'm scoring 2nd hand CDs at unbelievable prices.

Long live downloads!

PC

quote:

Wow, i am shocked. I simply have no idea how people can listen to that!!!!

I can, quite easily on my iPod where they sit alongside the ripped CD stuff (mostly Apple Lossless)....as I sit for hours on long cross country flights and listen to music through my Shure SE530's (without ever worrying about bitrates etc) while I work on the laptop or simply chill-out.

The market for iTunes downloads is aimed at people who buy music and don't give a toss about what bitrate/how it was ripped/was there error correction or anything else....and amazingly they enjoy it as they don't know or care that there is anything better.

The elitist inhabitants of this forum (which is all of us IMO) spend way too much too pfaffing round with systems/equipment upgrades in search of that elusive perfect sound (...awaiting mini lectures now on how it all about the music of course...) that they can't enjoy it for what it is....

Ok, rant over, I feel better now.

Jim

Sherrif,

the quality point of view was pertaining to it only being at 256k, which is really low compared to a lossless recording or wav file. It was in no way to do with the type of music which was offered.

Ryan

Ryan_D said:

quote:

Itunes offers 2 download options..... Itunes at 192k and Itunes Plus at 256k. Not everything is offered on Itunes plus though, but either way both options are crap from a quality point of view.

I d/l my first ever song from the iTunes store 2 nights back and it showed as 128K! I did not see any options about choice of bit rate. I'll have to take another look.

Thing is, they did not ask for my CC. How do they charge me? I have purchased kit from the Apple store, so perhaps they retain my CC info.

Any ideas?

Richard

128K is the standard bitrate for songs purchased from the iTunes store.

As for the purchase...I suspect that you still had the cookied form your last session and were logged in as yourself and have "autopay" set up in some way.

Cheers

Jim

Some acquaintances (i.e. people who do not know me well enough to know about the hi-fi), have expressed surprise when it has come up in conversation that I have never downloaded a song from iTunes, but even before I go into hi-fi mode and start worrying about the sound quality it seems like a no-brainer to me. Last time I took any interest in the iTunes shop the going rate seemed to be 79p a song making even a modest 10 track album £7.90. I think my average spend on a pop/rock album is about £5, and most of them have more than 10 tracks. My classical collection is cheaper still I would guess, as I discovered that charity shops often have well looked after good classical stuff in and rarely want more that £1, vinyl is often cheaper still, and although you do get duds, you also find gems and it all balances out nicely. I just don't see iTunes as being cost effective, never mind that the sound quality of those low bit-rate files is... well low!

128???

Wow. I find 320 or V0s to be barely listenable, and only then if it is something I truly love.

Why would they hesitate to offer something better?

Itunes do not offer varying bit rates. Its 128kb for songs downloaded from itunes or 256kb from itunes plus. Itunes plus is DRM free.

Ryan

quote:

Originally posted by ryan_d:
Itunes do not offer varying bit rates. Its 128kb..

Hey Itunes, 1998 called and wants its bit rate back.