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Music Media Handhelds Hardware

Portable MP3 Hardware Sales Up 317

Posted by timothy from the hide-your-shock dept.
prostoalex writes "In December of 2002 only 12% of US music downloaders owned a digital music player, while for this year the number has increased to 17%. Jupiter Research expects the sales of the digital music players to double this year, while another research agency notes a remarkable shift towards paying for music. Even the music industry tends to agree that online music stores are a boon and expects the Web sales to really take off in 2004." (And the sales of Ogg-capable hardware are up, too, since there finally is some.)
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Portable MP3 Hardware Sales Up More

Portable MP3 Hardware Sales Up

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  • MP3 CD? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aliens ( 90441 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:39AM (#7679691) Homepage Journal
    Do CD players that can play MP3-CD's count too?

    • Re:MP3 CD? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Davak ( 526912 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:49AM (#7680299) Homepage
      Or cellphones that play mp3s...
      Or PDAs that play mp3s...

      I am currently patenting a toilet roll dispenser that connects to a network via wi-fi to play songs while you enjoy your toilet time.

      All I want for Christmas is my Swiss-Army device: mp3/ogg player, PDA, cell phone, pager, and GPS.

      Davak

  • perhaps more surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by real_smiff ( 611054 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:43AM (#7679723)
    is that >4/5 of music downloaders still only listen to that music on their computers - ? When MP3 playing portable cd players (whew, that's long), for example, hardly cost more than one's that don't..

    • Re:perhaps more surprising (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GizmoToy ( 450886 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:45AM (#7679744) Homepage
      I don't think its all that surprising, really. I'd have to believe the biggest reason most only listen to their music on their computer is because the entire library is available at any given time. You don't need to swap CDs. To most, that's a very attractive option.
      • That's the biggest reason I'm trading in my MD player for an iPod. That, and now that I use iTMS, my purchased music is easily transferred to the iPod, I'd have to do some crafty work around to get it into the MD player.
      • Which is exactly the reason I got a 20 gig iPod. My library is about 12 gigs right now which leaves me quite a bit of room to grow (I'm not going to say no one will ever use more than 20 gigs [read:640K] ).

        I'd have gone for the 40 gig but the 20 is thinner. Check out the difference before you buy.
    • wish i had mod points right now...

      me personally, i think part of the reason people were holding off on buying MP3 players is b/c they were hoping this mythical appliance convergence happened, they could get their mobile phone, e-mail app, PDA and MP3 player in a single package. while that's possible now w/ some of the units, very few of us want to shell out for an app of that size that costs as much as some desktops right now. i think what's happening is that people realize that it'll still be a while un
    • they could, of course (hopefully before someone else says it!) be making (ordinary red-book audio) CDs from those downloads... no portably mp3 player required, hehe. :)
    • I don't really find that surprising at all. Most people I know already have a fair amount invested in CD playing equipment. So, instead of spending more money, they just burn a bunch of CD's. Seems reasonable to me.

    • Re:perhaps more surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Zathrus ( 232140 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:08AM (#7679928) Homepage
      is that >4/5 of music downloaders still only listen to that music on their computers

      Or in their cars (many cars have MP3 capable CD players now, and virtually all OEM head units are MP3 capable).

      I suppose I technically qualify in this survey -- I've downloaded a few things (which were available free from the artist), but most of our 80 GB collection (MP3, --alt-preset extreme) was ripped from our own CDs. And we have no portable MP3 players of any kind (I have a portable CD player/AM/FM tuner somewhere). We're content to use CDs in our cars for now (a Phatbox would be cool... but $750 ea is freaking expensive).

      Sure, an iPod or other HD based player would be nifty, but that's about it... they're very expensive and we don't have much use for a portable player -- we're both desk jockeys and could play music via headphone from our PC (me)/laptop (her). At home we have TiVo's with HMO and PCs to play the music from. In between we're basically in our cars (see above). And the flash based players just don't have the capacity to be attractive (at least not to me).

      • Re:perhaps more surprising - Ach, get a neuros! (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:30AM (#7680106)

        I dunno. I have an older car (1995) that only had a tape-deck/radio. Since I have a large collection of music ripped to MP3 format, I was growing more and more dissappointed that I could not listen to my music in my car. I started investigating replacing the in-dash radio with a CD player that would read MP3's. Still, this was an imperfect option for me, cause I would still have to deal with CDs which are a pain in the butt to keep from getting scratched, out of direct sunlight, away from extremes of hot and cold, etc... I had resigned myself to dealing with this, as it was certainly better than nothing...but having burned mp3 cd's in the past, I realized that 700megs of music (+/-) is but a fraction of my collection and at best, an mp3 cd player was but a fractional step in the right direction.

        So, I resigned myself to spending some cash and started researching players. Then I stumbled across this guy [neurosaudio.com], and I got excited. For $229 bucks I could house 20gigs worth of music. It broadcasts audio on the FM dial, so all I had to do was tune my radio station to the Neuros broadcast station and viola, music instantly available. ...it beats the hell outta ripping apart my dash to play mp3 disks.

        What's even better is that at $229 it cost less than most of the in dash mp3/CD players I was looking at. So, I took the plunge...

        Haven't had a complaint yet. Works exactly as advertised. Support folk are excellent, price was great. It's not the sleekest, or sexiest player on the market, but the damn thing is cheap, versatile, and open source. Check it out if you want a solution to playing mp3's in your car. This little thing will let you play 'em anywhere. I'd take one of these over an iPod any day.

        http://www.neurosaudio.com [neurosaudio.com]

        • Re:perhaps more surprising - Ach, get a neuros! (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Zathrus ( 232140 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:53AM (#7680337) Homepage
          No thanks. FM does really horrible things to audio quality. If you can't hear it, that's fine, but I can -- even on stock speakers. The most audible area is low bass -- FM radio only transmits 50 Hz-15 kHz.

          Note that this is broadcast FM, but AFAIK all of the local-area broadcast devices are subject to the same limitations. Most FM stations do more compression on the signal than this, so it should still sound better than they do.
          • Hmmm... Well, to each his own. I hadn't noticed this to be a problem. In my car I want good sound of course, but I think the bigger problems are attributed to the poor listening environment (engine noise, wind noise, driving distractions, etc...). Any limitations in FM transmission just has not been an issue for me in my car. But, I can see how that might be an annoyance for vehicle audiophiles. Good luck!
        • Go to Radio Shack, get a cassette adapter that will allow you to hook up and play your portable MP3 player through the car's cassette player.

      • Or in their cars (many cars have MP3 capable CD players now, and virtually all OEM head units are MP3 capable

        I would guess there are also a ton of people who simply download MP3'S and burn them to cd's as audio CD's. That's what I do, and I've been doing it for the last 5 years. Sure, CD's are bulky, but I can get them free after rebate any day of the week, and throw them out when I get tired of them - and they run in any cd player. I remeber back in '98 when I had to use WinAmp to convert them to WA

    • But portable CD players go through batteries like they're going out of fashion, and things like the iPod are just too damn expensive.

      Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a portable mp3/ogg player (especially one of the iriver ones...), but right now I simply can't justify the expense.

  • 15 gram mp3 player (Score:5, Interesting)

    by huhmz ( 216967 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:43AM (#7679726)
    I just bought one of these [mp3spelare.se]. (page in swedish sorry) Very nifty, you hang it around your neck, it only weighs 15 grams. Great when you want to go running and 256 MB is more than enough for a jogging run.

  • It will be interesting to see (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mental_telepathy ( 564156 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:45AM (#7679739)
    If these number go up after the Pepsi million song giveaway with Itunes. Supposedley it will be on during the superbowl, so that would be a big target audience.
    • I agree that the iTunes/Pepsi music giveaway will have an impact on digital music use, but I'm actually more interested in seeing how things will change for the iTunes music store itself. In recent news, Apple has said they've had more than 20 million music downloads. After they give away 1 million tracks, that's going to bring a lot of new business to the store, people who have never given it a try or maybe never heard of it. I'd be curious to see any discussion from Apple on what they're predicting for
    • Sorry to be pedantic, but Pepsi is going to give away 100 Million songs, which will probably kickstart things quite a bit more than 1 million will.

  • But of course (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cspenn ( 689387 ) <financialaidpodcastNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:46AM (#7679748) Homepage Journal
    Funny how the music industry changes its tune as soon as the money starts rolling in.

    "Oh yeah, the Internet, it's the latest thing!" ...while the RIAA locks and loads the lawsuit cannon for yet another salvo.

    I wonder if customers will be as easily confused?

    • Changing Tunes For $$$ (Score:5, Funny)

      by tds67 ( 670584 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:51AM (#7679796)
      Funny how the music industry changes its tune as soon as the money starts rolling in.

      Where have you been? Then money's been rolling in.

      There was that 12 year-old girl they sued and got some money out of, that 70-something year old man they sued, the college kids they sued, the housewife they're suing, etc., etc.

      • Oh, sorry. I meant getting money for the actual product they're supposed to be dispensing.

        And I wonder just how much of the settlements they get versus how much their lawyers get...
  • And the sales of Ogg-capable hardware are up, too, since there finally is some.

    What hardware is capable of playing Ogg?

  • Statistics (Score:5, Insightful)

    by trystanu ( 691619 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:47AM (#7679758) Homepage
    So let me get this straight:

    In 2002 only 12% of people downloading music owned MP3 players

    In 2003 17% of people downloading music owned MP3 players.

    So we're talking percents of percents here. 12% of however many people were downloading music (on that'd be less if we're talking people who've paid for their downloaded music). Has this number increased, decreased?

    Thankfully in the new 2003 Jupiter Research consumer survey, 6 percent of online adults said they would be buying a portable music device in the next 12 months. What's an online adult, am I an online adult?

    Uhuh? Anyone else confused? They seem like numbers just for the sake of numbers to me...
    • Uhuh? Anyone else confused? They seem like numbers just for the sake of numbers to me...

      "Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that."
  • It shreds the iPod in every way. Plays WMA and OGG like the iPod doesn't. 20GB drive, records standard like the iPod doesn't, has built in radio as the iPod doesn't, mic input (yes it records standard) true SRS surround sound, USB2.0 like the iPod doesn't, digital and analog audio out, the sexiest case on a portable music player ever, and all for $370.

    go to http://www.outwardsound.com/products.php/7/278/ [outwardsound.com] for a look.

    • My vote for the best of them.iRiver iHP-120-JRDF (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      " It shreds the iPod in every way. Plays WMA and OGG like the iPod doesn't. 20GB drive, records standard like the iPod doesn't, has built in radio as the iPod doesn't, mic input (yes it records standard) true SRS surround sound, USB2.0 like the iPod doesn't, digital and analog audio out, the sexiest case on a portable music player ever, and all for $370."

      Unfortunately it doesn't come with a Job's Reality Distortion Field (JRDF), so it's not as good.
    • If you say so.

      Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

    • Re:My vote for the best of them... iRiver iHP-120 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jandrese ( 485 ) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:10AM (#7679942) Homepage Journal
      What about the interface? Does it have an elegant easy to use interface like the iPod, or is it more like most MP3 players with some horrible hack job of an interface?

    • Re:My vote for the best of them... iRiver iHP-120 (Score:5, Informative)

      by MrMickS ( 568778 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:12AM (#7679959) Homepage Journal
      From the Apple website:

      Connectivity FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 through dock connector

      If you are going to rant get the facts right first.

    • The iPod does USB 2.0.

      The rest of the feature set you list are things that I, and many others, find completely useless. I hate WMA only slightly less than I hate ogg vorbis -- and I bet that true SRS surround sound sounds great through your nine thousand dollar stereo system, but I want something portable.
      Your baby weighs in at 160 grams, sizing out at 60x19x105. This is negligibly different from the iPod -- but the iPod has a bit better feature set.
      The iRiver is, from its name on down, an iPod kno
      • I so totally agree about the other post's "cognitive dissonace" statement.

        This device is the same size as a ipod, but stomps it into the ground in terms of features.

        Somehow this makes it a "knockoff" and the ipod has a better "feature set"?

        Your post just smacks of:
        'So what if it can do everything mine can do plus more with no real drawbacks, mine is somehow still better. I don't really know why, but I refuse to believe that another device could be better.'
        A good example of cognitive dissonance at w
        • Keep in mind, Apple has created a very strong brand with the iPod. People don't just want an MP3 player, they want an iPod. Also, I'm willing to bet that the iRiver player requires a lot of tinkering (like every other MP3 player I've used except the iPod) to get the tags to show up, upload music, etc. The iPod just automagically works, auto-syncing your music library with your iPod. Oh, and it charges the batteries while it's doing that too. There's more to a "feature set" than tech specs. The iRiver may be
    • The Neuros - Plays WMA, WAV, MP3, OGG. Interchangeable 20 GB drive or 128MB flash. Built in radio. Built in mic. Line in. Records MP3 and WAV. Unsexy, utilitarian case. Open firmware and software. All for $230 (that's $140 less than an iRiver) or $199 for 20GB only (that's $170 less than an iRiver). And the hardware is upgradeable. True, it's USB 1.0, but that hasn't been a big issue for me, once I loaded my OGG collection. Loading an album or two doesn't take very much time at all. USB 2.0 isn'

    • Re:My vote for the best of them... iRiver iHP-120 (Score:4, Funny)

      by radish ( 98371 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:14AM (#7679975) Homepage
      And in an emergency can be used as a brick for repairing leaking dams. Man that thing's big...

      Karma all the way for me, fits in the palm of your hand.

    • "It shreds the iPod in every way."

      Hogwash. The The iHP-120 has some nice features, but like all MP3 players, it suffers from some disadvantages, such as:

      - Mediocre button layout... no scroll wheel
      - Edges not as curved as other players; not as comfortable to hold or pocket
      - Mediocre menuing system
      - Long startup time if using the DB to organize instead of sorting by directories
      - Limited shuffling abilites (especially if organizing by directories)

      Additionally, the iPod [ipodlounge.com] supports replaygain [replaygain.org]

    • Its not that sexy. Unless you find large cotton bloomers on a rotund woman/man to be sexy...

    • Does it sync with iTunes? No?

      Dealbreaker for me.

  • The RIAA must not like this. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OS24Ever ( 245667 ) * <trekkie@nomorestars.com> on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:48AM (#7679772) Homepage Journal
    I'm sure the RIAA is quaking in their boots hearing this. I keep waiting for them to start to go after MP3 manufacturers because we all know if you use an MP3 player you steal music.

    Which had me really interested in the interview with Steve Jobs [slashdot.org] previously referenced here on slashdot was that music execs thought that 'ripping a CD' equated to theft, not to converting it to MP3s.

    To be that out of touch with consumers of your product just helps me feel that market pressures, not lawsuits or 'civil disobediance' of supporting Kazaa and other illegal methods of distribution will slowly convert the morons.

    That or we could all hope they die of old age because to not understand what Ripping is they have to be 100+ and never used a computer in their life. Hell my Grandpa new what the internet was and he was 91 when he joked about me finding him a girlfriend online after I met my wife that way. He drove road graters for a living, and never touched a computer.
    • to not understand what Ripping is they have to be 100+ and never used a computer in their life.

      "Ripping" is a pretty specific term, and you have to have performed the task yourself and have some knowledge of what is going on. Most user-friendly software that converts CDs to MP3s do not call it "ripping".

      I don't think that most people over the age of 30 would be able to tell you what "ripping" means.

      And even a lot of those people that are computer literate are not necessary to the level where they kno

      • well *I* am over 30. As are most generation-x folks that started this whole computer boom thing. I mean I did run a BBS when I was in high school, cost a lot more than a website these days. boy you young wippersnappers have no idea what it was like in the old days ;)
    • Oh, be fair! It wasn't "music execs" who thought that, it was just Michael Eisner. Real music execs are also out of touch with reallity, but he's in his own league.

  • The Fight over Format (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mr_lithic ( 563105 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:50AM (#7679787) Homepage Journal
    Is this the Music Industry finally admitting that they no longer can inhibit digital music distribution and that need to grab their share of the pie?

    The music industry corporations made a bundle by changing the format of the media that they supply. There were millions made when the CD replaced the LP and millions of older releases were sold to people who already had the album.

    The shift to a portable digital format has been made outside of their control and now they are struggling to catch up.

    The lack of willingness by the younger population (12-17) in this study to purchase music points to the fact that they may have already missed the boat.

    • There were millions made when the CD replaced the LP and millions of older releases were sold to people who already had the album

      This is true, but now we've reached the point where the average person can now convert their cd tracks to MP3 or other such digital formats. Who would buy a digital copy of an album they already own when they can do it themselves at no cost with little effort?

  • It has to be said... (Score:3, Informative)

    by troon ( 724114 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:56AM (#7679841)
    <pedant>
    You mean "Vorbis", not "Ogg". As has been pointed out many times, Ogg is the "container", and Vorbis is the audio codec.
    </pedant>

    • He could have ment Ogg, given that it's a container format, and can have various codecs embeded in it. He did not give enough infomation to be precise enough proven wrong in his statement i.e. it was not clear that Vorbis was, indeed ment. It's only wrong if you apply an unprovable assumption to his words.

      Morale of this? Someone's going to reply to me, pointing out the pedantic mistake I probably made.

  • iPods.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @09:59AM (#7679857) Homepage Journal
    right now seems like a good chance for me to say thank you to all who provided useful comments and tips in the article posted earlier this week on the lack of discounts available for the Apple iPod [slashdot.org].

    alas, I still have not been able to find a decent deal. Many have pointed to apple's refurb'd items store, but it's out of stock on ipods. the best thing I've got right now is that Target will give you a $15 gift card when you buy an ipod.

    my best hope is that some marketer at Apple will see the original post and the responses and perhaps have a change of heart in what seems to be their "no discounting" policy, and how the cheaper prices offered by their competitors might be beating them in the market.

    • Re:iPods.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Animaether ( 411575 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @11:06AM (#7680470) Journal
      my best hope is that some marketer at Apple will see the original post and the responses and perhaps have a change of heart in what seems to be their "no discounting" policy

      Hop into business mode for a second and read what you wrote there.

      I see...
      - a person who really, really wants an iPod
      - a person who would want that iPod at a discount
      - a person who sees cheaper offerings from competitors
      - a person who does not intend to buy said other offerings because he is
      - a person who really, really wants an iPod

      Why lower the price ? Seems like in the end, if you can't find a cheaper deal, you'll cut your (monetary) losses and get an iPod anyway.

      And even if you do go and get a competitor's product- don't worry, there's plenty others who will still get an Ipod.
      • that's me you're talking about. but what about the average joe (or parent buying christmas gifts) who just wants a mp3 player, and isnt aware of the differences between the various selections other than capacity? They're more likely to go the cheapest offering, and it's there where apple's is more likely to end up losing.

  • Need Search Without DL (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Flamesplash ( 469287 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:00AM (#7679865) Homepage Journal
    What the music services need to do now is provide a web based interface to their music library. I really hate it that itunes and napster require you to instll their software before seeing if a particular song/artist/album is avail. If I'm only looking for a particular song/artist/album then I don't want to install some random piece of software first. Granted most people are going to pick and use one service as their primary, ie iTunes for me, but I'm not adverse to using others if they carry music I can't get through my primary.

  • I bought the Rio Karma 20gb... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kikensei ( 518689 ) <<joshua> <at> <ingaugemedia.com>> on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:01AM (#7679872) Homepage
    Works great! Contrary to a review linked on the last /. OGG/MP3 player article, the Java client works perfectly. I was able to use it to transfer and delete songs over ethernet from both my Linux desktop and my Powerbook laptop. The Win32 software and a USB2 connection seem to be required for firmware updates, but it works fine with factory firmware. It's not as elegant as the iPod in the layout of controls and the Interface, but no showstoppers. The addition of ethernet (only via a cradle) and a java client for mac/linux sealed the deal. I recommend it.
    • Do you have to have a working JRE installed? What version are you using?
      • Yeah. You need a JRE. I just went to Sun's website and downloaded/installed the current offering from their website for my Slackware 9.1 desktop. You type in the IP of the Karma (which can be static or leased via DHCP) and you can launch either the music manager or the rio "Taxi" program, which allows you to upload data files for storage.

  • Figures. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by vasqzr ( 619165 )

    I went in to Best Buy/Circuit City yesterday on my lunch hour, looking for a MP3 player to use in the car.

    They were out of almost every model. The only ones they had were the mega-expensive models, and the cheap junk low-end models. All the mid-range stuff was gone.

    I figured they were selling a ton of them.

    Even my dad said he wanted one for Christmas. I told him he didn't have a computer. "But you can put songs on it for me."

    Now that I think about it, it's probably eaiser than being 24/7 tech support fo
  • CD players are digital music players too... I think there needs to be a new phrase to describe the HDD playing devices, i.e. solid-state music players.
  • I bet they are salivating now over this news... and how many more potential law suits ( and subsequent 'settlements' ) they can file...

    Either that or having nightmares....

  • No connection between online sales and players (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MrDingDong ( 192786 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:05AM (#7679909)
    Most, if not all, of the online music stores sell music in some sort of proprietary, DRM-able format. MP3 is neither. So people who are buying MP3 players are probably not buying them to play music they've bought off an online music store. The major players - including Microsoft, Apple and RIAA - would like nothing better than to see MP3 disappear.

    It is great that MP3 player sales are up, but I don't think that there is necessarily any sort of relationship to online music sales.

    Now maybe there *is* a relationship to increased use of P2P services by the public...

    Correct me if I'm wrong....

    • Normally, I'd agree with you. And if you take Apple out of the equation I would agree. iTunes still defaults to ripping CD's to MP3, iPod's still play MP3's. You can rather easily convert protected AAC's (note: only iTMS AAC's are protected, not those you create) to MP3. You can say what you like about Apple and the RIAA being in bed together, but Apple has no problem with its customers playing MP3's on Macs and iPods.... "Rip, Mix, Burn".
    • Most MP3 players can play WMA, which makes it compatible with the new Napster. The iPod, which as of the last time I had heard was the number one MP3 player, plays AAC, which makes it compatible with iTunes. So there's no real way to tell what they're playing on their portable players.

  • +5 yrs -- "Music industry has record year again!" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Isca ( 550291 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @10:15AM (#7679985)
    How much do you want to bet that 5 years from now, the record industry will all love the internet because this year they finally figure out how to make money by selling music at a reasonable price?

    There's not one new music selling place that hasn't at least broke even at $0.99 a track? ow long before we see that special "mini Album" by (insert pop star here) for 4.99 for *6* songs?

    Of course, Jack Valenti will still be moaning, but the rest of the industry will be looking at him the same way they look at him when he talks about VCR's and rentals... I.e. "what were we thinking?" after having made more money per song by not having to pay hardly anything to distribute it.

    -Chris

    • In five years Valenti will be dead, or in a home. He's the least of our worries.

    • [snip] after having made more money per song by not having to pay hardly anything to distribute it.

      Why do /. readers continue to spread the rumor that things don't cost much to distribute over the Internet? Where did all of the millions of dotcom money go, parties? Well, some of it did but it mostly went on servers, storage and bandwidth.

      There is a old adage "never underestimate the bandwidth of a van" which applies in this case. It is still more cost effective to move large volumes of data physically

    • How much do you want to bet that 5 years from now, the record industry will all love the internet because this year they finally figure out how to make money by selling music at a reasonable price?

      Personally, I don't think they will figure this out. Even if they find out that DRMed distribution can be profitable they'll keep selling CDs because there is still a great deal of profit from distribution in physical media that doesn't have anything to do with a media sale. Unless the internet is so wildly suc

  • Technologically impossible this may be, but what'd get me buying an MP3 player would be an add-on that would let me plug it into a CD player's deck, in the same way you can get tape converters for CD players. The one thing that puts me off getting an MP3 player is the inability to plug into absolutely any CD player, no matter how old.
    • Get a deck with line in jacks. I did this a few years ago with my mp3 discman, when mp3 car stereos were well over $1000. The deck was $50 at the time as a refurb (couldn't care if the cassette broke).

      I just picked up an RCA Lyra and couldn't be happier. It actually comes with cables to hook into a line in jack, AND the old style cassette adapter you describe. Oh, and it doesn't require any software to add music to it (it's just a portable hard drive, yay Linux support!), stores its codecs on the hard driv

  • MP3 Feeding Frenzy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bossvader ( 560071 )
    Have you actually been out there (I know a lot of /.ers don't actually go outside) but it's an MP3 player feeding frenzy out there.!

    Men, women, children, cats, dogs all shopping, buying, comparing MP3's. Professing the virtues of HD vs Flash vs CD vs personal/use profiles.

    Even Pops at the ripe young age of 74 was asking me if he could use one when golfing and how easy was it to "Rip" a CD. (I can't believe he even said that)

    Its all good...

  • I realise that this is a bit off topic, so my apologies.

    I've been sampling some ogg music, and I must say the quality is excellent. Mercifully, ogg files do not have the same high-pitched "hiss" that is in most mp3's. People say I'm crazy but I swear I can hear it!

    I have lately been compressing my music (CD) collection to ogg format. However, does anyone have a good resource/site that offers ogg encoded music? I have no problem paying a small fee for music, I just don't think iTunes offers ogg. Maybe
  • If you plan to jog... becareful with choosing the HD models. We love our iPod but they don't do well when taking long runs. Last year's model will actually freeze and need to be rebooted. Done lots-o-research just a fact of iPod life. The new generation is supposed to be better but not garuanteed.

    So now we are going to be Bi-MP3 - Large HD (iPod) and Small Flash (Rio etc) kind of a pain in the arse...

    When is that 20G flash model going to arrive...

  • Sound quality a factor? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by base_chakra ( 230686 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @11:21AM (#7680620)
    I wonder how many people are turned off of personal digital audio players by the compromised sound quality of lossy codecs? The price per megabyte isn't nearly so attractive for those that prefer lossless quality.

    When MiniDisc was new (and expensive), manufacturers targeted audiophiles while the advertising emphasized custom mixes and sound quality (even though ATRAC is also lossy). With "MP3 players," the emphasis is usually on quantity, not quality. Being able to accomodate realtime filters like DFX [fxsound.com] might be a way to find some middle ground.

    I realize that most consumers either tolerate or are unaware of the fidelity loss, hence the continued dominance of the now inferior MP3 format. Still, I think that in order for this market to grow more quickly, it should educate consumers about the options available to them with these devices: CD quality if you want it, or OGG (etc.) if you want more tracks per MB.
    • If I really wanted, I could carry roughly 100 CDs in my Lyra. It plays wav audio no problems. Hell of a lot nicer than carrying around 100 CDs every time I hit the road (never mind the fact that I'm on public transit :).

      However, the number of times I've had on high end headphones and been sitting in a perfectly quiet room listening to mp3s.. well, I can't even count it. Background noise does far more to interfere with audio quality, and mp3 players are generally used outside of sound-proofed rooms, with a

  • Redundant technology (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WarriorX99 ( 664455 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @11:21AM (#7680621) Homepage
    I'm surprised that with car stereos, we're still just seeing a lot of CD players that read MP3 CDs. I'd quite prefer to keep all my music in one place like an iPod (oh, how I wish I had one). I would actually like to see more car stereos with the audio-in so that I could use an MP3 player in my car too. I wonder why that hasn't caught on. It would sure double my incentive to buy an iPod (as if there weren't incentive enough).

  • The wrong reason for the increase (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tif ( 207976 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @11:43AM (#7680858) Homepage
    The referenced articles says "...the number of paying music downloaders doubled in the first half of 2003 -- coinciding with the [RIAA] announcement that they intended to begin prosecuting file-sharers ..." How ignorant. The RIAAs litigious behavior has nothing to do with it. Paying downloaders increased because sites offering to sell music increased.
    --tif

  • What I really want (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fjord ( 99230 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @12:01PM (#7681035) Homepage Journal
    What I'm looking for in MP3 playing is an in-dash unit (DIN5) that can read DVD-R filesystems and play the mp3s from there, basically giving days worth of music on a disc. For portable players, theres the Sony MPD-AP20U to do this, but what is a car player than can do this? I haven't been able to find one.

  • For the bargain-hunter.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Trogre ( 513942 ) on Wednesday December 10, 2003 @03:19PM (#7682925) Homepage
    ...the iRiver iMP-400 looks promising

    No uploading required. Just pop in your OGG/MP3 CD and you're away.

    Ogg Vorbis support is in the works (via afirmware update), and can happily co-exist with the other codecs in firmware.

    These guys seem pretty serious about vorbis [iriver.com]. It's great to finally see a manufacturer taking this position.

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