MP3 Going the Way of the 8-Track? 574
joepa writes "According to this MSN/ZDNet story, MP3 is dying. Overall, the data has not shown a clear trend, but at least one recent study reports that people are deleting MP3s faster than they are downloading them. AAC and WMA, meanwhile, are apparently gaining market share. Is this evidence that MP3 is being used largely to sample music rather than for permanent archival and listening purposes? They still don't think so. "
Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Informative)
Of course it means you have to remember how the files were named, but usually you just search for parts of titles or artist names.
Maybe there should be a MP3-grep that searches the ID tags? Mayb
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Funny)
I'll show them. I'll just burn my mp3's to an 8 track. They'll never take my music! NEVERRRRRRRRR!!!!
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Informative)
I was just being funny. But I got a good laugh when I searched for '8 track' on ebay and saw how many pages of hits there were.
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Informative)
so far I've only got 3/4 a dvd.
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck with that. Especially since it's illegal under the DMCA. And since future versions of Intel hardware and Microsoft software will put a hard block on your ability to do this.
Don't get me wrong - I believe that you have every right to do this, and I'm a very strong proponent of completely open media formats (which currently includes MP3, though that *might* go away.)
My point is that you're putting your trust in two companies that have already publicly stated their intentions to betray that trust in the near future.
- David Stein
Re:Uh no (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
That's funny, I thought it was explicitly allowed [justice.gc.ca]. Granted that's just Canada... but the US is not the only country out there.
"And since future versions of Intel hardware and Microsoft software will put a hard block on your ability to do this."
pffft
That assumes that every stage of the setup secure, and that details are never leaked. Given that the whole thing is designed by committee on a deadline, and that they're going to be dealing with people that can sniff the bus, I find that unlikely. Indeed, Microsoft claiming they will be able to provide unbreakable DRM is equivilant to Microsoft claiming they can provide perfect security. For example, one of the vulnerabilities that allowed an XBox to play pirated games was in the firmware itself.
And then, at the end of the day, the best case they can hope for is forcing everyone to use the analog hole.
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Funny)
Marketing data, that we can archive. 2 Live Crew's greatest hits, rm -rf *. If someone wants to back up their music on tape, I recommend casette
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Funny)
I delete MP3s when they are riddled with ... beeps
Techno hater.
Re:Uh no (Score:4, Funny)
Noooo.... Those are communications from an alien race...
Re:Uh no (Score:4, Interesting)
Deletion is the only option.
-9mm-
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Insightful)
I haven't encoded to mp3 for years. All my CDs are ripped to high-bitrate Ogg Vorbis format, it sounds better than mp3 and Ogg has no silly patent issues. MSN says WMA is gaining marketshare? Doesn't Micros~1 wish..
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh, I took one of those double-blind listening tests and I couldn't tell the difference. All the codecs sounded good to me and I usually consider myself pretty anal about these things. Almost half the time I couldn't even pick out which was the original and which was the compressed version, in any format (sometimes it was obvious, but sometimes not).
I don't think Vorbis' tiny advantage in sound quality (which would be easily overcome just by using a higher bit rate) outweighs MP3's standardization. I mean argue all you want about open-source, about patents or whatever, I'm talking about practical usage here. I can buy any device out there - even Sony, soon - and know that it plays MP3 files. I don't know why you'd use anything else given how close most of these codecs are to each other.
There are some serious flaws in these results showing a drop on mp3 use, many of which have already been pointed out. The biggest one to me, though, is that mp3's are just far more portable. Download a wma file and what the heck are most people going to do with it? Pretty much your only choice is to keep it on the one machine you've downloaded it onto, unless you strip the DRM or unless you've got one of the six portable players that supports it.
I have four PC's in my house and I have all of my music on two of them and a lot of my music on a third. That's using mp3. So sure, at some point if I want my disk space back I may delete a few off one of my hard drives. That doesn't mean I'm using mp3 less, that just means the format has given me the freedom to choose where I want to have my music and when I want to have it on a particular device.
If there's any decline in the total number of mp3's on hard drives, it's probably people like me who have ripped their entire collection from CD, thrown the resulting files on pretty much every PC and portable device they own and are now consolidating. There was that initial rush to rip everything once mp3 became popular, and now that's pretty much done. It's a natural process. But there's no way anybody's using mp3 any less than they were, and that in no way suggests that mp3's are more disposable. I'll take my pristine and clean 320kbps VBR mp3 files over Apple's ridiculous DRM-encrusted 128k AAC files any day of the week!
Re:Uh no (Score:3, Insightful)
Other Formats? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other Formats? (Score:2, Insightful)
can you think of a way music tracks on the order of millions are encoded every week in ogg vorbis?
Re:Other Formats? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Other Formats? (Score:4, Insightful)
um, what? my point was, since most downloads are mp3s and not ogg vorbis, the way most people obtain ogg vorbis files is for them to encode their own CDs. since we are talking about, among other things, increasing existence of AAC files on the order of 4 million tracks per week at least via iTMS (and that doesn't include people like me who ripped their own music in AAC via iTunes), i couldn't see how ogg vorbis would be statistically significant in comparison. do you think minority people who even know the existence of ogg vorbis would rip so much of their music that it would collectively come anywhere near million a week?
Re:Other Formats? (Score:2, Insightful)
You can search on a P2P network, and rarely see OGG files. It's sad, but true.
Re:Other Formats? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Other Formats? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Other Formats? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other Formats? (Score:5, Informative)
This is a shame as OGG is a much better format. I can distinguish MP3 immediately even if it is encoded at 192. It has a nasty distortion in the high frequency range that makes dogs breakfast of any good electric guitar. Disclaimer - my hearing is better then the average for 99.9 people of the same age and I have worked on an MP3 implementation so I have listened to it until puking for several weeks.
Re:Other Formats? (Score:5, Insightful)
until there is a format that is as universally supported (dvd players, car stereos, ipod type devices, etc) as mp3, or until most/all devices will let you install your own codecs, mp3 is not dead.
Re:Other Formats? (Score:3, Insightful)
But its a dumb choice (Score:5, Insightful)
however, if I decided not to use ogg, WMA would be about the last choice. Think about it:
1) WMA is not playable in an iPod and is difficult on non-windows platforms
2) WMP10 plays and RIPs MP3
3) MP3 is probably the best choice for people who need to move it amongst platforms.
4) unemcumbered AAC's are the best choice for people who own an iPod.
5) If you really care about the music and dont' want to be a slave to the flavor of the month, choose flac or ape.
6) WMA's are probably the last choice you'd make. No, check that. ATRAC is the last choice. But WMA's are close.
Seriously, you can rip in MP3. Make it your default in WMP10. Better yet, use your brain and use the FREE version of WinAmp 5.x. Better quality, no lock-in.
Re:Other Formats? (Score:3, Informative)
Just extract the id3 tag (hopefully the standard id3-util can read it from
evidence? (Score:3, Funny)
Is this statement evidence that someone's trying to justify illegal activity? Maybe you should try the ol' trusty "Your honor, she was asking for it! You should have seen the way that MP3 was dressed."
Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
And SO much MP3 music is done under the radar how the fsck would they know ... unless it's on of those "studies" conducted by an interested party to show trends they would like to project as "real" Considering this is on MSN ...
MusicWatch Digital who track the contents of people's hard drives,
OK, just how are they supposed to know what's on people's hard drives? Are they running a bunch of zombies or something? Sorry, man, but this sounds like shlock.
OFF TOPIC! (Score:5, Funny)
This is NOT about Google Desktop.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Consider the source (Score:5, Insightful)
obviously (Score:5, Insightful)
[/sarcasm]
Good Point (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't sound like dying to me (Score:5, Insightful)
So, most of what we download is crap. What's new here?
Re:Doesn't sound like dying to me (Score:3, Interesting)
By that argument, if people are deleting more than they download, more than 100% of the music we download is crap. I do not think you know what that word means.
There are basically two possible explanations for this, at least in my book. One of them is that people are downloading the same songs in other formats. The other is that people are just realizing that the music they previously downloaded was crap, and that they only downloaded it because
I won't believe it just yet. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I won't believe it just yet. (Score:5, Funny)
I can't tell, my BSD system just died.
Does Netcraft confirm it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does Netcraft confirm it? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that, if this trend is indeed real, and if it continues, then a lot of companies will start only handleing the predominant format.
Re:Does Netcraft confirm it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Kinda makes sense (Score:2)
Re:Kinda makes sense (Score:3, Interesting)
With 8 track, the tapes only worked with 8 track players.
Not so soon. (Score:2, Interesting)
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
He's going to download what is readily available, or use the default format of the most readily available CD ripper. Winamp will play them all regardless; you can't even tell the difference.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Saturation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Saturation (Score:5, Insightful)
Quite possibly. The first year you discover MP3, you get everything you always wanted, but could never find on CD. The second year, you go back to your first-year tracks, realize that 128/Xing sounds like ass, and redownload them at 192/LAME. The third year, you fill in the blanks.
And you have a music archive that (as long as you remember to do offsite backup of the hard drive) will be with you for the rest of your life. No DRM. No worries about companies going under. No worries about the DRM or playback software being available on whatever OS you're using in 2018. Ever.
Re:Saturation (Score:4, Funny)
Then the third year you realize MP3 in general sounds like ass, and switch to all Vorbis. The fourth year, you realize that not all Vorbis encoders work equally well (same as with Xing vs Lame), and switch to GT3 or aoTuV at Q10. The fifth year you realize that you can hear (admittedly very little, but some) distortion even at the highest possible Vorbis quality you can get, and try using things like AAC, hacked WMV, and other oddballs.
Finally, the sixth year, you realize that HDD space has grown to the point where you can afford to store your entire CD collection in a lossless format, and rip everything, one last time, to FLAC.
And on the seventh year, I finally got to rest.
Now, of course, 5.1ch 24bps@192KHz will become the dominant PCM format (or something even more exotic and non-PCM, like DSD used by SACD), and we start the entire cycle over. Those damned Jonses, they just keep getting better compression ratios than me!
Re:Saturation (Score:3, Informative)
If you read some of my posts on that very topic, you'll see that I agree with you, for the most part.
However, where more-than-two channels does matter, you described as the most likely situations in which to listen to music - Moving around the house (better position independant spatial reproduction), in a noisy environment (better resistance to directional noise), etc.
But no... Sitting at home, in the living room, deliberately "just" listening to music
MP3 death (Score:2, Insightful)
Just more FUD.
Go Go Gadget Propaganda Machine (Score:2, Insightful)
The only thing I'd delete my MP3s for, are OGGs.
Suck it down you hapless technoweenies, Give me DRM-Free or give me death!
MSN Supporting WMA? Never! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MSN Supporting WMA? Never! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just a hint of proprietary (Score:5, Insightful)
I am glade that Wikipedia settled (?) on OGGs rather than MP3s due to the open nature of the format. Hopefully this trend will continue whereby patent encumbrance may not be best solutions.
Re:Just a hint of proprietary (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, certainly that's why they went for WMA (Microsofts patent portofolio) and AAC (AT&T, Dolby, Sony and, you may have guessed it, Fraunhofer IIS).
AAC vs WMA vs MP3 (Score:3, Informative)
http://reilly.typepad.com/cameronreilly/2004/09/aa c_vs_wma_vs_m.html
Could it be.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
I frankly don't see mp3 going anywhere in the near future. It's ubiquitous, open, and of high quality. Despite what many "audiophiles" will say to the contrary, a 224 capped VBR0 mp3 will not be perceptibly different from even a the most perfect "lossless" method for 99% of music.
My 486 can play mp3s. My crappy DVD player can play mp3s. My old-as-hell CD-based mp3 player can play mp3s.
Sure, someday there will be a switch. Maybe for multi-channel audio, maybe for special neural orgasm stimulation, maybe for quantum compression. But for the time being, no file format exists that has enough of a net benefit over mp3 to warrent a mass-exodus.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe not, but it's quite a different story when you decide you want to re-encode those mp3's into another lossy format. For archiving purposes, there is no substitute for lossless compression. It has nothing to do with sound quality, and everything to do with having an exact, bit-for-bit duplicate of the original.
To make an analogy, you wouldn't want to backup your CD's on analog cassette tapes. Even if you couldn't tell the difference in sound quality, you still don't have your originals, and thus you have no backup. If it's not bit-for-bit identical, it's not a backup. I'm not saying there isn't a place for lossy compression. I use lossy compression myself for my portable player, and it works great. But that's not a backup, it's only a convienence.
Rule of thumb for political spin of any sort (Score:5, Insightful)
i question these kinds of studies (Score:2, Insightful)
most new electronic devices play the mp3 format but ignore the acc, ogg, wma, etc formats, like dvd players, car stereos, and the like.
True, at least for me and a couple of my friends (Score:2)
Just because we are deleting them (Score:3, Insightful)
Also think about how many times you say "I want song x", and then your search on p2p turns up 40 different versions, thirty of which are covers by some irish tenor?
They probably are missing its increased utility, in swapping amongst friends. Whenever I am at a friends house, I rip all of their cds to mp3s, and most of the people I know do the same. This kind of use with the increasing prevelance of iPods and other players is definitely on the rise.
MSN bias? (Score:2)
Of course MSN are going to suggest that a format lacking DRM is going to be in decline, and of course AAC is all the rage with iPod users.
However, I still rip and encode in MP3 because quite simply, I can guarantee that every appliance I have can play it... from my car, my CD player, my walkman, my computer, a friends computer, etc, etc.
Please. (Score:2)
Does this only apply to downloads? (Score:2)
I've never downloaded an MP3, and my collection keeps growing. I sure as heck don't have any WMA or other files, and I'm looking to buy a new portable MP3 player before long.
Mayhaps this is only a measure of people who download as opposed to use the format? I mean maybe there is a disconnect between peer to peer usage and others.
Oh, and the link the p
Who let's NPD track what is on their hard drives.. (Score:2)
The only clear trend shown from your trend link is that Kerry is losing in the polls... ;-)
One has to ask who are the idiots who let NPD track what is on their harddrives? (NPD Group's MusicWatch Digital who track the contents of people's hard drives)
As mentioned in previous articles - most people rip their own CD collections to their HDs and have most of the music they want from DLs/file sharing/friends/etc. Additionally, most new music is shite anyways
yeah, right... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh and I see lots of home stereo players that will play DRM'd music... My audiotron will play WMA's until you get to the DRM variety.
mp3 is as popular as ever, hell the new phone system here uses mp3 exclusively for voice messages, background music and voice prompts.
Oh and when was the last time you saw a car stereo that would play any DRM'd music??
mp3 is solid as a format.
There is a huge spike in MP3 deletions... (Score:4, Funny)
Gotta have room for all the new quality music comming out of the music industry, you know.
Maybe neither (dying/sample) (Score:3, Informative)
Archived MP3's (Score:2)
I still make MP3s from my CDs (Score:5, Insightful)
Evidence, man. Evidence! (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I dislike starting an argument with a logical fallacy [nizkor.org], you should really look at the article a bit before making any claims as to the death of MP3.
First of all the article page loads with the title "MSN Tech & Gadgets". This is noteworthy, especially seeing as how MS is trying to break into this market. Of course they'd say MP3 is dead, especially when they're touting a DRM enabled propriatary format.
Also, we have this gem from the article:
According to researchers at The NPD Group's MusicWatch Digital who track the contents of people's hard drives, the percentage of MP3-formatted songs in digital-music collections has slid steadily in recent months, down to about 72 percent of people's collections from about 82 percent a year ago.
Aside from this being really creepy, it's a biased sample [nizkor.org]. Anyone who would let someone put monitoring software on their PC (assuming it's not spyware) would probably not have a lot of MP3 files on their machine, if you know what I mean *nudge nudge*.
To sum up: Article is bogus advertising spin. Nothing to see here, move along.
MP3 is dying (Score:5, Funny)
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered MP3 community when IDC confirmed that MP3 market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all music files. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that MP3 has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. MP3 is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive audio test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict MP3's future. The hand writing is on the wall: MP3 faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for MP3 because MP3 is dying. Things are looking very bad for MP3. As many of us are already aware, MP3 continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Open source MP3 is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time MP3 developers Frauhofer and Philips only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: MP3 is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Due to the troubles of Frauhofer and Philips, abysmal sales and so on, Philips went out of business and was taken over by Magnavox who sell another troubled audio system. Now MP3 is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that MP3 has steadily declined in market share. MP3 is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If MP3 is to survive at all it will be among audio dilettante dabblers. MP3 continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, MP3 is dead.
Fact: MP3 is dying
Old formats don't die (Score:4, Insightful)
One reason people delete most mp3s they download.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One reason people delete most mp3s they downloa (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One reason people delete most mp3s they downloa (Score:3, Interesting)
Who cares? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not much different than an Atari 2600 emulator.
And certainly the format will continue to get support from most major software and hardware manufacturers. I doubt the day is on us when we can by a WMA head unit for the auto that doesn't support MP3.
For God's sake there is a C=64 web browser. What's the chances that MP3 is going away?
MP3 is like FAT (Score:5, Insightful)
I see the same thing happening with MP3. People just digitizing their music so they don't have to pull out CDs all the time will use whatever has the best sound/size tradeoff (or whatever comes with the system). If they're encoding their music for use on joe random device, they'll use MP3.
Re:MP3 is like FAT (Score:3)
"horribly limited" = file size limit not an issue on small media. FAT12/16 main directory size limit usually not an issue either, for most small media applications still using FAT.
"slow" = cluster chain traversal for random seeking in files is what's slow about FAT. Not usually an issue for mp3 players, cameras that read or write files as a continuous stream.
"badly designed" = simplicity. Just what you need when it's gotta be implemented in a small microcontroller that's already taske
Way of the 8-Track? (Score:4, Funny)
Don't Ask Me... (Score:4, Informative)
if AAC and WMA are on the rise... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't care how common WMA is, or that AAC is technically a "standard." MP3 is the only thing I know of that will play on every device and every computer, period. Hell, I bought a $79 AIWA deck for my car and it'll play MP3s from a CD. But not WMA, AAC, or anything else.
MP3 will die--right after Apple & BSD.
Not at all what I expected! (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought that Xiph was doing a great thing with Ogg and I moved my entire collection over to ogg vorbis. I love it, and it sounds good. I thought it was a matter of time for the move from MP3 to Ogg to happen, since MP3 is larger, has more audio quality issues, and is not "free". Boy was I wrong! I thought people would be moving over to the smaller, higher quaity, free-as-in-speech codec.
Instead, we're seeing the opposite! People moving to more restrictive codecs (although the quality may still be better). I knew most people didn't care about free-as-in-speech that much, but this is sort of alarming...
8-tracks? (Score:3, Funny)
Check the sources and call BULLSHIT on this one. (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what this is? This is akin to the old conspiracy theorist FUD model of writing, with a journalistic twist. The conspiracy theorist fud model simply states that you state the problem, in as worrying as words possible, every 2 or so sentances inbetween prooving it. For example:
"Researchers at NY university said that an asteroid is going to hit the earth within 2/3 months. This asteroid will wipe out ALL of the life on the planet. It is the size of texas."
Ect, ect ect and so on. Journalists write it in a journalistic way, however, instead of having the FUD every 2-3 sentances, they restate their thesis in a different way, then proceed to use words such as "researchers" or "analysts" over and over to somehow give it credibility. So, how did they get the information?
The "analysts and researchers" are "NPD group". They have a spyware app called "music watch digital", you know, the one that is put onto EMI's CD's and loaded onto the machine via autorun. You know, the one that can be disabled by the shift key? Yea, that one, the one that catalouges a persons harddisk and sends it back to whoever.
Now, the next question is, why would ZD net have a MS sponsored article written by a CNET staff member? Oh, wait, there's a second article at the bottom of the page, talking about a "maturing" mp3 market. You know, the market that is now going towards paying for DRM'd disabled music online? Notice the mention of sony, apple, and MS's players which will undoubtedly go towards people looking into these players and music services?
This equates to "our spyware app says that the mp3 may be dieing. People are using these players". Must be a slow news day or somethin'.
AAC is important for me (Score:4, Informative)
1) it's ISO-standardized
2) it's the default codec for MPEG4
3) it's embraced by Apple and iTunes Music Store
4) it's sound beats mp3 by far
5) it's sound (at 128/192), in my opinion, is slightly superior to WMA
6) by not using WMA, i'm not tied to Microsoft's future changes in licensing agreements
currently i have mp3's by far, but I rip all new CDs to AAC (m4a, not m4p).
Ogg Vorbis is unsupported by most mainstream hardware, and WMA excels only in low bit rates of =64, which I don't rip to. MP3Pro is barely embraced, and mp3's psychoacoustic model is aging, thus leaving AAC good for quite some time to come (at least until the replacement of AAC arrives).
Surprisingly, while MPEG4's AAC is widely adopted and available, few people have access to MPEG2's AC3 (possibly due to licensing issues with Dolby). Sony's ATRAC3+ is so proprietary it's not even funny.
A Microsoft-owned media outlet says DRM preferable (Score:3, Informative)
Despite this, I note that the original story indicates that MP3 is still more popular than any DRM-locked format, and that purchased (proprietary DRM-locked) songs are a tiny percentage of what people have around.
What's interesting is they are talking about people's habits in deleting files (which means nothing). Of course, people are less likely to delete files they have paid for over MP3s of files they may have ripped from their own CDs or have downloaded off a file-sharing service. If you didn't pay anything for the copy and you get tired of it or don't like the song, you might (or are more likely to) delete it. You're less likely to do that (even if you don't like it) with a song you paid hard cash for the copy. Witness the number of people who throw away / donate / give away used paperbacks they paid under $1 (and especially 50c and below), versus people who keep brand-new paperbacks and don't toss their new ones away as quickly.
Re:I've got 28.9GB right here that says (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:2)
Re:Insert obligatory RIAA joke here (Score:5, Insightful)
That is still under hot debate (Score:5, Insightful)
Those people claim that the sounds CD's and mp3's cut are still part of the overall experience and their absence can be heard.
Are they right? Wtf do I know, I can't tastes brands of coffee but don't doubt coffee tasters. After a few glasses I can't even tell if I am drinking whiskey let alone wich blend but I don't doubt the experts. I can't tell colors apart but am smarter then to argue with a girl about it.
The simple fact is that humans have different ears. Just as some people can see the flicker of those tube lights and others of crt monitors some people have a lot better hearing. I just find flac amusing since it is used to rip cd's. Whats the fucking point? CD's are already leaving sound out. If you want to rip the real sound you gotta at least start at LP's.
So yes flac is kinda pointless, real audiophiles don't want it because it is still only cd's and people with mp3 players don't have the space or hardware.
But don't discount the difference in sound just because you don't hear it. Others may have better hearing.
Re:That is still under hot debate (Score:5, Funny)
Are those the same people who also claim that CDR-Audio sounds better than Audio recorded on CDR-Data?
Robert
Re:LPs, you have to be kidding (Score:5, Interesting)
An playing LPs in your car was always easy.
No wonder they still selling millions of albums on "vynl"
As a DJ I've bought and still buy a significant number of vinyl records, and in fact probably own more LPs than CDs. I love my 1200s and crates of records, but I still wish vinyl sounded as good as CDs and didn't require maintenance. My shoulders, back, and arms also wish the 12 inch records could magically go on a diet and trim down to CD sexiness.
Sure, there are some aesthetic listening qualities to playing stuff on vinyl. Some people like the slight static/crackle sounds and the other random artifacts that they'll call enhancements. After spending way too much time previewing records in reference headphones for years I think I could do without such artifacts.
That said, whenever I'm playing out at parties or a club I've noticed that no one wants to see someone spin CDs. There's some aesthetic aspect of nightlife that makes people think that 12 inch rotating dics look cool. And somehow spinning vinyl appears to be an artform, whereas using CDs is relegated to the respectfulness of queuing up something in winamp. Oh well.