try before buy MP3 site ?

[joesbox]

Originally posted by Hayl
people rip their own MP3s from their own music that they have purchased. downloading MP3s of music that you don't own is illegal and discussing it is against the policies of JustLinux.

is there a place that we could listen to a sample in order to decide to buy?? i think that mp3.com used to do that and i know that launch.yahoo.com allows us to listen to a sample.

never mind i found it after i asked about it. i was searching for the wrong name.

[Hayl]

<split and moved to /dev/random. off topic>

[sharth]

amazon.com does for some songs.

[oubipaws]

its dangerous to allow users to listen to the songs first because you can simply loop your speakers into the microphone port in your sound card.... bad move for companies who are trying to stop people from making mp3s

[MxCl]

Originally posted by oubipaws
its dangerous to allow users to listen to the songs first because you can simply loop your speakers into the microphone port in your sound card.... bad move for companies who are trying to stop people from making mp3s bah! You assume everyone's dishonest which just isn't true!

If it cost money to offer the service I'd agree with you, however it doesn't cost anything significant to offer the samples over the net and thus there is much less risk and possibly more to gain by offering the "freebie". What I mean is, you'll probably attract more people to your site because you offer trial versions of the music and even if not all of them buy and some just keep the copy you probably will make more money because people like paying for things that are good value.

Anyway the clever way is to offer the full sample as low-bitrate and charge for a high bitrate version.

Net-economics are different to normal business practices. A great example is spam - spammers only need a 0.001% response rate to be profitable. I reckon that a good online music store would be able to sell music to more people than in the shops, and have far lower running costs. They could afford a high piracy rate, it's just they're greedy. Why piss off your consumer with threats when you're making plenty of money? it's beyond me.

[oubipaws]

I'm like a supreme audiophile and I rarely ever take off my headphones... I support free music like crazy, but I was just bringing up a point

I think they should legalize a program like kazaa which uses paypal and you pay to download the music and you can have lowbit samples (like you said) and then pay to download high quality samples

[sharth]

uhmm... usually, a sample is not a full song... and on linux, we can just write /dev/dsp to a file, so we don't have to worry about bad cables.

[oubipaws]

this is true too.. somesites out there allow you to listen to full songs

I know you can write to a file... it works with the radio. I love it :D

<edit> I haven't written with /dev/dsp before... I always do it through the pro tools setup... sorry my mistake </edit>

[Adm Frosty]

I dont know why you would want to buy music online anyways. You dont get the cover art, the pic inside, the lyrics, the track order, ect. I do use my computer as a jutebox but I just rip my own. Now this is just a guess, but isnt it more expensive to buy online?

[oubipaws]

I buy one or two songs off these one song sites... I buy alot of cd's off ebay... the rest gets bought and the local sam goody

[jedthehumanoid]

Originally posted by sharth
uhmm... usually, a sample is not a full song... and on linux, we can just write /dev/dsp to a file, so we don't have to worry about bad cables.

WAIT A SEC!! how can you write /dev/dsp to a file?? (not that i want to do this with mp3's, im just curious....)

[Adm Frosty]

Ok, that makes sence, but what are the prices? :confused:

[oubipaws]

I pay like 99 cents per song download and I usually get cd's off ebay at:

new cds: 10-12 dollars... 1-2 dollars shipping
old cd's: 5 dollars.... 1-2 dollars shipping

SamGoody at FSK mall I pay:
new cds: 14.99
old cd's: 10

[Adm Frosty]

ok thats not bad

$1 song downloaded
$7 for used CD
average #of songs on a CD 'bout 10

Ah, you can finish the math. So I guess that It might acualy be cheaper to download as oposed to buying new. but used is still the cheapest.(Note: this is all for a FULL album)
but if all you want is just a select song or two download for goodness sakes!*

*Please note that Adm Frosty used to think that downloading mp3s was expensive and foolhearty, but now that it has been proven otherwise to him he has been brought out of the darkness and is very happy and when he is very happy he does things like this, so please exuse him for his utterly silly behavor.

[oubipaws]

like some bands only have one or two good songs... so I buy them one at a time... while others I buy every song and album out there.

I got all 4 staind cd's in a set on ebay for 20$ :p
I spent 250$ to get all linkin park cds (including b-sides, demos, and unreleased stuff) (all new stuff)

difference between new and used prices is huge

[Adm Frosty]

Yeah there you go. Thats being smart. I guess that you could even demo a new band or album. Did you know that it costs less to make CDs that cassetets, but CDs cost us more. man it costs about 50 cents to manufature a new CD. PRICE GOUGING I TELL YOU!! PRICE GOUGING!!

[oubipaws]

if you do it legally and download the songs... 79cents is the cheapest I have seen

Linkin Park .:: Meteora ::. 13 songs

.79*13 = 10.27

one blank cd = .33

10.27 + .33 = 10.60

average cd cost if legally purchased = 16

a tad bit off a difference, but thats ok, its worth it

[ricstr]

Originally posted by oubipaws
if you do it legally and download the songs... 79cents is the cheapest I have seen

Linkin Park .:: Meteora ::. 13 songs

.79*13 = 10.27

one blank cd = .33

10.27 + .33 = 10.60

average cd cost if legally purchased = 16

a tad bit off a difference, but thats ok, its worth it

But what is the quality like? Is it 128Kbs MP3 or is 14Mbs CD quality?

[sharth]

Originally posted by jedthehumanoid
WAIT A SEC!! how can you write /dev/dsp to a file?? (not that i want to do this with mp3's, im just curious....) well, i know you can read data from the /dev/dsp port, hadn't tried it. but if you can get whats from there, then it's obviously possible that you can get it, just need to convert it. so im looking into two programs at the moment. give me 10 minutes. and i'll edit back.

:edit: using GramoFile, I was able to get it, but it was quite staticy...

[mage492]

Well, since we're in /dev/random, I think I can get away with a non-linux solution...

iTunes music store for Apple. You download them in AAC format (not open source, but neither is mp3. Also sounds FAR better!) for $1 each (or $10 for a whole cd worth). There's anti-translation stuff in the file, itself (so you can't turn it into an mp3).

You can hear 30-second clips from every song they've got.

(Incidentally, I bought MORE cds while Napster was around than I ever had before. I went from having bought 2 in my LIFE to 5 in a month!)

Personally, I think I might just start ripping .wav files! Can't beat THAT kind of sound quality!

[Adm Frosty]

Can't you get a .aac plugin for xmms(winamp)? I'm shure theres a Linux app somewere that can play .aac's, right?

[mage492]

Well, I just found an RPM for one, here:

http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/freshrpms/ayo/redhat/9/i386/RPMS.freshrpms/xmms-aac-1.1-fr2.20030409.i386.html