flac

Music Lover

Thanks, xtrev, and all members for keeping this site going!

From this thread (http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=264210#) and the somewhat rude post from CHNe(http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=264210#1489684) [never retort at a customer -- and it wasn't a personal attack but a slap at emusic] it appears that eMusic gets flac files from many of their labels.

Why then convert to mp3? I would go back to eMusic if I could download flac of some of the small, neglected labels.

As mentioned in this thread (http://www.emusers.net/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=875) I am not much for paying any more than $5 per album for mp3s. Maybe now that I have my new Havana* I figure I won't pay more than $3 for an mp3 and then only if I can't get it on flac at all.

If eMusic would offer flac files, I would be willing to purchase them at current eMusic prices -- for lots and lots of labels and lots and lots of albums.

In the past the difference between good quality mp3 (320 or eMusic's best) and flac was noticeable (less musical, narrower soundstage, less realism) but with the Havana, although the mp3s sound 10 times better, the flac sound 100 times better -- they sound like music! Not only wider soundstage, and instruments sounding like they should (best sounding piano since I had heard a piano on reel-to-reel) but the music is just so downright addicting. Like the music off the old Linn turntables -- musical, substantive and sheer joy!

Anyway, as usual, I babble.

Any thoughts on why eMusic would convert flac if they didn't have to? Are they that backwards they don't want to or are trying to save on storage space?



Link for Havana (http://cgi.ebay.com/Mhdt-Labs-PCM56P-Non-OS-USB-Tube-DAC-Havana_W0QQitemZ120652602167QQihZ002QQcategoryZ14978QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

kargatron

The simple answer is most probably that the market for FLAC is too small. Most portable players are too small to hold a large selection of FLAC files, and most don't play FLAC in the first place (including the most popular player, the ipod). Downloading FLAC and converting to mp3 is a substantial extra step that most buyers simply aren't interested in doing.

Then there's the extra server space and added complexity to adding multiple formats (at potentially different price points depending on content provider), that the large scale absence of lossless options doesn't surprise me. Increase the storage capacity/physical size ratio by 10, so that portable players can mimic today's versions, and lossless will take off in popularity, I think. The fact is that people like small portable players, and that target size can't handle a thousand-odd FLACs.

Also, you practically answered your own question, in noting the differences seemed small until you got an expensive piece of audiophile equiment - customers in that situation probably number 1 in 10,000 or so.

Music Lover

kargatron,

very good explanation! Makes sense!

Dr. Mutex

It's unlikely that eMusic's software has any provision for a track to be in multiple formats. So to offer FLAC as a download option would require substantial modification to the software and as kragatron suggested, the market just isn't there to justify the investment. A fast and dirty way might be to have separate versions of the albums in FLAC. The site should happily sell the tracks. Only the code that generates the previews would need to know the tracks are FLAC.

Katrina

Oooh. People must be leaving in droves for CathyHN to get that snippy. Or she's still burning on getting called for the lie about redownloads.

bluesboy

Oooh. People must be leaving in droves for CathyHN to get that snippy. Or she's still burning on getting called for the lie about redownloads.

I've been in her shoes before. It's the second one. She's probably also under some pressure from the higher-ups to "make this noise go away".

Sort

Some sites let you select the format you want to download, and while eMu is appealing the populist Ipod crowd, they too would get me back (am I really an audiophile that occurs one to 10,000 customers) if they let me choose FLAC. As a customer, I obviously expect FLAC to take longer to download. Seems to me a music joint like eMu would benefit greatly not only by getting audiophiles, but audiophiles are also vocal leaders of recommendations. Too bad.

thomnottom

Obviously I don't know the specifics of how it works or how well they are doing, but Bandcamp seems to work well letting users decide their format. They assume you want VBR0 mp3s, but let you choose when it comes up.

In the past I told people they were silly for wanting flac from eMusic, because that would drive the prices up. But at this point the prices have already be driven - doesn't seem so silly now. I would continue to subscribe at these prices for flac.

kargatron

Sort, just want to clarify - I guessed 1/10,000 as the type of customer willing to invest in an expensive outboard USB DAC (and heck, that might be a generous guess at that fraction). Not just the type of person to value lossless.