MP3 D/Loading - How Much Would You Pay ?

[slavestudios]

i'd like to see labels make back catalogue trax available individually.


example - if i could buy Rush trax 1 at time for say, 99p, i would def have more of his work. so many times ive heard 4 track eps with only 1 track i was diggin, and not shelled out £8 for 1 track. where as if i could by the trax individually, chances are i would purchase more.

i also think i would take a chance & buy more 'blindly' jus randomly picking artists ive never heard off. be it techno or otherwise.



so, what would you guys be willing to pay for 320kbps MP3 tune from Wilson or Skoog or Rush or Surgeon ? or me even lol

[Heroes]

yes this is utopia for the customers, and its a blessing all round, for both parties, because in my opinion ive got very few records ive bought where its like all 3 tracks i wanted to use, and i guess its the same for people looking in on my stuff, this gives the people freedom to own one or all for half the price, and it is a good enough margin to keep us investing back into equiptment, programmes, and the sundries of running labels........

[dan the acid man]

i think 99p is a decent price, or even £1.99, doubt id pay above this though for an mp3

[slavestudios]

i think it would be good for all, though i dont know a thing about the reality of doing it.

i also like the idea of WinRAR files or Zips that include mini biogs or artwork for the music. maybe even have these as a bonus if you purchase all trax on the ep ?

ppl talk a lot bout the quality of MP3 compared to vinyl, but i have always had the opinion that when you look (or listen lol) closely to most club pa's these days, you'll see the delivery system for the audio isnt always up to scratch.

but i def like the idea of going to a label site with a credit card & filling up on me fave artists.

and i would DEF buy more experiental techno.

i always liked that end of things, but i could never afford both dj tools & listening music if ya get me.

btw, have mailing lists changed over the last 4-5 years ? are there still as many free promos in the post each week ?

[dan the acid man]

oh yeah, id add the art work, plus track details and contact details etc

[Jay Pace]

Depends what bitrate, if you are going to compare it vinyl.

I'd say to play something out you want it to be at least 320k
Or choose a format that entails no loss of quality.

MP3 is just a compression format. For your average kiddie listening to coldplay through shit earphones on an ipod you don't need much more than 128k.

Playing 128k through £5k amps and 10k speakers you are going to notice a lot of difference.

I'd pay £1 per track & more for an EP with artwork and a biog. People like content, offer it up and people will pay for it.

Like you said, paying £8 for one track is too much. And the days of getting rinsed like that are over.

Ultimately the digital revolution should empower the artists and the labels, and utterly shaft the huge distributers and corporations.

The currency the bigwigs trade in is disappearing, and they need to reinvent themselves and offer something valuable. The means of producton are now open to all.

Change or die.

[tocsin]

Well, for those of you who prefer audio quality, look into FLAC or other lossless codecs. It is a "lossless" compression format in the same way something like Winzip is lossless for programs/text when they are decompressed. The problem with the lossless codec, however, is that they are significantly larger than MP3. From a distribution point, bandwidth and server space still require a pretty tight compression format. A 320kbit MP3 for a 5 minute track is already going to be about 12 megs. The same track, encoded with something like FLAC, would likely be about 36 megs. With FLAC, the copy that is played will have the exact same data as the original uncompressed wav. But, at that point, it really needs to be determined whether or not you can truly hear the difference. I can't think of anything I've encoded at 320kbit where I could hear a difference. But, my hearing isn't so hot either.

[Jay Pace]

if you are going to listen to it on a walkman use 128k
If you are going to play it our go 320k or higher.

By all means charge for the higher quality version.

Broadband speeds are going up, hard disk prices are going down.

12 meg is nothing, and in a couple of years time will be neglible.

[Sunil]

Ultimately the digital revolution should empower the artists and the labels, and utterly shaft the huge distributers and corporations.

The currency the bigwigs trade in is disappearing, and they need to reinvent themselves and offer something valuable. The means of producton are now open to all.

Which huge distributors are you speaking about? Probably not ones within the electronic scene?

And are the people working for them not entitled to earn a living like they have done so far? Shafting big companies means ordinary Joe employees losing out too.

Some record companies take the piss for sure, but they're not really the people we're thinking about here, are they?

I feel for any distributer that's having problems, particularly if they're pushing a style or styles of music they feel strongly about.

However, I did find it kinda odd the amount of new distributors that popped up after some bigger ones went bust. Rather than resurrect old existing labels or introduce many new labels.... many have just acted as middle men, trying to get a bite of an increasingly smaller pie. I guess a big bankroll initially is the key to a potentially more successful business venture, which is what many newer companies I suspect, have not all had at the ready.

[Jay Pace]

Sure, redundancy is a personal tragedy.

But its not a reason to adhere to an increasingly outmoded and unrealistic business model.

No one is entitled to earn a living doing anything. No one is owed a job. This applies to everyone working in the music industry.

To make money you need to offer goods or services people want.

The musicians and labels will ride out the digital switch as they have goods people want.

The distributers no longer have a valuable service. Tough, but that's progress and you can't stand in its way.

Can't help but think people need to spend less time moaning about decreasing revenues and falling vinyl sales, and start thinking about the new possiblities emerging. And maybe start taking advantage of them.

There's a whole future out there. It needs to be prepared for, and embraced.

Music is a fundamental human need. Cater for it!

Rant over...

[Sunil]

Sure, redundancy is a personal tragedy.

But its not a reason to adhere to an increasingly outmoded and unrealistic business model.

No one is entitled to earn a living doing anything. No one is owed a job. This applies to everyone working in the music industry.

To make money you need to offer goods or services people want.

The musicians and labels will ride out the digital switch as they have goods people want.

The distributers no longer have a valuable service. Tough, but that's progress and you can't stand in its way.

Can't help but think people need to spend less time moaning about decreasing revenues and falling vinyl sales, and start thinking about the new possiblities emerging. And maybe start taking advantage of them.

There's a whole future out there. It needs to be prepared for, and embraced.

Music is a fundamental human need. Cater for it!

Rant over...

Good points.

I think distributors still have a big service to offer to labels and artists though, it's not "Go digital or die". Less distributors would probably be a good thing, or even some smaller ones joining up together or working closer with one another.

[Komplex]

i also like the idea of WinRAR files or Zips that include mini biogs or artwork for the music. maybe even have these as a bonus if you purchase all trax on the ep

Yeah I've been thinking about this heaps. I think it would have to be done on a labels website as extra downloads. Online stores (at the moment) only deal with the music and any promo content is put up directly on the store's site.

[TechMouse]

Can't help but think people need to spend less time moaning about decreasing revenues and falling vinyl sales, and start thinking about the new possiblities emerging. And maybe start taking advantage of them.

I think this is the key here.

The whole concept of sitting around making a noise, crying about getting shafted is a relatively new one. 50 or more years ago if you were in a bad situation you either went quietly into the goodnight, or you adapted and moved on.

These days people (in every walk of life) have a tendency to sit around screaming "unfair" at the slightest injustice, because we're all brought up to believe in concepts such as "fairness", and "rights" etc.

However, IMHO rather than exerting all your efforts clinging to past values and having a pop at those who might take them from you, you're better off focussing on making the best of the situation.

[RDR]

In my mind (apart from all the junk in there) have the opinion that i dont like MP3. In fact i hate them, aside from quality issues (and before any of you starts, yes i know about bit rates, thanks)

I want something i can hold in my hand, not this throw away culture.

whadda ya tink peep n ting!

[Sunil]

I want something i can hold in my hand, not this throw away culture.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[TechMouse]

I want something i can hold in my hand, not this throw away culture.

I do agree - it is nice to have something tangible for your cash.

Vinyl is great, and I'll no doubt keep buying it so long as it's available.

But, if there was the opportunity to pay a couple of quid for some good quality music on mp3, which I could burn to CD and then print a nice label on (my new printer prints directly onto CD's, it's wicked!), and maybe print off a little inlay or something... then I wouldn't be averse to that too.

We'd have to get CD decks put in in the club though.

[RDR]

I want something i can hold in my hand, not this throw away culture.

I do agree - it is nice to have something tangible for your cash.

Vinyl is great, and I'll no doubt keep buying it so long as it's available.

But, if there was the opportunity to pay a couple of quid for some good quality music on mp3, which I could burn to CD and then print a nice label on (my new printer prints directly onto CD's, it's wicked!), and maybe print off a little inlay or something... then I wouldn't be averse to that too.

We'd have to get CD decks put in in the club though.

Lot of mucking around for something that....

Oh god! I love my vinyl!!! :lol: :cry: :clap: :love: :love: please keep drilling for oil in nature spots!!! i want my vinyl!!! i feel sick even thinking about a load of CDs in a bag...!!!

MP3's of dubious quality and a world where we have to crawl through 1000 times more the tracks than we did before just to find one good tune!!!


(this wasnt aimed at you TM... ;) )

[TechMouse]

MP3's of dubious quality and a world where we have to crawl through 1000 times more the tracks than we did before just to find one good tune!!!

A lot of poo gets released on vinyl too.

In fact, I'd probably argue the toss that most of the stuff in the "Techno Production Filez" forum on here pisses on 60/70% of what I listen to at the record shop.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Theres some more good Mp3 debate in here, but alot of it is pretty off topic, not that I care, I just thought I'd try to actually answer the question, so here goes:

"my theoretical online mp3 store"

I reckon 99p a tune would be a good target, but I think being a bit creative with that is the way forward. Like maybe if you buy one tune, then the price is £1.99, but if you buy some of the remixes or what would have been the Bside, say a total of 4 tunes, you get them all for 99p each. I think that is pretty fair, if you really only want the one tune, 1.99 isnt so much of a rip off, but of course there is that encouragement to buy a few more tunes and get 50% off. And you'd have to do it so that you could take any four tunes rather than just the ones associated with a certain release, cause that ability to pick and choose is what will get people interested. It would be sort of like creating a virtual EP or compilation album or something, but at half the price.

And the idea of sending zips containing artwork and information is a must, every possible bit of value that can be added should be. Perhaps it would be an idea to also include some chopped up loops/samples from the tune thrown in for free, and then all the ableton bods would be pretty chuffed.

If there was a site that operated in such a manner, with a good selection of new stuff and choice back cat classics, I would definately frequent it, and no doubt spend alot of money on it. And if I had more time, or could be bothered to actually try and achieve something, I would try and set it up myself, cause I reckon it would be a money earner.

[Jay Pace]

Please stop berating the quality of mp3.

It simply isn't accurate.

There is a sample rate to suit every taste, scenario and soundsystem.

For the afficionado's I am sure you could apply a "Vinyl filter" to give it the distinctive sound you so crave.

Incidentally - music being tangible is a relatively new concept. As old as vinyl in fact.

Before that music lived quite happily for thousands of years in the skill of performers and the memories of the listeners.

The "scractching music onto a piece of plastic" phase of music is going to be an incredibly short blip in music's history.

Don't want to be a killjoy, but people...

Please...

DEAL WITH IT