Interesting article about the business of selling iPods, and what the future may hold.
Forbes.com: When IPod Sales Run Out Of Steam
One thing I disagree with is the argument that 15% of population owning an iPod isn't very much, especially compared to DVD players. That's comparing two different things. There is probably 99% saturation of TVs in the US. A TV is almost vital to American survival. Some people don't have a need for a digital music portable jukebox. Like some people have no desire to watch videos on DVD. For example, my parents like music, but they just got a CD player in our house since I graduated college 4 years. Ago. They would have no desire to compile music, and carry it with them, because they don't purchase or really have any interest in music. Any more than the radio could provide anyway. Plus the high-capacity MP3 player is still very new. I think that because of the new market, emerging technology, and a general lack of desire for a digital jukebox, the iPod and MP3 market has done amazingly well.
I think one idea that should be addressed: MP3s are crap. Hopefully soon, ultra-high storage will be available to store WAV files to get better sound, or better music compression is developped. MP3s are still very flawed as a compressed file format.
Also there are still piracy and copyright issues lurking on the horizon. Could the entire MP3 industry be considered illegal in the next few years?
Personal Note: Gwen Stefani's "What You Waitin' For?" sounds really bad in MP3.
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4 comments:
There is an interesting article on "Codec Killers", songs that just sound awful compressed, at CNET News.com.
Windows Media 10 has a "mathmatically lossless" format that is pretty low compression (around 50% the file size of a full-quality wave). You could also increase the bitrate of the MP3s if you wanted. Some people claim that Ogg Vorbis is a much better format, but I have never done anything with it. I agree tho, it would be nice to have a less-killable codec for digital music because MP3s and all downloadable digital music really does suck comapred to their CD or DVD-audio counterparts.
I read an article not too long ago that I unfortunately can't find where a music scholar was complaining about how this generation that has become so used to the crappy quality of digital music will suffer for it. Google is failing me at the moment, but if I find it I'll post it.
Also, if you use iTunes and have an iPod you can try using Apple's "lossless" format. You will have to reimport any music that you want to be in that format though, and it will take up a bit more space. (by a bit I mean a lot).
As far that one track, have you tried importing it at a higher bit rate? I do 192 and can rarely tell the difference from the CD. I know people that can't tell the difference at 128, so maybe it's worth a try.
I don't really care enough about the quality. I have a very undiscerning ear so it doesn't matter much to me.
There are some songs that are "uncompressible". There are a few article out there that talk about how certain songs (like Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery") sound bad in any compression. I think "What You Waitin' For" might be similar.
Odd, I've never come across such a thing. I have that Gwen song, purchased from the Apple store, and it sounds fine. Granted it is an AAC file, and not MP3, but the "type" of compression is the same. They're both "lossy" compression, so you'd think any problems in MP3s would appear in AACs. Odd. *shrugs*
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