And More HiRez Downloads

This time the samples are from HDTT - High Definition Tape Transfers. They offer some 24-bit/192KHz tracks that are encoded using lossless FLAC. Here's what they say on their website:

High Definition Tape Transfers specializes in rare classical recordings mastered with the best mastering equipment available. They are available in Redbook CD, 24/96 DVD and HQCD. We also offer our releases in 24/96 and 24/192 (on select titles) Flac downloads for playback on a High End Computer Audio System.

They have a list of 5 sample tracks available for download on their storefront. Check it out.

More HiRez Audio Downloads

Every now and then I get notices for sample tracks of some high resolution audio. I've posted information about both of these sources before, so some of you may have received the same offers.

The first is Linn Records. On their website they have an article titled, "What is a Studio Master?" It explains how analog recordings on vinyl or magnetic tape sounded better than CDs because of the analog to digital process that chopped up the perfect waveform into little bits. They oversimplify things and fail to mention the problems when reproducing sound with a needle vibrating inside the groove of a rotating vinyl platter. Anyhow, I don't want to start a big debate over analog vs. digital or vinyl vs. optical disc. I have a pretty good Linn Sondek LP12 turntable that I haven't used for years. I prefer the quality and convenience of playing digital files from my media server to several computer systems, which are connected to my stereo and home theater gear. They go on to tell us that their Studio Master files are much higher resolution than CDs and sound as good as analogue. I would say they sound better than what you will hear from vinyl or magnetic tape. At the end of the article they provide a link to some sample files. I encourage you to download these and have a listen. Obviously, you'll need equipment capable of handling these files. BTW, the article mentions that Studio Master files are encoded at 24-bit or higher and up to 192 KHz. These samples are actually 24-bit/88KHz.

The other source for high resolution audio samples is 2L, the Norwegian music label. They have a few tracks in a variety of file formats and resolutions. They also let you choose both stereo and surround versions.

Free 24bit/96KHz Audio Tracks from HDTracks.com

I just finished downloading some free stereo 24bit/96KHz FLAC audio tracks from HDTracks.com. I read about this offer in the Audio Junkies blog, which mentions the new download song sampler. So, I decided to give it a try.

I'm pretty impressed with HDTrack's Download Manager. It is a nice little application for viewing the progress of a download. When you download tracks from some of the other online music stores, the process can seem a little confusing or clumsy. HDTrack's Download Manager is also pretty fast. It downloaded 5 tracks in about the same amount of time it took me to write this post.

If you're interested in checking this out, just go to HDTracks home page click on the "HDTracks 96/24 Ultimate Download Experience" box.

I haven't had a chance to listen yet, so I can't really comment on the quality, but I'm sure it will be pretty good. After all, HDTracks was founded by David and Norman Chesky of the audiophile-record label Chesky Records.

Another Music Store with Lossless Tracks.

Just discovered this online music store called Mindawn after reading about a new release from Roger Powell (former keyboardist for Utopia/Todd Rundgren). Here's what they say on their 'About' page:

In the summer of 1999, Shawn Gordon founded theKompany.com, a software company specializing in creating developer and desktop software for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. TheKompany.com develops both commercial and open source software.

In late 2001, Sharp introduced their Zaurus line of embedded Linux-based PDAs. TheKompany.com jumped on this exciting new platform, creating nearly 40 embedded applications for the device. This led to the development of portable media players supporting both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, in both standalone and streaming formats, in addition to the development of extensive video playback technology.

In the summer of 2002, Mr. Gordon followed his long passion for progressive rock music and acquired the popular internet radio station ProgRock.com. One of his first acts was to switch it from MP3 streams to Ogg Vorbis streams. This also led to the development of the freely available tkcOggRipper, with which the user can easily rip CDs to Ogg Vorbis files on Linux and Windows.

In late 2002, Shawn followed what to him seemed a logical evolution and founded ProgRock Records as a way to help nurture and support some of the fantastic music coming out of this often overlooked community.

After many brainstorming sessions with some of the ProgRock Records artists and theKompany.com software developers, we realized that we already had most of the technology we needed to pull this off effectively. Now we also had a financial model that also made sense to artists and consumers alike -- so it was time to realize the dream and make it real.

Mindawn was launched in September 2004 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of theKompany.com, Inc.

It looks like their focus is progrock, which is pretty interesting. Maybe there's other specialty stores like this that focus on specific genres. I'll have to search around and see if I find anything for electronica.

HDtracks - Another Music Store with High Quality Downloads

We can now add HDtracks to our list of online music stores that offer true CD quality tracks and albums. I just discovered them a few days ago and they offer music from a wide variety of independent labels. There's an impressive list of artists, including Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, John Prine, Aaron Neville, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jean-Luc Ponty, Gary Burton, Norah Jones, Chuck Mangione, Patricia Barber, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Robin Holcomb, and on and on...

You have a choice of these download file formats (in decreasing file size order) - AIFF, FLAC and 320 Kbps MP3s. And this is something the other music stores should also provide - they include a very nice PDF file with all the cover art and liner notes. Oh, and of course, all the tracks are DRM free. In the near future they will offer select tracks in high resolution 24bit/96KHz formats. Hopefully, this will include some surround recordings.

HDtracks was founded by David and Norman Chesky of the audiophile record label Chesky Records. On their 'About' page they state: "In an age when there is a computer in every home, we have grown accustomed to accessing music at the touch of a button. But, what about the quality of that music? Why should the sound suffer because of convenience? With HDtracks, we have discovered the way to have it all: world-class music, unrivaled sound, and files that play in any environment."

They have a free sampler album (there's a link on the front page of their website), so I decided to test out their download process. After registering (don't worry, it's painless), you get an email that includes a link to the freebie. I can't remember all the details because it was a few days ago, but once I clicked on the link and followed the instructions, a little download program (Java applet) started and displayed the default settings for destination folders, etc., and provided a big button to start the download. Each track was listed and a progress bar indicated that the downloads were very quick. This was for the FLAC files. Overall, I was pretty impressed. HDtracks seems to have done it right, a great selection of music and their download process was very quick and easy.

Free! The Art of Persuasion Compilation from Magnatune.

Last August, I received an email from Magnatune telling me about their free compilation album called "Seduction Music." They also said they were going to offer a new free compilation every month. So everytime they sent me another email, I was planning to pass this information on to my readers. Well I never did get another email announcement, so that was the last time I posted anything regarding Magnatune's free monthly compilations.

Well I guess just because I didn't get any more emails doesn't mean they stop providing free compilations. In fact, I followed my old link from the original article and discovered a new compilation titled, "The Art of Persuasion." I apologize for missing the last 6 or 7 months. Hopefully they will repost some of those in the future.

Reference Recordings - New HRx High Resolution DVD Audio

Just recently I came across some news that the independent record label, Reference Recordings, is planning to sell their music in high resolution audio formats. This isn't some revolutionary new audio format, even though some blogs seem to be presenting it as such. Nevertheless, I think this is good news for people that want to listen to high resolution audio. Basically, they are planning to copy their music to DVD-R discs and sell them to people who will load them in their DVD drives and copy them onto their computer or media servers for playback with their computer. Obviously, you don't have to copy them off of the DVD-R disc to play the music, but most probably will copy them to their music library because of the convenience. It seems like the people at Reference Recordings are another group who understand the advantages of using a PC for playing music.

They are calling these recordings HRx recordings. Hopefully this won't confuse people into thinking there is a new format war that will require some new specialized player like DVD-Audio or SACD. Don't worry, it's not. They are just copying the digital masters, which are 24bit/176.4KHz .WAV files to DVD recordable discs. These DVDs can be read by any PC's DVD drive. You won't be able to play these files using your CD or DVD stand-alone players. Reference Recordings’ legendary audio designer and engineer “Prof.” Keith O. Johnson, who co-developed the HDCD process and has received seven Grammy nominations for Best Engineered Album, stated that the files allow people to hear for the first time all the information on their universally praised master recordings.

I'm not sure when they are going to start selling these discs. There's no information on their website about this. I've also read that this is just an interim solution until they can offer these files as downloads from their online store. Hopefully, they will use lossless encoding to help reduce file sizes and speed up downloads.

iTrax Almost Ready

In a previous blog post, What is HD Audio?, I mentioned that AIX Records was going to launch a new website where you could purchase and download 24bit/96KHz high resolution audio tracks and albums. It looks like they are almost ready to go.

For those of you who have never heard a HD audio track, here's your chance. They let you download a sample track after you register on their website. Their HD audio was actually recorded using HD recording equipment. This isn't previously mastered stuff resampled into HD, like a lot of music currently on SACD or DVD-Audio. It was recorded, processed and mastered in high resolution.

To check this out, go to their website at iTrax.com.

When you register, they will reward you with a sample track that you can download. If you pick 'Login' at the bottom of the webpage, it will take you to another page that will let you register. I think the website is still in beta, so some things may not be working. Unfortunately, they don't let you download both a 16bit/44.1KHz version and a 24bit/96KHz version for comparison purposes, but at least you can try out the 24bit/96KHz track.

BTW, it sounds really good on our demo system. I'm looking forward to purchasing more of their music. I'm not familiar with most of their artists, so I'm open to any recommendations.

Radiohead - Choose Your Price

I'm sure most of you have read the interesting news about what Radiohead is doing with their next album, In Rainbows. Initially, they plan to offer it as a download and are letting you name your own price when they release it from their inrainbows.com website on October 10th. You can also purchase the discbox version, which includes - the new album on CD and on 2 x 12 inch heavyweight vinyl records; a second, enhanced CD contains more new songs, along with digital photographs and artwork; the discbox also includes artwork and lyric booklets, which are encased in a hardback book and slipcase. The discbox version will be released around December 3rd and will cost £40.00 including postage (with current exchange rates this comes out to US $81.52 -- and I don't know if this will also include shipping to the U.S. or if that is limited to Great Britain).

What's interesting to me is they are releasing this album with no record label backing. In this Audioholics article, they mention "As one of the few innovative music acts with any significant degree of mainstream popularity, Radiohead has apparently decided on an equally innovative approach to music sales: boot their recording label, give the music away, ask only for a donation, and only ask a fixed price for value added content." They go on to explain how this differs from other artists who create their own independent labels, but still use the same basic business model. By providing the album as a download, not only do they avoid the recording industry's unfavorable contract terms, they also avoid all the middle men like iTunes and other online music retailers. And since they are offering the downloads without DRM and almost for free, they eliminate any of the incentives that contribute to online piracy. The Audioholics article is really about how Radiohead and other artists are leaving the traditional recording industry. They include a copyright statement from Robert Fripp to explain what they mean by the industry's unfavorable terms.

I still don't know if they will offer the tracks in a lossless format. I doubt it, but that would be really great. Especially if they could somehow show that the lossless tracks generated more income than MP3s. This would encourage other artists to also offer lossless as an option. Since they are appealing to "audiophiles" by offering their music on vinyl, they should consider offering lossless tracks for download and maybe even 24bit/96kHz for download or on a disc format. Someone on this AVS Forum thread mentioned when they emailed the support contact listed on the Radiohead website and asked what format and bitrate they planned to provide, the response was 'MP3'. This makes sense, since they are letting us name our own price. I'd love to pay $15 or $20 for the album download in a lossless format especially if it was available as 24bit/96kHz tracks.

HD-Audio - more comments

Constantin Gonzalez posted this excellent article: "So, where's the future of HD Audio?" in his blog a few days ago.

He explains that the music industry has 2 major problems with high definition audio:

1. most fans, retailers and music publishers don't care about HD audio
2. those that are interested in HD audio are a small niche scattered across many competing format choices

The first problem is due to the fact that most people have been told CD quality audio is good enough. Heck, most people are perfectly satisfied with less than CD quality - lossy encoded MP3s or AACs they either download from peer-to-peer sites or purchase from iTunes or other online music stores. Constantin explains that the human ear/brain is much more accurate and capable of hearing a higher dynamic range of audio and phase differences than is possible with CD recordings.

He's right. If only people knew what they were missing, maybe there would be more interest in HD audio. Some may argue that DVD quality video is also good enough, but the fact that more people are purchasing HD televisions, obviously they must believe there are added benefits to the higher resolution video images. Otherwise, why bother spending a few thousand dollars on a new screen when the standard definition screens are only a few hundred bucks and they work fine for watching DVDs. Now that they own a nice HD monitor, maybe they'll want to match it with a sound system capable of reproducing the audio tracks in all their higher resolution surround sound glory. If they appreciate the improved quality from the movie's sound tracks, maybe they will demand higher quality audio from the artists that provide rock, jazz, classical, etc., recordings.

Constantin says the second problem is really a mess and it is really about how the companies in the music business are competing to control the next popular format(s). The combination of competing media like SACD, DVD-Audio and now HD DVD and Blu-Ray, along with competing encoding methods like DSD or 24bit PCM with compression schemes from either Dolby, DTS, Meridian, etc., etc., AND the DRM methods employed to restrict copying resulting in a variety of hardware incompatibilities have just made the transition to HD audio very difficult.

All of this has created so much confusion with the average consumer that they are more inclined to just wait it out until a clear winner emerges so they don't mistakenly invest a lot of money in a bunch of discs or equipment that aren't supported in the future. Besides, the latest technology is always pretty expensive. Look at the historical prices of any consumer A/V products. Early VCRs were over $1,000, as were the earliest DVD players. Now look at how much they cost. Nobody wants to repeat the mistake of purchasing a $1,200 Beta VCR, like I did.

So, combining these problems we have the old chicken and the egg dilemma. Most people don't care about HD audio, but why should they? There's really not enough HD content out there to make it worth while on any single format. Maybe the big record labels are unwilling to produce albums on HD media until they are confident a secure HD format is popular enough to make it worth the necessary investment. Since most of the current HD audio content is offered through many small niches on either SACD or DVD-Audio and possibly HD DVD or Blu-Ray in the near future, there obviously is no clear winner. From a business perspective, compared to regular CDs and DVDs all of these higher quality formats are huge losers.

Oh, and to add to the confusion... Interactive MVI discs are the CD's newest rivals.

I guess this is one of the reasons why I think PC audio is the way to go. With a PC, you can play almost every media type and encoding method out there. You might not even have to deal with multiple media types if you choose to download from online music stores that offer HD audio albums.

What is HD Audio?

I just read a response by Mark Waldrup, Ph.D., to an article on HD Audio that appeared in SmartHouse News. Mark is the chief engineer at AIX Records. He's also the founder and director of the High Definition Surround Music Association (HDSMA), a non-profit dedicated to supplying accurate information and demos of HD Audio.

In his comments, Mark answers "What is HD Audio?"

Here's the definition the HDSMA prefers - "HD Audio is music or sound that is captured from the acoustic source at or near the fidelity of human hearing."

Mark explains that this means recorded/reproduced sound that has a frequency response of at least 20 kHz and a dynamic range of around 124 dB or more.

He goes on the say that the only consumer formats capable of supporting HD Audio fidelity are SACD and DVD-Audio. However, most of the SACD and DVD-Audio discs released are not true HD Audio because they are performances that were recorded before HD recording equipment was available. The analog tape equipment is only capable of a frequency response of 18 kHz and a signal to noise ratio of 72 dB, which is equivalent to a sample rate less than 44.1 kHz and a bit depth of 12 bits. Mark explains that even though you re-record it at 24 bit/96 kHz, it won't sound any better than the original analog master tape.

Mark also mentions that the HD in HD Radio doesn't stand for high definition, but is instead something like "hybrid digital." I agree that this is only adding to consumer confusion, especially when you consider that the resolution of HD Radio is only 64 kbps, which is half the bitrate of the worst quality MP3 or iTunes downloads available today.

Personally, I think the marketers have really screwed things up. It probably started when the marketing folks at Microsoft referred to the quality of their WMA encoder as "CD quality" when the bitrate was set to 128 kbps. The marketers probably know that if this kind of thing is repeated enough people will just accept it as fact (hmmm, that sounds familiar). Other companies simply play along. Now MusicGiants refers to their losslessly compressed tracks, which are really CD quality, as HD audio to distinguish it from the lossy encoded tracks available from the big music services like iTunes. Their 24 bit/96 kHz tracks are now referred to as "Super HD Audio". According to Mark, MusicGiant's "Super HD Audio" isn't even HD Audio because it was re-purposed from the original analog master tapes instead of recorded with actual HD equipment.

I have listened to 24 bit/96 kHz recordings (both 2 channel and 5.1 surround) from MusicGiants and they do sound better than the same recordings that I already owned on CD. However, I haven't had a chance to listen to the HD Audio offered by AIX Records. I first read about Mark (Dr. AIX) last Winter and am still waiting for them to launch their itrax.com website, which will offer HD Audio downloads. I thought their website was going to go live in June. I wonder what is holding them up... Anyhow, I am looking forward to hearing what Mark calls True HD audio. Hopefully they will have a diverse catalog with a lot of great artists to choose from.

Free "Seduction Music"

Every month, Magnatunes gives away free downloads of
one compilation album on magnatune.com/freemusic.

August's freebie: their "seduction mix," The Art of Persuasion.

DRM - digital rights management...

It's been in the news a lot lately. At least the online news. Browse Slashdot, Digg, Engadget or any of the other popular sites or services, and you'll see an article about DRM at least four or five times a week. The latest DRM news frenzy has been talking about the death of DRM. I don't have time to properly research all of my sources (so I'll speak out of my ass like the guys talking about sports in that ESPN commercial), but a lot of people have come out to say they think DRM is not working and we'd be better off without. A while ago, Bill Gates said people should just go out and buy CDs and rip the tracks to their computer instead of purchase DRM'd music from online stores. More recently, Steve Jobs, who's beginning to sound like the master of the obvious, wrote his "Thoughts on Music" open letter suggesting all the record labels should sell their music DRM-free. I agree, but don't quite understand why Jobs and Apple won't sell DRM-free tracks from willing indie artists on iTunes. Some say it will be too confusing for their pee-headed customers to deal with a mix of DRM and non-DRM tracks. So they want it to be really simple - if all of the tracks aren't DRM-free than none of them will be DRM-free. All they need is a simple icon next to the track to identify if it has DRM. Then the consumer will know before they purchase if the track is restricted in any way. Consumer choice is good. Those that don't like restrictions on the music they purchase will be able to avoid DRM'd tracks and purchase music from the indie artists that allow their music to go out DRM-free. That might even pressure the bigger labels to abandon DRM. This kind of reminds me of the concerns over bovine growth hormones (BGH) in dairy products. Some dairy companies labeled their products BGH-free. People that were worried about growth hormones in their food could simply avoid products that didn't have that label. Anyhow, it sounds like some other online stores are going to jump ahead and offer DRM-free tracks. The Canadian online music store, Puretracks, yesterday announced it was selling MP3 files from independent labels, including Nettwerk Music Group, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and England's Beggar's Banquet, without DRM. I'm sure more will follow.

I still get most of my music from new or used CDs, many purchased from 2thumbsupmall.com, Amazon or some affiliate, like Caiman.com who carries some of the older, more obscure music I can't find in the local stores. I then rip these CDs with the DRM feature disabled using lossless encoding to my media server. Even if iTunes goes DRM-free, I probably won't buy any music from them until they also start offering their tracks in a lossless format. I just don't like the idea of paying $.99/track for music that isn't at least as high quality as the original CD. I also think $.99/track is too much to pay for lossy compressed audio. It should be closer to $.25/track. Maybe the $.99 price is okay for lossless tracks especially if you still have the option of purchasing the full CD for $5. Since you don't get the physical disc, the jewel case and the insert, the prices should be lower. And I don't understand why back-catalog music isn't offered at a discount. I can accept paying more for recently released material, just like we do with DVDs, but why don't they offer some of the stuff that was produced in the 60s, 70s and 80s for much lower prices? Old guys like myself might like to replace some of our old scratched up vinyl if the prices weren't so darn high. Artists like Hatfield and the North, Brand X, or even King Crimson aren't benefiting from any current label promotions. I just don't understand why that stuff isn't available at a discount. I'd really like to hear from someone with a better understanding of the music business about this.

I've mentioned in previous posts the online music stores that offer lossless audio tracks. Magnatune offers both lossy and lossless compressed audio or uncompressed WAV files, all without DRM. MusicGiants also offers lossless tracks, but since they sell music from the major labels, they are forced to include DRM. Just recently, I discovered Linn Records (the same people that manufactured my wonderful turntable - the Linn Sondek LP12). In addition to lossless, Linn even offers 24 bit studio master quality for download. All of the music Linn sells is DRM-free. I'm always looking for more sources for high quality lossless music, please leave a comment if you know of any other online stores.

Does Portable Music Have to be Compressed?

There's a post over on Slashdot linking to an article at The Christian Science Monitor about portable music players and compromised sound quality. This is certainly a concern of ours. Many people probably can't really hear the difference between a lossy compressed audio track and a losslessly compressed audio track when listening with their portable music player. And most of the major online music distribution services like iTunes offer only lossy compressed audio probably because the majority of their customers are iPod owners and it is faster and easier to download these smaller files.

The article also mentions a study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) that showed 56% of consumers have never heard what they would consider a 'great audio experience' and therefore don't even know how to evaluate audio quality. I don't know if this is discouraging or if I should be encouraged by the potential untapped market.

However, if the music industry eventually replaces all of the packaged uncompressed audio currently available on optical disc with downloadable lossy compressed audio tracks, then those of us with higher quality audio systems might suffer.

I don't think this will happen. I've mentioned in earlier posts that there other online sources who offer downloads of uncompressed or losslessly compressed audio like Magnatunes and MusicGiants. We may have to pay a little more for these higher quality formats, but I think it is worth it. It will be interesting to see if the larger online music stores ever offer high quality audio or if it just becomes another niche market. However, with the Internet and worldwide distribution, niche markets can do pretty well because of the long tail effect.

SongSpotting - Your Own Blog Radio

I read about SongSpots last Friday in Wired's Listening Post. So today I thought I would try it out. Well it's not quite your own private radio station for your blog. Unfortunately, you can only play one song, instead of a playlist. In our case this isn't really a problem because most of our readers probably don't come here to hang out and listen to music. The other problem is that since we're not familiar with most of the artists, we don't have a chance to help promote artists we really like. However, this is a good opportunity to discover new music. It would be great if we could use a similar type of blog widget with NPR's All Songs Considered, which is also a really good way to learn about new music. Just to keep it interesting, we'll probably update the player with a new song/artist about once a week. If you scroll down the right side of ampliozone, you will find the player just below our blogroll. The first selection is a song called "Mission" from the Album "Individuation" by Thomas Marriott. It's described as "straight ahead jazz music with a modern twist." Let us know what you think.

FLACs from Philadelphia Orchestra

The Lossless Audio Blog reported today that the Philadelphia Orchestra launched a new online music store and will be selling recordings of their concerts. The cool thing about this is, in addition to offering downloads in the popular MP3 file format, they will also offer them in the lossless FLAC (free lossless audio codec) format. Great news for classical music fans! Check it out.

I Want Higher Quality Audio from the Online Music Stores

There's been a lot of news about online music services and gadgets that will compete with Apple's iTunes and iPod. Of course everyone's heard about Microsoft's Zune and complimentary music store (for those people who are truly obsessed with everything Zune, take a look at the ZuneInfo.com website or Microsoft's little teaser site). Does anyone know what will happen to the Urge music service that was suppose to be the end result of a collaboration between Microsoft and MTV? I don't think that will be the service tied to Zune, but maybe I'm wrong. There's also the new player coming from Samsung which will be teaming up with the music service MusicNet. And, now MySpace plans to start selling music from unsigned artists. There's also going to be free downloads from SpiralFrog, an advertisement supported alternative to the pay-per-song iTunes model.

I'm not sure what the benefits of the new music services are... Is it an alternative to Apple's proprietary formats and DRM? I haven't read anything about higher fidelity or the addition of album liner notes and high quality album art.

Here's what I'd like: at least CD quality - or losslessly compressed CD quality, with high quality CD cover art (500x500 pixel jpegs or better) along with the information normally included with the album's insert at a reasonable price. I think $.99/track is too high for lossy compressed audio, like iTune's 128 Mbps AAC files. Especially when you compare it to the price of CDs purchased from brick & mortar stores. Besides, I still like to buy the whole album and don't understand why some people purchase only single tracks. If the artist can't put together a full CD worth of good tracks, then I don't buy the CD.

But, there is some good news, or reason to be optimistic about where digital music services are headed. There are a couple of music services listed over in our 'Links' section worth checking out. Both offer high bitrate audio tracks. The first one on the list, Magnatune, isn't really a "music service" like iTunes. They are a new type of record label that sells albums or tracks directly to consumers. You can download albums or tracks from Magnatunes in WAV or lossless FLAC formats. Unfortunately, you are limited to just Magnatune's artists - all of which are very good. So obviously you can't purchase music from popular artists that are already signed with the major labels. The other one, MusicGiants is a competing music service that offers lossless WMA files instead of highly compressed AACs or MP3s. MusicGiants also offers music from all the major record labels. I've also heard MusicGiants will offer high resolution multichannel surround recordings later this month. Since I can't play either SACDs or DVD-Audio with my system, maybe the multichannel surround tracks from MusicGiants will be a great alternative, especially if they are 24bit/96KHz or better. Hopefully they will also include album art and liner notes.

I'd like to hear what other people would like to see/hear from online music services. What formats and bitrates are you willing to accept? Do you want album art and liner notes? What price are you willing to pay? Or, are you satisified with purchasing and ripping CDs (which is what I do mostly)? Please let me know if you hear any news about high quality/higher bitrate audio from other services.