5 pounds for .MP3?

[Cadevil]

I hope UW continue to milk us for some time...

Seriously, if you don't like how it sounds, don't buy it...

[kagenaki koe]

Originally Posted by Random Tox

If you don't do a comparision then don't talk about it sounding the same.

it's an mp3 only release. what exactly do we have to compare it to?

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by stimpee

I hardly think that 192kbps mp3 is white noise but I appreciate the point youre trying to make.

I too would like an option of FLAC, like the Soma Records store where you can download mp3@192kbps or a FLAC for £1.09. For 12" releases this is great, if a little expensive for albums with many tracks, but I like the choice.

What you have to understand is that right now, we have only had one downloadable release and that its very much at the experimental stage. Who knows if we ask nicely that we may get FLAC in the future, but I'm not exactly criticising the mp3's as they sound ok to me. I remember when they were trying to tell us that mp3@128kbps was "cd quality", so this is a great improvement.

why have a format that only 5% of us can use? i'm one of those 'audiophiles', and having it in .wav format would be ideal.

[stimpee]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

why have a format that only 5% of us can use? i'm one of those 'audiophiles', and having it in .wav format would be ideal.

so you don't know what FLAC is then? FLAC is Free Lossless Audio Codec. Its basically a compressed wav without any loss in sound quality whatsoever and can be decoded to wav or CD once downloaded if you so wish, only half the size of wav (anyway, as UW use Macs the files would be AIFF).

Only a limited amount of mp3 players can play FLAC (the iAUDIO range do this as well as Ogg) but most people burn these to CD. FLAC is a great way of distributing lossless audio and without any codec royalty payments.

The Grateful Dead offer their download albums in mp3@128, mp3@256 and in FLAC (although the site incorrectly states that the FLACs cannot be played in iTunes or Windows Media Player).

Also, Internet record label Magnatune are really leading the way in the way you can download and/or order your music from them in a variety of formats one of which is FLAC (and also AAC/mp3/Ogg.wav). Actually, check em out, they have a great catalogue.

But, right now I'm not gonna shout out and demand FLAC. I would like to see all of the songs that have been released so far, released in a lossless format at some point but I'm not in that much of a hurry. For now, I'm happy enough with 192kbps. TypeCross/34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j's comments about using VBR with --aps are valid though and in the meantime its certainly something that the guys at Underworldlive could take into consideration because it does make a difference to quality whilst retaining the same filesize and compatibility. The Soma shop mp3s are encoded using the lame encoder at 192kbit VBR quality level 2 and then ID3 tagged.

[rtzig]

I would like to see then mp3s at 256kbps and possibly FLAC in the future. I cannot tell the difference at 256 but I definitely can at 192. What would probably be best is a choice so that people who do not care as much about the quality can get a more compress file faster and those that do have to option to get a better sounding one.
Jazzanova's label, Sonar Kollektiv, just started releasing all of its stuff on mp3 at 256kbps and it sounds pretty damn good. Much better than BLT from a purely audio standpoint.

[viddy]

Originally Posted by stimpee

What you have to understand is that right now, we have only had one downloadable release and that its very much at the experimental stage.

I have to agree with stimpee here. This is more what I was looking to say. This is the first time UW has ever released their music in this way, therefore it is very reasonable not to expect it to be perfect right off the bat. It's also smart, if I were in there shoes, not to release their absolute best material this way until they know more what to expect.

[big screen satellite]

Originally Posted by Random Tox

With no manufacturing or marketing cost, and no record company taking a fat slice, UW is probably getting over 90% of our £5 per download. With traditional CD releases they may have seen 10% return.

ok, i get the quality issue, but why begrudge UW getting paid their dues for something they made...the same issue of royalties would apply if this was in any downloadable format and is irrelevant to the issue of quality...

there's no point picking up on the issue of mp3 quality and making it into a "UW are money grabbing bastards" point when making it in wav or Flac or whatever would produce the same monetary issues...

Ok UW could and perhaps should have issued it in other formats, but the fact is they haven't yet...but come on, if £5 is too much for you to pay for an mp3, then don't pay, you've already said you'd pay £5 for a decent quality version but that would have the same 'royalty' issues

its still 'milking the fans', if that's how you see it, whatever format its in...

[the mongoose]

Originally Posted by viddy

I have to agree with stimpee here. This is more what I was looking to say. This is the first time UW has ever released their music in this way, therefore it is very reasonable not to expect it to be perfect right off the bat. It's also smart, if I were in there shoes, not to release their absolute best material this way until they know more what to expect.

Like, whether or not 1 person would download it and then spread it free on Kazaa?

Well, that means they might not be giving us quality mp3s because they don't trust us enough to. The bastards.

[Leon]

Seriously, I really fucking love bad recordings. Distortion is ace.

[stimpee]

The no record company taking a slice part is excellent and I dont begrudge Underworld a penny of the money they are taking. What is good in this situation is that they are in control of what they are doing. From pricing, to distribution model to file format. In this case i'm sure we can make our voice heard and maybe persuade them to change things in the future. Not because we are nit-picking and really criticising the service but because we want to make it better.

themongoose: all recordings released in any format will find their way onto the P2P sites no matter what. All record companies (Sony/EMI/BMG etc) and technology companies (Microsoft/Apple) do is make it a pain in the arse to transcode/transport the music to the places you want to and ultimately piss you off.