Originally posted by varnull:

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Are we interested when it can be had for nothing?.. I doubt it.

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Same can be said for good old games, some people will buy at reduced price and that will be enough to keep the market up, albeit a different kind of market than it is today but A market non the less.

Originally posted by varnull:

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Hi Zipp./. yeah.. we agree on the basics..

after something is abandoned by the manufacturers then letting it become abandonware and payment free would make people respect the devs and publishers. Open and free licensing would do them more good than harm..

Can't you use your influence as a senior on the fair trade consumer forums (yeah.. i found you) to swing a bit of lead?

Not unreasonable to release all those old roms under the creative commons.. and probably get people who like the old games back into the shops for the new ones.. or am I being stupid??

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Mew dear I is senile not senior ^_~

but it coems down to a produt is only worth what the public iswiling to spend on it andto go out of your way to protect the marekt only makes it like the financial market "oh we are a free market..oh wait we screwed up and lost billions we need a gov loan now pelasze"

The rules are rather simple(or at least should be) consumers should not engage in distribution and the industry should not create a situation to force consumers to engage in questionable distribution.

The industry has to learn its not going to sale to everyone and not ever copy is an equatable sale, they have to re learn their place in the markets as a whole and understand any sale is a good sale if you can not cope with it someone will come along and make money off it because thats how things should work 1 business dies another comes along and dose better or worse, to protect industry beyond reasons creates a industry defendant on the government for handouts when it can not cope with reality anymore much like the current US financial industry.


And the way the media industry is being propped up is scary consumer rights>publisher/CP owner rights ALWAYS, the media industry has to wake up slim down and start selling to the individual again not at faceless masses they constantly try to get one over on.


Slot music is a good first step to replace CDs however the most important thing here is price if they can sale these for 5-10 less than a CD then its a real start on at least one front, but they do not learn and price it like CDs then...its another failure they need to sell in bulk and the lower the price the more bulk sold thats how media should be dealt with on a national/world wide basis passed that they can sell collectors and extra editions to bring in more money but the basics are as low as you can go for the most quality that can be sold.

BTW thinking about starting a Changing DRM to be consumer friendly. thread like the oen I started here
http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?t=5162

And yes I know its an oxy moron but DRM can be made to be "user friendly" and not make games into coasters at the same time.

MP3 Form... Must and can only be 320kbps CBR otherwise just buy the CD and create your own high quality MP3.
If they are gonna try and sell these things, at least make as pleasant as possible on the ear.

Originally posted by magnets:

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if you think of this concept as a replacement of CD's then the whole argument about sound quality is redundant. You won't have users choosing between Good sound quality and ease of use, because CD's will not be produced. Therefore, the sound quality you get is what is sold.

The reason i like to buy cd's, isn't the sound quality, it's the physicality of it, the photo's, the liner notes and supporting the artist. Don't get me wrong, the majority of music i download and always have, but if a i find a special band i will purchase the album.

At the end of the day the public has decided it doesn't care about sound quality, otherwise 128kb mp3's would be dead and CD's would still sell well. MP3's are easy to get (internet, torrent, itunes), they are easily stored and a wide medium of devices play them (from mp3 players, to phones and even in car gps devices), not so with cd's

I think this is a good idea, and at least shows that the industry is at least considering catching up to the technology that it's userbase has fostered. Whether it will work, i don't know. As many have said, Free+easy is a hard concept to better. And is there enough audio devices out there that accept SD cards?

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Heres the thing, if you want high quality you'll buy the higher quality releases that are priced like CD, besides with SD sizes offering it on wav/higher MP3 format is still a option.

They will start out at medium high quality which is not bad.

Originally posted by atomicxl:

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I don't know if this will work. You're getting worse than CD quality for more than a CD!!! Check Amazon.com and you can buy virtually any cd made within the last 7+ years for $9.99 or less.

With a gig of space you could do way better than MP3. They could use MP4 or WMA, which support samplerates of 96kHz and 192kHz... which is what the overwhelming majority of music is mixed and mastered at. Why do we have to get MP3 still?

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Thats the beauty of it they can easily offer better quality, but in order to get there they are going to to have to start replacing CDs first.

Also most of the devices can run "normal" MP3s but not the more fancy encoded ones so they kinda have to start with MP3s first because they are going to have to sale these in volume to every device that has a SD slot once they get a foothold in you will start seeing "high quality" stuff but without the starting it they will never get to it.

Varnull, who is they or more importantly, who published your music without your permission? I wonder if the EFF does Britain...
I would love to see whoever caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Well that is why they are the media mafia. They are crooks that bribe lawmakers into allowing them to extort the public legally.

Magnets I totally agree! I am not a fan of lossless but I do believe that the user should decide to listen to lossless, not some pin head. I only purchase CDs and try to buy them used as to not support the evil mafia.

Atomicxl, mp3 is a universal format. If you really want to save space without hearable loss, MP3 VBR is far more sophisticated so it is far more efficient than either MP4s or WMAs. All devices play variable mp3s. Granted, because the compression is not consistent throughout the tune, the % played is rarely correct. I chose to forgo an accurate % played for an additional 20% compression.

Sudds, there encoders that create mp3s with more bits than 320. They are unpopular because that defeats the concept of an mp3. MP3s with a constant bit rate ignore high pitched tones to save space. The lower the bit rate the lower the cut off pitch is. 20,000 hz tones contain 1,000 times more data but also require a significatly higher sample rate to accuratly capture that tone so the actual date needed to reproduce the tone is thousands of times more. Humans hear and feel the 20 hz tones well at any age. Only young undamaged ears can hear 20,000 Hz tones and above. There is a young croud dispersal weapon which is used in Britian that targets teenagers. It uses 18,000 Hz tones to disperse pesky teenagers from malls and elsewhere. If adults could really hear 18,000 tones it would have been taken off the market. Persons stop hearning 18 KHz tones from 20-25. 320s clip the tones at 20 KHz. MP3 360s would only benifit dogs and other animals that can hear tones above 20 KHz.

This bogus invention will fail. The problem with CDs is not the media but what is on the media. Most new albums only have one good tune on them. Once you rip the music you do not need to wear out your CD. I have bought the same albums several times over. Now I just rip them an store the master in a large box of old masters.

Originally posted by Mez:

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This bogus invention will fail. The problem with CDs is not the media but what is on the media. Most new albums only have one good tune on them. Once you rip the music you do not need to wear out your CD. I have bought the same albums several times over. Now I just rip them an store the master in a large box of old masters.

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Mabye but with the chance to offer more CD quality tracks its not that bad of a thing.

What do you mean by that my friend?

Mp3 is not what many call quality tracks. In reality high quality bit rate mp3s are plenty good. You put more than 100 extreme VRB mp3s on a CD. Still I bet they are selling 128s which don't sound very good. 128 is a commercial grade mp3. They are allowed to sell them for less because they are not very good.

I don't see them setting the world on fire. I think my prediction of 3 years ago was accurate. I checked them out. It looks like they are only putting 1 album on gig cards. They do have 320 br so the quality is there but they are going for about what a CD goes for. The tiny chip comes in a CD jewel case. I would prefer the CD.