Itunes Or Cd

[djsteve10]

Hi guys,

Just a question for you all now... Who use itunes to download albums and who buys them on cd?

If itunes what is the quality of tracks like and do they download in mp3 as i am getting lazy now and sick of trapsing down to the cd shops and buying cds lol

[Danno13]

I don't bother with getting albums on itunes... as they're hardly any cheaper than online CD shops.. i'd rather just get the proper CD with artwork etc.

Singles are a different story though.... i get all my new releases from Napster -

1) I can't justify paying £2.99 when all I want is one track.
2) Tracks come out earlier online, months before if they're already on an album somewhere...
3) My nearest HMV have stopped selling singles, and this seems to be a growing trend!

[djsteve10]

I am just getting lazy now to be honest too lol... Do you not get the artwork with the alums on Itunes then?

[Danno13]

Dunno.. i don't use it. But its not going to be the same as the proper CD. And its just as easy to order a CD online as it is to download online. Also.. you don't look like a pirate using CD-Rs!

[djsteve10]

Yeah thats true... could have a banner made up lol "Powered By Itunes" lol

[Vectis]

Another Napster user here.

Still buy about 25% of my stuff on disc though :o

[djsteve10]

What sort of deals do napster do and don't napster license all their music...I would be kind of buggered as i have 2 Dj pc's

[Vectis]

I gather most folks burn & rip, or burn & rip virtually.

Personally I run them through Tunebite.

[sandysounds]

have all my music on CD....and rip them to laptop.....feel happier having the original at hand cus you occasionally have to re rip or if you change your laptop....which is what i've just done! (Took me 2 weeks of solid ripping to get all 7 cases onto laptop....phew!)

[djsteve10]

Why not get an external hard drive then sandy?
Saves all the hassle or re ripping

[sandysounds]

Why not get an external hard drive then sandy?
Saves all the hassle or re ripping

got my karaoke on hard drive....didn't get round to putting the music on bfore the laptop curled up its toes!

[djsteve10]

aaah right i see.... external hard drives are the best way to be, i have 2 one which i use for the road and a spare backed up with all my music on just incase

[Have a disco]

most my music is now on External Hard drives and CD now. I aint in no hurry to change over to an online source as its still too easy to get promo's via the internet

[djsteve10]

i am just too lazy to go to HMV and buy them i suppose lol... or if i order off the internet i can't wait for them to arrive :P

[robbiedj]

What sort of deals do napster do and don't napster license all their music...I would be kind of buggered as i have 2 Dj pc's

When I used a second pc to download from napster they messaged me to inform me I could use the tracks on up to 3 pcs and 3 cds.

[djsteve10]

oooh so this definatley works then??

How much do you pay for napster

[robbiedj]

Depends.

Napster lite is free. You just get a 30 sec preview of tracks and buy them at 79p or whatever the album cost is.

[djsteve10]

Was just looking and it said £9.95 a month and get unlimited downloads :P
Might have to go for that

[Corabar Entertainment]

BEWARE! That is just for a 'loan' of the music: if you ever unsubscribe, then you no longer have the right to use any of the music you got during your subscription. In effect, you just 'lease' the tracks from them.

[djsteve10]

ooh right didn't know that... is this the same with both napster and itunes then?

[Vectis]

BEWARE! That is just for a 'loan' of the music: if you ever unsubscribe, then you no longer have the right to use any of the music you got during your subscription. In effect, you just 'lease' the tracks from them.

^^ Wot She Said ^^ :)

I have the monthly subs for stuff purely for the disco that I really couldn't give two hoots about, and I pay for individual tracks or albums that I want to keep. Anything I pay for gets copied to disk and everything else just stays on HDD... IF I ever lose it I can just download it again.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Don't know if iTunes does a subscription service????? But, the 'pay a fixed fee for unlimited downloads' tend to be 'hire' rather than 'buy' - ie you get a different licence with the track

[djsteve10]

yeah, i don't think that itunes put a limit on the amount of machines that you can load the track onto or the amount of cds they burn onto... Does itunes download in MP3 format?

[Vectis]

AFAIK (as someone who hates everything Apple except the rather sexy iPhone) no - they use AAC which although isn't proprietary, might as well be because it's not really used by anyone else.

If you want to go the download route, Napster + Tunebite is a very good combination. Napster dishes up DRM'd WMAs and Tunebite quickly produces MP3 versions of them without breaking the DRM T's & C's. Probably, strictly speaking, against some rule or law or other but once all the licencing stuff is sorted out then we'll be in a better position to judge.

[djsteve10]

ooh true... i was lookng on the internet and i found this

http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itunes_to_mp3_format.html

might have to have a try at doing it that way, says it works so there could be a way around it after all :D

[Mission]

I like the tracks ripped to be at 320kbps. Don't think many sites let you download at that, do they ?

[rob1963]

AFAIK (as someone who hates everything Apple except the rather sexy iPhone) no - they use AAC which although isn't proprietary, might as well be because it's not really used by anyone else.


I know it's a bit long-winded, but you could always download music from itunes (which will be in the aac format), then burn it to a disc, then rip it back from the disc into itunes using the MP3 format.


I like the tracks ripped to be at 320kbps. Don't think many sites let you download at that, do they ?

Isn't 320 a bit over the top?

How many people would notice the difference between 256 & 320?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I know it's a bit long-winded, but you could always download music from itunes (which will be in the aac format), then burn it to a disc, then rip it back from the disc into itunes using the MP3 format.



Isn't 320 a bit over the top?

How many people would notice the difference between 256 & 320?

But as we said before, with HDD space being so cheap, why not rip at the highest level you can?

[djsteve10]

I rip all my music at 256kbs... i dont see the difference between that and 320 myself,

I have decided i am just going to buy all my music on cd rather than downloading it all, I can see problems occuring and it could be more bother than what it's worth in the long run

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I rip all my music at 256kbs... i dont see the difference between that and 320 myself,



But as I said....


with HDD space being so cheap, why not rip at the highest level you can?

[djsteve10]

Well i don't hear the difference in sound quality so might aswell keep them at 256kbs and save some HDD space

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Well i don't hear the difference in sound quality so might aswell keep them at 256kbs and save some HDD space

I repeat, why would you need to save space - it's cheap! :rolleyes:

[PropellerHeadCase]

Because buying a second HDD for the last 1-2% of your collection is a pain.

I hybridise - I buy CDs AND download through iTunes. Only just broke the 500 mark on iTunes (and roughly half of my CDs ripped to 25,000 tracks), but this time last year I had no iTunes at all.

[rob1963]

You go to gigs with 25,000 tracks?

Why so many?

I have about 4,600...and don't often get asked for something I dont have.

A colleague of mine uses a laptop...and he only has about 3,500!

[Corabar Steve]

Ah, but will you be able to use your NZ bought (& therefore NZ copyright) iTunes tracks once you are in the UK? :sj:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Because buying a second HDD for the last 1-2% of your collection is a pain.

.

That makes no sense to me at all.

Buy a drive that will be big enough for future expansion then. I mean, when you can get a 500g drive for less than £70, it's hardly a massive lay out is it?

[Mission]

As said, if you have the HD space you might as well do them as 320kps. Let’s not mention doing them as Wave files :D

You should be able to download tracks at the highest kps in mp3 available though but I guess they don't use 320kps for the reasons of download time, storage on servers, etc. Nice to see in another thread that groups like Madness are doing this kind of thing.

Quality wise anything over 192kps through a Disco system, then yes no one’s going to come up to you and say "The Quality of that track dear sir is somewhat degraded compared to its CD counterpart". Or maybe a few other choice words :D Some tracks even work at 128kps and sound fine.

So back on topic :)
CD's but if large multi artist sites give 320kps downloads then I would use them allot.

[Larry B Entertainment]

yeah, i don't think that itunes put a limit on the amount of machines that you can load the track onto or the amount of cds they burn onto... Does itunes download in MP3 format?

You can only authorise your itunes library (actual downloads that is) on 5 pc's and burn each track upto 8 times before the digital protection kicks in.


The easiest way round it, and to answer something rob asked, is to burn the track to a CD and then import it back and delete the original m4p file, although i keep these somewhere safe as a back up.

[PropellerHeadCase]

You go to gigs with 25,000 tracks?

Why so many?

I have about 4,600...and don't often get asked for something I dont have.

A colleague of mine uses a laptop...and he only has about 3,500!

Well, I take about 15,000 of them out with me (not the whole 25,000) and it's because I have the DJ disease of being over-prepared for all eventualities - yet I still get requests for stuff I don't have (generally obscure stuff that I wouldn't have played anyway). Bear in mind that probably 20% of those tracks are remixes - especially where I play the remix for preference, but have the original just in case people get antsy.

I regularly get asked to play House or Hip-Hop sets, sometimes beforehand, sometimes on the night, so having the wherewithal to play an hour or so of club music from '98-'99 (a request I actually had about six months ago) I like to be able to play more than just Basement Jaxx, Faithless, Jamiroquai and Fatboy Slim. In response to that request I played 666, DJ Jean, Michael Moog, Jennifer Paige (Morales Mix), Rest Assured, Sonique, Soulsearcher, Stardust, Three Amigos, Touch & Go, Wamdue Project, Wildchild and The Wiseguys.



Ah, but will you be able to use your NZ bought (& therefore NZ copyright) iTunes tracks once you are in the UK? :sj:

Well, I'll authorise my new PC in the UK, transfer the files, and we'll see, I guess. I'd likely only re-buy 50 or so of them immediately and the rest on an as-needed basis as I tend to only get new dance music which usually only has a 6-9 month shelf-life, anyway.

[djsteve10]

Well i have decided that the cheapest way to buy music is off ebay,
I have found most origonal albums are selling on there for nearly half the shop prices,

going to make a copy of all my cd collection at some stage and take all the copys out to work with me and then i don't risk my precious cd collection being damaged or stolen as i witnessed last night.

I was dj'in in my local night club Oceana with a friend of mine and we was using his cds, i went to get a cd out and someone had spilt a pint of beer over the side of the dj booth all over his cds, leaving at least 20 or 25 cds damaged not to mention the state of the case logic cd cases.

So what do you guys do, Do you take all of you origonals to jobs with you or do you have another set copied and take the copies?

[Corabar Entertainment]

Now we really are getting into dodgy legal territory!

Whilst the licence situation is up in the air at the moment, and the LWP have negotiated an amnesty, I think that amnesty really had the digital DJ in mind!

Even if you own the original CD, you cannot legally make a copy of it to use for DJing!

[Larry B Entertainment]

I mainly make copies on good quality cdr's and never had a problem with them not playing on my decks and have never had any other problems. If i do take original cd's i have them backed up in 2 or different locations as well just in case.

My mate was in a similar situation a few months ago when the club burnt down he was working in at the time. He lost his cd's ,laptop and hard drives and now cant work as he has replaced the laptop but has no music to copy to it and cant afford to replace the cd's :eek: I did mention this at the time and still cant get over the shock :eek:

Thats brought a good question to mind, where would you stand if you did lose all the original cd's in a fire or whatever but still have a copy on a hard drive. Would you still be able to play the mp3's legally ? Even if you had the collection insured, there still might be some tracks that are hard to get now.

[djsteve10]

Even if you own the original CD, you cannot legally make a copy of it to use for DJing!

Now i didn't know that... don't see why not, you have bought the rights to the track at the end of it.

I just can't justify taking 600+ cds on a job with me and having them damaged or stolen after putting all the money into them

[robbiedj]

Now we really are getting into dodgy legal territory!

Whilst the licence situation is up in the air at the moment, and the LWP have negotiated an amnesty, I think that amnesty really had the digital DJ in mind!

Even if you own the original CD, you cannot legally make a copy of it to use for DJing!

Only if you have an SG6 licence and the permission of the legal owner of the copyright. Initial payment covers 5,000 tracks, between 30 secs and 10 mins length.

[Tom]

ouch. and that gives you another reason to back-up everything you have. if i lost a £200 hard drive to a fire i would be annoyed but its better than loosing thousands of pounds of cd's

[Corabar Steve]

Because the copies that you would then be using are in effect bootlegs / pirate copy.

Also you don't buy th rights, just the bit of plastic. Everything contained on it is the property of the copyright holder.

[Larry B Entertainment]

Going back to what kma said........

Yes but what happens if it was a house fire or wherever you store your cd's ? Not sure whether House insurance would cover such a large and expensive collection.

It make me feel :eek:
I could never replace my large collection of Hardcore or trance.

[Corabar Steve]

ouch. and that gives you another reason to back-up everything you have. if i lost a £200 hard drive to a fire i would be annoyed but its better than loosing thousands of pounds of cd's

£1000 per track fine I believe for use of illegal CDs

[Corabar Steve]

Going back to what kma said........

Yes but what happens if it was a house fire or wherever you store your cd's ? Not sure whether House insurance would cover such a large and expensive collection.

Insure the CDs separately?

[Larry B Entertainment]

Insure the CDs separately?

Im sure most of the collection us dj's build up is priceless and would take forever to rebuild several years of music especailly deleted and rare tracks.

But yes could insure them and then if the worst did happen get one of those DJ packs so could still carry on working.

[Mission]

£1000 per track fine I believe for use of illegal CDs

Perhaps going off topic a bit but just a quick reply :D

How many people are using homemade compilation discs in their cars, I'm guessing that Millions are.

I would hope that the law in this country have more pressing things to do than chase and fine Joe Bloggs for having made a cdr for his car cd player.

And at a thousand pound a track, what if instead, you went and robbed £20K worth of CD's from a Music superstore one night using a stolen car. Probably first offence slapped rist, don't do it again and clean the streets for a week. :bang:

[Corabar Entertainment]

How many people are using homemade compilation discs in their cars, I'm guessing that Millions are. The authorities have confirmed that they will not prosecute private individuals for private use - but DJs are COMMERCIAL use, and therefore a different ball game

[Mission]

The authorities have confirmed that they will not prosecute private individuals for private use - but DJs are COMMERCIAL use, and therefore a different ball game

Yeah sorry forgot about that :Embarassed:

Could you imagine though prosecuting all the individuals for private use, the whole legal system would collapse. Half the country would have to be quickly trained as lawyers. And "Ambulance Chasers" would have to be renamed :D

[PropellerHeadCase]

I was under the impression from previous threads that the whole 'copies of originals that you own' situation was still pretty much up in the air due to the conflicting licensing bodies in evidence and the fact that none of them seem to be able to decide which has jurisdiction over DJs (and if digital DJing is acceptable use how is a copy on a hard-drive different to a copy on a CD, be it audio or data?).

[Dragonfly]

i have to confess i know very little hard fact on thos subject but isnt it something to do with a copied cd being a "hard copy" and therefore potentially saleable??

[Corabar Steve]

(and if digital DJing is acceptable use how is a copy on a hard-drive different to a copy on a CD, be it audio or data?).

The thing is technically it isn't legal, there is however an amnesty regarding it until the licence is sorted.

[mr rusty]

The thing is technically it isn't legal, there is however an amnesty regarding it until the licence is sorted.

As you obviously know something about this, perhaps you could explain to a relative newbie what is the amnesty, and who has given it. Particularly with use to rerecorded CD's

We have most music on original CD and legal download, but we tend to burn compilations to CDR to use at the gig, just to cut down on the number of disks in use. Although maybe technically illegal, has anyone ever been done for using copies of music they legally own?

Would we be more legal burning to hard-disk and going from there?

[Corabar Steve]

We have most music on original CD and legal download, but we tend to burn compilations to CDR to use at the gig, just to cut down on the number of disks in use. Although maybe technically illegal, has anyone ever been done for using copies of music they legally own? I believe so.




Would we be more legal burning to hard-disk and going from there? & using a computer or MP3 controller? Yes, but only until the licence is sorted & then you will need one.

I believe the LWP are pushing for the licence to include any change of format, so backup discs would then be legal, as would ripped MP3s, Mini discs, or even if you so desired cassettes, 8 tracks, reel to reel, or wax cylinder. Darren (Solitaire) is really the man to ask (or Robbie DJ or kilmeedyman )

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I believe the LWP are pushing for the licence to include any change of format, so backup discs would then be legal, as would ripped MP3s, Mini discs, or even if you so desired cassettes, 8 tracks, reel to reel, or wax cylinder.

True.