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Is 99¢ Better Than Free?
If the record industry’s mind doesn’t
seem to be on the battle for high-resolution
music (SACD and DVD-A), it’s
because its execs figure there’s more
money to be won — and lost — in
low-resolution music: the kind you
download.
Trouble is, most downloaders aren’t
paying anything for the music they grab..
Is there a way for EMI, Sony and Universal
to make a buck from downloadable
music? Absolutely. Have they been
succeeding? Nope.
So Apple Computer had everyone’s
attention when it launched its new Music
Store in late April. Of course Steve Jobs
is not just CEO of Apple, he is also CEO
of Pixar, co-producer of Toy Story, A
Bug’s Life and Monsters, Inc. If he wants
to call an entertainment biz mogul, the
phone number is already in his address
book.
Here’s how it works. You start with
Apple’s iTune program (shown above),
available for Mac OS X only, coming for
Windows around Christmas. On Day
70 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
One, there were some 200,000 songs
on line. You can hunt for and hear 30
seconds of any song you want. You can
then buy it with Apple’s “One Click”
system. The basic cost is US$0.99 a
song, with a ceiling of $9.99 an album.
The song you buy is yours forever,
in contrast to subscription systems, in
which you lose your music if you drop
your subscription. You can install the
music on any three computers at a time,
and into an unlimited number of iPods,
Apple’s smash hit portable player.
When the service was launched there
was more: you could let friends across
town or around the world log into your
computer and listen to your songs (they
needed broadband access, because this
is streaming audio, not a download). Or
you could tune in to to your home collection
on your office computer. A new
release of iTunes blipped that feature.
Yes, but how does it sound? MP3
again, right? Not exactly.
Unlike most players, the iPod is not
married to MP3: you can in fact upload
uncompressed music to it if you want.
Apple’s store is using Advanced Audio
Codec, based on a Dolby standard.
Though the downloads are compressed
in the extreme (128 kbps, compared to
about 1,120 kbps for CD), AAC supposedly
does a better job that MP3. Indeed,
Steve Jobs claims that AAC can actually
sound better than CD, because the downloads
come from original master tapes,
not the commercial CDs.
We found that a touch hard to swallow,
truth to tell. As we write this the
store is not available in Canada, where we
are, so we had to be content to listen to
some of those 30 second samples. Apple
says they have the same resolution as the
full downloads. If that’s true, it’s bad
news. We sampled some current pop
and country songs, and also wandered
over to the rather sparse classical catalog.
What we heard was a long way from CD
quality.
But we’re aware how undemanding
many consumers are. The question is:
will the Apple Music Store draw people
away from KaZaa and Grokster?
Certainly the initial wave of enthusiasm
augurs well. In the first 18 hours,
the store sold more music than all its
competitors together had sold in the past
six months. Is that because it’s new? Or
because it’s great?
Our own view is that the price is way
too high. The album price of $10 means
$15 Canadian dollars. In the case of current
hit albums, we can buy them around
here for a dollar less on CD. The Apple
Store is giving you no disc, no booklet,
no lyrics, no information, and is paying
for no shipping cost. It is also giving you
about 12% of the information that’s on
the CD. For audiophiles, the conclusion
is easy: just say no.
But imagine this really works. That
all the record labels come on board. That
anyone with a computer built in the past
six years can join. That the record stores
can no longer see any reason to offer
CDs.
We’re already not wholly thrilled
with CD. With AAC, the effort in
making great audio equipment is pretty
much wasted.