(fax) Re: DTS 5.1 music - is it or isnt it ?

[Trevor Cordes]

On 15 Jan, GREG HILL wrote:
> 
> Trevor, you don't know anyone who purchases music digitally?  with Ipods so 

Not in my circle of close friends, no, except this one guy.

> popular(go to your nearest gym), most people are getting their mp3s from the 
> Apple store, or some other mp3 site on the web. With record stores closing 
> left and right

Maybe it's a Canadian thing but I haven't seen a record store close here
for ages.  They all got weeded out more like 5-8 years ago before
digital downloads were big.

I think people still like the "ownership" aspect of physical media.  At
least with a CD if you don't like it you can easily resell it.  With a
download, your resale rights are hazy at best, or, with iTunes,
completely or nearly impossible technically.  With digital you are
essentially buying nothing -- giving the RIAA money for nothing.  Then
you receive a crippled and usually substandard product that they know
they'll be able to make you rebuy in the future by providing some sort
of "upgrade" (from 128 to 192 to 256...).

Also, keep in mind that 99% of the population has no concept of the
fragility of hard drives.  They don't understand that in any given year
around 5-10% of the drives out there will fail in horrible ways, without
prior warning, completely destroying their music collections, and if not
that then their DRM/TPM keys, which amounts to the same thing!  Woe be
to someone who spends as much on music as I do but does it purely
digitally and then loses it all in a drive crash.  Sure, some here have
said Jobs will give you it all back for free if you ask nicely, but do
you really want to be at their mercy?

Maybe it's a control thing.  With CD's, I have absolute control.  With
digital downloads I do not.  The Americans here should appreciate the
repugnance of giving up more rights than you have to.

The choice is a no-brainer to me.