Are shiny disks the present of music?

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1804197]

Context

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

it was actually cheaper (most of the time) to buy a physical CD online, including the postage from VAT-dodging Jersey, than to download the album

Hmm... it's sometimes cheaper sometimes not. Something like emusic.com is 42p/track. The per-track pricing means your value varies. Tremendously good if you're going to listen to Shostakovich symphonies or Godspeed You! Black Emperor since a whole album can be 2 quid (double album for Godspeed). It's not so good if you're a fan of the Ramones or straight edge punk bands. Play seems variable -- sometimes the mp3s are a quid or two cheaper, sometimes more expensive and sometimes the exact same price.

Then, of course, there's the dodgy russian sites of questionable legality and the option to stream through Spotify free or £5 to get rid of the vexing adverts.


I can see video DVD/Blu-Ray box sets by post continuing to be a viable business for the medium term

Lots of research around now for streaming at qualities higher than Blu-Ray and current generation televisions. I think any improvement quality over blu-ray will be streamed more commonly than sold in physical media.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Something like emusic.com is 42p/track. The per-track pricing means your value varies.

Ah, that's cool, ta. Will look that up next time I'm after a single track. I tend to buy albums on the strength of a single I like, on the grounds that I don't have much time to spend on new music discovery, and tracks from the same album as one I like have sufficiently high probability of being good-to-my-ears that it's worth taking a punt. Also because I tend to manage my listening by albums and tend to lose singles when I do buy them.

Lots of research around now for streaming at qualities higher than Blu-Ray and current generation televisions.

How does it get the last mile? The current FTTC rollout is pretty patchy to say the least, and FTTP doesn't look remotely economic in the immediate future. (I hope I'm wrong about that. Not least because my home exchange is not even on the future list for FTTC.)

[steer.livejournal.com]

How does it get the last mile? The current FTTC rollout is pretty patchy to say the least, and FTTP doesn't look remotely economic in the immediate future.

Lots of techniques can get better use from the existing PON (it's actually constrained by being massively mutliplexed)... Once the data is at the streetside cabinet it's not such a bad problem. Not really my area though I have to say. Isn't MK getting FTTH soon?

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Ha ha. The situation is complex, and hugely variable. There was a FTTH trial you could sign up for in MK ... in the area I moved from because the copper was too long for ADSL.

When I moved from there to here, some years ago, I jumped from 56k to 6-7M. Bandwidth at peak times has got steadily worse since then as takeup has increased roundabouts.

There are other bits of MK where the phones were all done with multiplexed fibre, which was cool until they realised you couldn't do ADSL down them, and even audio modems were really crappy because of the extra digitisation in the loop. It really is very patchy - I know people here at the moment with 56k modem connections and >56M.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't the 56k modem connections be better replaced with a cheap wifi dongle these days?

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

(Assuming you meant wireless/3G.)

Yes, iff you have any signal. I know you metropolitan types take it for granted but it isn't ubiquitous. :-) I certainly get nothing usable from my house. (Tho' haven't tested all networks recently.)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Well actually I was going with the experience of my parents in a hilly quiet Yorkshire village.... they couldn't get good wired access so used a dongle for years. Surprising in MK... though it may be a house construction issue.