Re: [ARSCLIST] the long-predicted tipping point

[Lou Judson <inaudio@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would not mind this a bit if they had at least CD quality (44.1, 16  
bit WAV or better) files with liner info... It's hard to find the  
cover art and liner notes online today...

<L>
On Nov 26, 2008, at 3:07 AM, Tom Fine wrote:

The bottom line, however, is that the printed/published/retail- 
channel CD is slowly heading to the dustbin. I would say the download  
alternative, at least the most popular versions (iTunes, Amazon,  
Real, Yahoo, etc) are an inferior replacement due to lossy encoding  
and lack of graphics/lyrics/discographical information in many cases  
-- yes, there are a couple of niche players now offering CD  
resolution and better, but they are for now small-time with limited  
variety and few mainstream titles. Perhaps once the industry gets its  
head around the idea of not being the physical-printed-matter  
business (and fully exploits the biggest advantage of download  
selling --  variety so buyers have the maximum number of one-cut  
choices to cherry-pick -- thus having much less of the back-catalog  
out of print becomes an economic imperative, but cheaper to  
accomplish since there's no need to produce and manage physical  
inventory of CD's), download quality and download economics will  
improve.

-- Tom Fine