Quote:
Originally Posted by imported_Next_Saturday
Because of record company licensing, the only Gordon Lightfoot album available currently,is Harmony. 99 cents a song or $8.99 for the "album".
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Apologies for the delay in posting my reply, due to amongst other things a routine Doctor's visit., but no apology for its content which all here interested in music and digital recordings should read carefully (at least as carefully as I was in drafting it for your edification!!)
An Interesting topic to be sure which brings up in my mind at least the somewhat complicated subject of compressed music file size and quality
I have already written a page of my thoughts and it is on my website at:-
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/mp3_quality/
the quality of any mp3 is dependant on the "sampling" bitrate (in KBPS-KiloBytes Per Second) and the higher the rate the larger the resulting file size.
I had found that it was generally agreed that 192 KBPS is the equivalent of "good CD quality" but 256 KBPS or even 320 KBPS is rated "equal to CD" and after noting that 128 KBPS is the most common rate amongst the file sharing networks I had hitherto plumped for 192 KBPS as a reasonable compromise between filesize and quality,
Therefore when I read INS's post my first thought was I wonder what quality mp3s Amazon offer?
Also amongst the items I need to continue studying are the salient points of mp3s versus the mp4 format as used by I-tunes which is allied with AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and heavily promulgated by Apple
some useful reading for the techies amongst you may be found of course by googling where results include for example:-
an Apple page
and of course a wiki
I was forcibly reminded of my comparitive lack of knowledge when a dear friend arrived two weeks ago from England with an Ipod Nano and I was unable to say how mp3s could be loaded onto her machine.
then along comes not Jones but the "interloping weekend guy" to alert us to Amazon's mp3 service.
Since I already had a "1-click" Amazon account I thought I would download a sample to check its relative quality
Despite that simple aim I have to say that this caused me no end of grief and it was well over an hour before I succeeded
For starters very strangely when I visited the requisite search page at:-
http://www.amazon.com/b/002-6192411-...node=163856011
and then searched for "gordon Lightfoot" I only obtained 17 results
starting with 1.
Sundown (Karaoke-Version) As Made Famous By: Gordon Lightfoot
Studio Group Karaoke Country: Chariot
and followed by 2
You Could Read My Mind - Sound-A-Like As Made Famous By: Gordon Lightfoot
Studio Group Almost Pop: If You Could Read My Mind
Then the remaining 15 were the tracks from the Beautiful tribute album with Aengus Finnan Terry Tufts Maria Muldour et al
But no mention of anything connected with Harmony
Another search for "Harmony" on its own was equally fruitless
but when I searched for "Gordon Lightfoot Harmony" it quixotically as you can see informed me
"Your search "GORDON LIGHTFOOT harmony" did not match any Artists"
Which was a very obvious untruth because there was a clear link to the album accompanied by a clickable link to its purchase (for $8.99)
In the absence of any other option I pressed the proffered "buy mp3 album" link
which opened up
http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/orde...1SE6&isTrack=0
Whatever you do DO NOT press on that link, you may very well get charged for something trust me you will not want
where I was informed unequivicably that I should
"Get the Amazon MP3 Downloader (because) you have selected to purchase:
Harmony by Gordon Lightfoot
(Amazon MP3 Purchases are limited to U.S. customers.)"
and furthermore
"You must install the Amazon MP3 Downloader to purchase albums"
BUT BUT I only wanted to download a sample mp3
So the next line looked interesting
"If you would rather not install the Amazon MP3 Downloader, you can purchase individual songs without it.
Cancel purchase" but absolutely No link or reference to what those individual songs might be or indeed how to access their download
THEY LIE!!I I cancelled the purchase therefore and was promptly returned to the search page at:-
http://www.amazon.com/b/002-6192411-...node=163856011
To cut a long story short since it looked impossible to buy a sample track from Harmony
I eventually researched for "Gordon Lightfoot"
and decided to buy result 2
Ah Ha they don't give up easily!!
"Get the Amazon MP3 Downloader You have selected to purchase:
If You Could Read My Mind - Sound-A-Like As Made Famous By: Gordon Lightfoot by Studio Group
(Amazon MP3 Purchases are limited to U.S. customers.)
Before downloading this song, we recommend installing the Amazon MP3 Downloader application. (learn more)
It automatically adds your music downloads to iTunes or Windows Media Player
It takes just a few clicks and less than 30 seconds to install"
But this time the rider said
"If you would rather not install the Amazon MP3 Downloader, you can purchase individual songs without it.
Skip installation and continue | Cancel purchase"
I clicked the "skip" link
and got this
"Complete your song download You have chosen to download songs through your browser.
(To install the MP3 Downloader in the future, click on the "Install The MP3 Downloader" link in the Amazon MP3 navigation bar.)
On the next screen, you'll see this box:-
"Click Save and save the song file to your folder of choice.
Do not click Open or Cancel.
Now most distressingly I have the Google toolbar installed and whilst I usually sing the praises of Google one most annoying albeit well intentioned default feature of their toolbar is that it prevents popups from appearing hence the necessary download popup failed to open
So I enabled popups and reached this instruction
Click the Download Song button below to download If You Could Read My Mind - Sound-A-Like As Made Famous By: Gordon Lightfoot by Studio Group - $0.89"
Followed by a download this song button which I relievedly pressed
The next hurdle was caused by my UK bank who when recently issuing a replacement debit card changed not only the expiry date and the three digit security ID but also the final 4 digits of the actual card number so naturally amazon when it checked was unable to verify and emailed me to say my original order had been cancelled so please reorder
Now somewhere along this tortuous path I noted the following information and was able to acscertain that the mp3 had I would get
was in:-
Format: MP3, 256 kbps What's this?
clicking that "what's this?"link opened
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...200154210#spec where I read with great interest:-
"
Why are Music Downloads only available in MP3 format?
MP3 is the most widely compatible music file format and is supported by most media player applications, hand-held music devices, and some CD and DVD players. Our MP3 format also provides you with the freedom to transfer music you buy at the Amazon MP3 store to any device you'd like or copy it to a CD without restrictions of any kind.( a very obvious dig at Apple/Itunes and their DRM restrictions
What are the technical specifications of MP3 Music Download files?
Here's more information about music files from the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads store:
Bit Rate: Where possible, we encode our MP3 files using variable bit rates for maximum audio quality and smaller file sizes, aiming at an average of 256 kilobits per second (kbps). Using a variable bit rate allows us to allocate a higher bit rate to the more complex sections of music files while using a smaller bit rate for the less complex sections. The average of these rates is then calculated to produce an average bit rate for the entire file that represents the overall sound quality. Some of our content is encoded using a constant bit rate of 256 kbps. This content will have the same excellent audio quality at a slightly larger file size."
So now I can do further research on file sizes using Musicmatch as my prefered CD to mp3 conversion program which incorporates the VBR setting as well as a range of fixed rates from 16 KBPS up to 320 KBPS
OK i hear you all chanting so what did I download??
here is a MusicMatch screenshot of the mp3 playing(complete with the relevant album artwork courtesy of the included
ID3 tags
note the comment "quality VBR"
Despite that I have to say that this alleged "Sound-a-Like" is positively the worst cover of IYCRMM imaginable , the producers should have employed either Rick Moronis or Burton Cummings to do their great GL impressions
and that I am about to add a suitable note about VBR to my mp3_quality webpage.
and that for the moment at least in the immortal words of Forrest Gump
is all I have to say about that!!
"Sir" John Fowles
Any questions??
Amazon downloads
