Have you used one of the legal online music services?

Apple's online music service got off to a good start with music fans. Have you used this service or any of the others to download music legally?

Have you used one of the legal online music services?
Yes, Apple's iTunes service
3% (5 votes)
Yes, other
4% (8 votes)
No
93% (169 votes)
Total votes: 182

COMMENTS
Tone no like being screwed's picture

Are you nuts? They want a dollar a pop for MP3 crap! I let my kids use Kazaa and I put socket filters in our router and installed virus software.

Paul J.  Stiles, Mtn.View, CA's picture

I will not pay to download a lossy-compressed song just to find out if it is the one I am looking for. By the way, if the song was one that I was looking for, I would then go out and purchase the CD (or better yet, the SACD); if it wasn't, I would just make note and delete the download. Some online vendors, such as Buy.com, have little snippets you can listen to over the Internet. This is helpful, but some of the snippets are too short to get to the "heart" of the song. When truly fast (>200 Mb/sec)Internet connections are affordably and widely available and when high-rez multichannel downloads are available, then I will subscribe to a music download service.

Travis Klersy's picture

I am on dial-up service, with no intention of spending another nickel on computer related anything until absolutely necessary. When the music industry gets its collective act together, and the sound quality is there, and the price is right, I will consider it. Until then, you will still find me hunched over every box of used records I come across.

KRB's picture

No way I'm going to pay for 128 Kbps MP3's. If I really want the music, I'll buy the uncompressed CD for home listening and encode them to high VBR MP3's via LAME for the car.

Daniel Emerson's picture

I've looked at a few, but I can't find one with a catalog big, diverse, and interesting enough to justify bothering.

Brandon Milner's picture

The only online subscription service I like right now is RealOne's Rhaspody service. The selection is impressive, the UI intuitive, and the "instant on" playback experience without huge downloads is compelling. If they upped the sound quality and allowed easy 79¢ permanant adds to my library (like I-tunes does), it would be near perfect.

Stephen Curling's picture

My connection speed is to slow for legal or illegal DLing of music and many other software. Otherwise I'd probably have a nice collection.

Soma's picture

No. Why should I pay for a low quality format that also costs me money for net time and dial-in, when, if I like the music enough, the price of a CD is fine? I personally hope music downloading fails, and they get to the core issue of CD prices.

Graeme Nattress's picture

Too expensive for an inferior product!

Craig Haug's picture

I use MusicMatch's streaming audio instead. I can easily listen to a particular artist, group of similar artists or genre, and I can do it wherever I have an Internet connection.

Tom Warren's picture

I haven't yet, though i probably will someday.

Pete Montgomery's picture

Downloaded music doesn't interest me for two reasons: 1) Sound quality, and 2) If I like it, I want a hard copy of it that will outlast my computer.

TZ's picture

Cool for the gym, but these sites are all useless for any audiophile. Why pay for an overly compressed song with missing data?

John Valvano's picture

On my country dirt road on top of a hill in New Hampshire I only get dial-up access. Downloads of any kind are painfully slow—not to mention the fact that I have no desire to mix computers with my enjoyment of music at home.

Andy's picture

Legal, heck I haven't even tried one of the "illegal" services. I did download and burn to CD a few Grateful Dead concerts. The sound was passable, but certainly nobetter than the fifth generation tapes in my collection. As for the for-pay download services, let's see: I can download a low-fi MP3 for about the same price the song costs on CD—only with the CD, I get liner notes, better looking graphics on the disc, a whole collection of songs with a single easy purchase, AND industry-standard quality sound. For some discs I can even get an SACD for about the same price. Hmmmmm, so hard to decide.

Timothy O.  Driskel's picture

Not close enough to the bone for me!

Tony P., NY's picture

Downloads are terrible sonically, never plan to use them

M.Barath's picture

and never will

Al Earz's picture

Why download compressed versions of any music? What purpose does it serve? This completely baffles me. I have a friend who has an I-POD and he always brags about how much free music he has. Whoop-tee-doo! It sounds like, well I can't use that word here, but that's how it sounds. For me, it's all about the quality, not the quantity.

R.  Perrini / Miami, FL's picture

Downloaded music sucks from a sonic quality point of view, so I don't bother with it.

Older Brother Gert's picture

I only patronize the illegal ones, the result of a bad lifestyle decision many yonks ago. It's too late for me now!

pei canada, james madore's picture

no...free is free can't you see...one more time..FREE

Bill Olvos's picture

Not interested. However, to quote Mark Knopfler, "It's what it is now." Today's teens play all of their music on their computers or MP3 portables. The idea of a teen sitting between two speakers and listening to quality audio is incredulous. Sad that this quality has been lost on future generations.

chas's picture

I prefer the sound quality of the SACD and DVD-A's I buy from my local retailers.

Robin Banks's picture

I have never used any online music service. Give me an original or give me nothing at all! MORE SACD'S PLEASE!!!

David L.  Wyatt jr.'s picture

If I had an iPod to take with me while hiking, I might think hard about it. But I have a lot of music already, and my goal in life isn't CD burning.

John Rau's picture

The quality of downloaded music is totally unacceptable. The quality of Beethoven or Brahms on a regular CD is bad enough without adding insult to injury.

Mahoney's picture

Downing loading might save me a few bucks, but, until the quality improves, I'd rather buy the artist's cd.

Ivan Ripprovsky, Ukraine's picture

Legal? You mean pay for it? Buhahahahahahahahaha.

Mike Healey's picture

No. I haven't used the illegal ones either.

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