Linn Forums

Am i the only person that has considered that the sooner record companies wake up to the fact that they are licensing the CONTENT rather than selling media the better.

In this case, a moment of clarity from the record companies would certainly make things better for us, but also make their bottom line considerably healthier too!

What i want, is to be able to download a studio master, or a high quality FLAC - and pay (say) £10 for that - and then have the record company recognize the fact that i've bought my license to the content, and then allow me to purchase media as just that... i.e pay and extra £6 for Vinyl, pay an extra £4 for CD...

...if my name was EMI, then that what i would be looking at doing - because nice though it is to be able to download music "on demand" i want a backup at the very least, and a PDF just isn't the same as a nice CD insert or set of sleeve notes.

I for one would tick the "send me the media in the post" box every single time...and instead of just selling downloads for £10, the record companies sell a download and a CD for £14...sounds like a nice way to increase profits, tap into the "impulse purchase" market, and keep the customer happy...

...i may have missed the fact that somebody has made this philosophical leap - but i'm not aware of anybody that has!

Not going to happen .. the publishers are scared to hell out of MP3 copies,, they would never accept releasing major bands in studio masters or FLACS.. your licence is irrelevent once you have it they will be scared to death how you will handle it..

In effect your titile could be retitled "how to lose even more money but at least at a decent quality"

i think the move to non DRM downloads has demonstrated that the record companies now accept the fact that MOST people buy music from official sources, value quality, and want to play it on multiple devices....so I'm not sure its so far fetched.

The fact that DRM is (almost) dead definitely signifies a paradigm shift in thinking from record companies, from protecting themselves against "theft" to treating the consumer like an adult, and recognizing that most people would RATHER pay for their music, and the people that don't never will.

i for one have used limewire to download tracks (god strike me down - i have stolen!) but have - almost without exception, then gone out to buy the CD, and perhaps another couple of discs by that artist too...so the record companies WIN!

...its much like taping the top40 from the radio when you were a kid (yes i did that too! - i am going to HELL!!) in that the sound quality was rubbish (although better than itunes!) and it had Bruno Brookes prattling over the intro, but it gave me enough either make me love it and go and buy it, or hate it and delete it.

...trusting people - its the future!

Much as one would love to beilieve this there is one simple problem .. Profit

the highest number of "official" downloads according to an average of all the major suppliers were supplied at a level less than-- not even equal too-- MP3-- Unless you happen to support the artists willing to release on the good formats (which is nobody major..no offence to these talented people) the format has a lot of work to sort out before it will even be accepted..

However it would be wonderful if the publishers could sort out a way of protecting themselves and giving the customer a choice of quality from downloads, from mp3 to studiomaster. Lets hope they work on this. As you say everyone will be a winner..

You may wish to look at the B&W Music club http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550. They are releasing studio masters from Real World Records.

I have just bought the Who album "Whos Next " on vinyl and it came with a free voucher to download the mp3 of the album and extras. I think this is a great idea.

I'm surprised more record companies don't do it - i'd pay a premium for having the vinyl and the ability to download FLAC (preferably studio master clearly!) under "license"

When I bought the B-52's Funplex on vinyl, that came with a free copy of the CD inside...