iPodDailyNews - Where iPod news comes first

Good news for Apple shareholders.

As one who is familiar with social psychology research methods, I have to say this looks like a well done, valid study. The most significant findings seem to be that people prefer the simplicity of pay-per-download and that if free (illegal) peer-to-peer file sharing cane be reduced the bulk of those downloads will become pay-per-download transactions, not subscription services.

At the same time, I'm really wondering how significant account sharing is for the subscription model. Who loses money when subscriptions are shared? Is it Napster or the music industry? Either way it looks to me to be really bad news for somebody other than Apple.

new study shows people like to keep what they pay for??? ...wow, that's crazy.

Hard to argue with those figures cos this industry is still in its infancy.

For now, I will mostly buy CDs. Why? Cos then I can rip them at whatever rate I want. I still don't consider 128 kbp AAC files at 99 cents to be worth the price.

If the songs were half the price then I would consider it. 10 bucks for an album where the bit rate and quality may be easily superseded in the next few years is not a good deal to me.

It will be really interesting how music listening will change in the next 5 years. The iPod has reinvigorated my music experience so I'm very happy with all these innovations.

Now drop the price for the regular punters!

Totally not surprised.

Neil, I couldn't agree more. I have no intention of paying for a sonically compromised product (not that many of the recently produced, overly-compressed CDs sound that great, either...).

My iPod spends equal time attached to my home stereo. 196kbs AAC is the minimum I will rip, 224kbs I have found to be virtually indistinguishable from the source. Only my most prized CDs have received 256kbs; anything higher seems to be a waste of space.

But 128kbs would definitely be a waste of money. If the iTunes store were to carry out-of-print CDs, or any of the vast amount of music that has never been released on CD, I might reconsider.

Sigh. Audiophiles need to get it into their golden-eared heads that they are not, never have been, and never will be the target market for music download services. The iTMS and its competitors are directed towards the mainstream market, for whom the quality is "good enough". Hell, more than good enough. iTMS tracks sound pretty much perfect to my average ears.

But then, where do I listen to music? The car. At work. All noisy, less-than-pristine environments, and with less-than-audiophilic speakers. My stereo system is used almost solely for video. Occasionally I'll turn on Music Choice on my digital cable, but that's rare. And I don't think I'm alone here. Audio is a portable thing. Few people sit in front of their stereo anymore, listening to music while reading a book.

The point is, I don't consider 128kbps AAC to be a waste of money. Anything more would be a waste of disk space, as far as I'm concerned, because I wouldn't be able to hear the difference.

LordRobin, I couldn't agree more!