This is the first in what I intend to be a series of posts describing the 80 Proof Music store and what’s going to be so good about it. (Or at least what will make it different.)
At launch, the store will only sell digital music. We feel strongly about digital music formats being a better option for consumers than CDs. And we also feel strongly that DRM is anti-consumer to its very core, and you will never find us supporting it.
That said, we aren’t ruling out the eventual sale of physical media, including Compact Discs and especially Vinyl. We’re just not making it a priority.
Now, digital formats can be a funny topic, because a lot of people think digital music is MP3 and vice versa, so when I say “digital formats” with such confident plurality people are already confused. Well it’s true, there are several to choose from, and if you ask me, MP3 is not the best of them. In addition to being a lossy compression scheme, there are licensing problems involved with the technology. It’s not included in the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, due to these restrictions.
Of course MP3 does have almost universal support going for it, so you can bet it’s the first format we’re going to launch with. At launch, it may be the only one but, sooner or later, it will be joined by several other options, including a favorite alternative of mine, Ogg Vorbis. Ogg, as it’s colloquially called, is not only free (as in speech, not beer) but it lets us get away with smaller files for the same or better quality. Pretty cool.
We have some other formats in mind, with their own advantages and drawbacks, but let’s save that discussion for another time.
Do you have a format we should think about offering? Want to share some thoughts on the topic? Comment below (don’t forget to Register so you don’t have to enter your info every time) or send us an email!
4 Comments
I think in a perfect world there would be an option for FLAC or some other lossless format. I personally don’t mind MP3 as long as they’re high quality (preferably 320kbps, absolute minimum 192kbps). However, given the option I’ll always take FLAC and convert to MP3 myself if I need to. That said, if the FLAC files are considerably more expensive (I’m looking at you LiveDownloads.com) then I’ll usually settle for MP3…begrudgingly.
I <3 FLAC
@Matt, @Leanne – It warms my cool heart to see support for FLAC from both music consumers and creators. I didn’t want to bring it up this early, but that’s one of the unnamed formats I was referencing above.
I’m perfectly in line with your standards as a consumer, Matt, and I hope to make both of us happy here.
Another vote for FLAC.
And, what Matt said about MP3’s.
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