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Brian W.
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| Posted: 21 November 2008 at 8:00pm | IP Logged
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Now a second lossless download site has sprung up. First there was MusicGiants, now we have HDTracks.com.
Their selection is very limited, with no major labels, but Sundazed is offering all their downloads on the site (as well as on MusicGiants), DRM-free on both, including some out-of-print titles. HDTracks also has the British ASV catalog, though with a pretty limited selection.
The exciting thing about HDTracks is it's all DRM-free, with your choice of FLAC, AIFF (both lossless), or 320kb MP3.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that they will eventually get rights to offer music from the major labels.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 21 November 2008 at 9:49pm | IP Logged
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Does MusicGiants have DRM on their files? What file types can you download from them?
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 22 November 2008 at 1:59am | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
| Does MusicGiants have DRM on their files? What file types can you download from them? |
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It does on most things. But these new Sundazed downloads have no DRM. It's up to the content provider. (Amazon, they have so much power, they can just make their demands of no DRM and the music companies all cave.)
MusicGiants files are all in Windows Media Lossless. You can burn each one up to CD five times. That's what I do with mine -- I just keep them on my computer until I've got enough tracks to fill up a CD, then I burn them to disc. Haven't hit five burns on anything yet, but one of these days I'll just burn myself all the backup copies I'm allowed, then delete the WMA files from my PC.
Edited by Brian W. on 22 November 2008 at 1:59am
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Hykker
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| Posted: 22 November 2008 at 7:11am | IP Logged
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Foo on Music Giants, when I tried to go there I got a message that you must use IE to use it. C'mon, it's not like Firefox is some weird, obscure browser...what's so difficult about writing html code that works on both? Zillions of other websites manage to do it just fine.
They won't be getting any of my business.
Ditto for sites that require the use of flash player (which is a huge security hole & source of annoying pop-ups...I refuse to install it).
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aaronk
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| Posted: 22 November 2008 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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Brian, I know you're picky about ripping from burned CDs; however, you could get around the DRM by burning the disc and then ripping the song back to a wav file, correct? Or is there something that prevents you from being able to do this? I'm fairly clueless when it comes to DRM, since I buy all of my music on original CDs.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 23 November 2008 at 1:45am | IP Logged
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Hykker wrote:
| Foo on Music Giants, when I tried to go there I got a message that you must use IE to use it. |
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Yes, I admit that's very strange. I found that out too, as I just downloaded Firefox a couple days ago.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 23 November 2008 at 1:48am | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
| Brian, I know you're picky about ripping from burned CDs; however, you could get around the DRM by burning the disc and then ripping the song back to a wav file, correct? Or is there something that prevents you from being able to do this? I'm fairly clueless when it comes to DRM, since I buy all of my music on original CDs. |
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Mm, I'm nearly not as picky about ripping from burned CDs as I used to be. I had just heard unfounded "rumors" about errors and such that made anal-retentive me paranoid.
I actually don't have a problem with their DRM at all. I always rip the MusicGiants tracks from my burned CDs and then either burn them to a comp with the ripped .wav file or convert them to an MP3s for my Sansa.
I've bought over 200 tracks from MusicGiants over the past two years. I've been able to get a lot of my B-sides I'm looking for, and almost all the recent big hits as stand-alone singles, too, complete with 800x800 artwork.
Edited by Brian W. on 23 November 2008 at 1:50am
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aaronk
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| Posted: 23 November 2008 at 2:46pm | IP Logged
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Brian W. wrote:
I had just heard unfounded "rumors" about errors and such that made anal-retentive me paranoid.
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Well, it's true that errors can occur. You've seen an example of this on a CD that I sent to you a while back. Honestly, the only time I've gotten errors while ripping burned CDs back to my hard drive were from CD-Rs that were either 1) burned on crappy media like Memorex circa 1998 (they may have gotten better, don't know) or 2) burned on someone else's equipment and my computer's drive has a hard time reading the disc even while playing at normal speed.
For discs that I've burned myself on good media (learned the hard way and bought Memorex in my early years), I can still play and rip them with no errors time and time again.
I'm guessing, then, based on your above post, that you can skate around the DRM by burning to CD-R and then ripping back to wav file?
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 23 November 2008 at 3:57pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
| I'm guessing, then, based on your above post, that you can skate around the DRM by burning to CD-R and then ripping back to wav file? |
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Yes, burning to CD gets rid of the DRM. You can then convert it to a .wav or other file and do what you want with it.
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Hykker
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| Posted: 23 November 2008 at 4:50pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
Honestly, the only time I've gotten errors while ripping burned CDs back to my hard drive were from CD-Rs that were either 1) burned on crappy media like Memorex circa 1998 (they may have gotten better, don't know) or 2) burned on someone else's equipment and my computer's drive has a hard time reading the disc even while playing at normal speed.
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While I continue to be somewhat leery of storing anything irreplacable on CD-R, I've had minimal problems with them, and really most of those can be traced back to a funky CD writer in a computer I had in the early 00's.
I have also not had very good luck with CDs made on a component CD writer...CDs made on this will play on some players, and not on others.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 26 November 2008 at 8:38am | IP Logged
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Hykker wrote:
While I continue to be somewhat leery of storing anything irreplacable on CD-R, I've had minimal problems with them, and really most of those can be traced back to a funky CD writer in a computer I had in the early 00's.
I have also not had very good luck with CDs made on a component CD writer...CDs made on this will play on some players, and not on others. |
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Yep, I'm with you, Hykker. I'm still not sold on storing valuable recordings solely on CD-R due to the numerous horror stories I've heard from people claiming to have had their CD-Rs go bad over time. For this reason, I still try to seek all my desired music on an official factory-pressed commercial silver CD pressing since they're designed to last closer to a lifetime with proper care. For recordings not available on a commercial silver CD pressing, I do my best to store them on a backup hard drive and on CD-R. Granted, Aaron has recommended some excellent CD-R brands to me and I must say I haven't had problems with any of these discs in the two or so years I've had them.
Edited by Todd Ireland on 26 November 2008 at 8:41am
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 26 November 2008 at 9:30am | IP Logged
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This brings up an interesting parallel. I have a lot of music videos on VHS tape. I haven't made the switch to DVD-R, neither for transferring the existing videos to DVD-R or recording any new music off TV to DVD-R, for the sole reason that if a DVD-R won't work in, say, 5 years, I'll have nothing, whereas the VHS tape will just be a little less clear.
What are the thoughts of other folks on this board? Are you storing your one and only copy of video on DVD-R? or do you have the same fears I have about that?
Do DVD-R's not have the same potential "rot" problems that CDRs do?
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aaronk
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| Posted: 26 November 2008 at 4:53pm | IP Logged
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Doesn't just about every media type have issues like that? I think even most magnetic tapes are only estimated to last between 5 and 30 years, depending on how often it is played.
As a side note, the first CD-Rs I ever burned (back in 1996) were done on TDK discs (at $10 each), and they still play fine today. I also have some crappy Maxell discs from that same era that will play; however, the plastic has slightly "bowed" over time, and so the outer tracks on the disc will not read. And I have some really crappy Memorex discs that have blue-colored dye on the bottom that will not play at all. I think a lot of it comes down to how well those discs are manufactured, although I'm no expert. I have read that CDs are supposed to last up to 100 years; however, I don't know if that claim is only true for factory pressed discs or not.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 26 November 2008 at 6:41pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
| And I have some really crappy Memorex discs that have blue-colored dye on the bottom that will not play at all. |
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Most of the discs I have that have gone bad were Memorex. I wonder if there was a big batch of them that were bad, because I've heard others say the same.
However, I will say that they were all burned on a component Philips CD recorder, not on a computer. Also, they went bad within, like, a year.
I have a couple CD-Rs that were burned for me in '98 or '99 that that still play fine. They're Maxells.
But it's a good idea to burn copies of your irreplaceable CDS on several different brands of media.
Edited by Brian W. on 26 November 2008 at 6:43pm
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 03 February 2009 at 8:04pm | IP Logged
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Sad news for lossless download fans like myself. MusicGiants has lost Warner Music Group. Every Warner, Atlantic, Elektra, Bad Boy, and any other Warner-owned music is just gone from their site. (Thanks God I bought all those Madonna remixes while I had the chance, 'cause they gone now.) I have not yet received a response to my inquiry as to WHY.
But I can't help but wonder if perhaps Warner struck an exclusive deal with another download service to provide lossless files. Especially since several recent albums (the new Paul McCartney/Firemen, the upcoming remastered version of the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique," the last Radiohead album) were offered in lossless formats on the band's websites, including Apple Lossless.
Could Apple finally be readying its own lossless store?
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The Hits Man
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| Posted: 05 February 2009 at 10:36pm | IP Logged
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Just don't put paper labels on your CD-Rs, and you should be just fine. I just ripped a 10-year-old CD-R to two hard drives without problem.
The only thing I don't like about Music Giants is that you have to make a deposit of at least $20 before you can download anything.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 02 May 2009 at 12:31am | IP Logged
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MusicGiants has lost Universal now, after losing Warner just a few weeks ago. All Universal-owned titles are gone from their website. I wonder what the hell is going on. If they don't have Universal or Warner anymore, they might as well just hang it up. I will surprised if they're still in business in a year.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 05 June 2009 at 6:31am | IP Logged
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Was finally able to confirm: On May 18th, MusicGiants (aka HDGiants) filed for bankruptcy. I've suspected that for a while, since I can't add any money to my account, and there are many dead links. No wonder customer service won't answer my calls and emails -- there's no one working there but the CEO!
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6661607.html
Oh, well, it was a poorly run business anyway. I told them several times, "You guys have GOT to do more advertising. I go on audiophile bulletin boards all the time, and no one has ever heard of you."
Edited by Brian W. on 05 June 2009 at 6:42am
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Roscoe
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| Posted: 05 June 2009 at 9:43am | IP Logged
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Brian W. wrote:
Was finally able to confirm: On May 18th, MusicGiants (aka HDGiants) filed for bankruptcy. I've suspected that for a while, since I can't add any money to my account, and there are many dead links. No wonder customer service won't answer my calls and emails -- there's no one working there but the CEO!
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6661607.html
Oh, well, it was a poorly run business anyway. I told them several times, "You guys have GOT to do more advertising. I go on audiophile bulletin boards all the time, and no one has ever heard of you." |
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That's a damn shame. While the MGN site was never quite ready for prime time in terms of its usability, I found it pretty valuable and purchased quite a few tracks over the past couple of years. They even had some stuff that was out of print.
The concept was a good one; unfortunately it doesn't appear they had the $$ to get it to where it needed to be. The loss of Warner and Universal content was likely a death blow.
Actually, if Apple would just start offering lossless downloads, then I would be fine with using iTunes. I hate lossy downloads.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 05 June 2009 at 11:57am | IP Logged
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Roscoe wrote:
| The concept was a good one; unfortunately it doesn't appear they had the $$ to get it to where it needed to be. The loss of Warner and Universal content was likely a death blow. |
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Actually, I speculate the death blow was their pouring all their money into trying to get their HD movie site up and running. I think losing Warner and Universal was probably just a symptom of that... they probably couldn't pay them their fees.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: New lossless download site - FLAC & AIFF
