Best music download site?

I’ve never gotten into downloading music because a) I hate mp3, and b) I hate DRM, but I haven’t really looked in quite awhile.  Are there any sites out there now that do non-drm lossless, or non-drm other higher-res formats like Ogg?  Who has the best quality non-drm audio downloads?

There are a ton of sites that offer downloads but the issue is the format. Almost all of them are MP3. Some places offer the option to downlad torrents of either Mp3 or ogg, but those are few and far between, and are usually based on how the artist released their album. Harvey Danger released 2008’s Little by Little for free download in MP3 or OGG format. I have not found a site where ogg is the primary format.

So, basically no progress in the industry in the last several years.  I tend to hit indy music stores and buy used CDs so I can rip them into a lossless format.  I’d love to download instead, but I’m not buying to download the ■■■■ they’re offering.  I did come across one site called Music Giants or something like that, and they have WMA-lossless (even though it’s not really lossless…).  Most of the good stuff has DRM though, although they do have a very limited selection of DRM free music.  They want like $20 per album though…I’d rather rip my own lossless DRM-free versions for around $5-8.

@jehr wrote:
So, basically no progress in the industry in the last several years.  I tend to hit indy music stores and buy used CDs so I can rip them into a lossless format.  I’d love to download instead, but I’m not buying to download the ■■■■ they’re offering.  I did come across one site called Music Giants or something like that, and they have WMA-lossless (even though it’s not really lossless…).  Most of the good stuff has DRM though, although they do have a very limited selection of DRM free music.  They want like $20 per album though…I’d rather rip my own lossless DRM-free versions for around $5-8.

Im in the Industry and I cansay yes we are making progress. The label I am with now is making huge strides towards DRM free, low costing lossless music. Some of it will be offered via flash drives which you can buy or thru Digital download by Years end. We are experimenting with OGG and FLAC files right now, but have not made a decission on which if not both we will release. I actually had a meeting this morning to discuss bitrates and quality for these releases. Those of us on the production end want high quality files, but Management wants something in the middle of the road, (So most people get it, We producers want 320kbps [if these were mp3] and management wants 192 kbps [again if these we mp3]). No decissions have been made but its definitally on its way.

@jehr wrote:
I’ve never gotten into downloading music because a) I hate mp3, and b) I hate DRM, but I haven’t really looked in quite awhile.  Are there any sites out there now that do non-drm lossless, or non-drm other higher-res formats like Ogg?  Who has the best quality non-drm audio downloads?

Right now MusicGiants is probably the leader in high-quality digital downloads.  Be aware though, not everything they have is non-drm.  Some is, some isn’t.  Luckily though, the stuff that they offer that is non-drim is clearly marked as such.  I personally haven’t used the site much because a phyical CD costs me less than what they charge and the format they use is lossless Wma.

This site can be found within Windows Media Player or found HERE

Message Edited by fuze_owner-GB on 03-11-2009 01:52 PM

CBox…

That’s awesome!  You wouldn’t happen to be able to clue us as to what service(s) we should be watching for such downloads later in the year, would you?

@jehr wrote:

CBox…

 

That’s awesome!  You wouldn’t happen to be able to clue us as to what service(s) we should be watching for such downloads later in the year, would you?

On my end… It wont be a Service exactly (Or at least we havent talked about that yet). If we were to go live today (with less than 1% of the catalog ready) you would be able to go to your favorite place to buy CDs and get  a flash drive for about the same as youd pay for a CD from one our artist, (Usually 10-12) and then take the stuff off of your flash and right to your player (and BTW we will be promoting leaving the songs on the drive and passing it on to a friend), or you would be able to hit our website and download a torrent of the album. A service would be nice but we havent discussed it yet and to be honest I am not sure if a service would be interested right now. Sorry I cant be much more specific… Contracts say I have to keep my yap shut passed this point.

@conversionbox wrote:


@jehr wrote:
So, basically no progress in the industry in the last several years.  I tend to hit indy music stores and buy used CDs so I can rip them into a lossless format.  I’d love to download instead, but I’m not buying to download the ■■■■ they’re offering.  I did come across one site called Music Giants or something like that, and they have WMA-lossless (even though it’s not really lossless…).  Most of the good stuff has DRM though, although they do have a very limited selection of DRM free music.  They want like $20 per album though…I’d rather rip my own lossless DRM-free versions for around $5-8.


Im in the Industry and I cansay yes we are making progress. The label I am with now is making huge strides towards DRM free, low costing lossless music. Some of it will be offered via flash drives which you can buy or thru Digital download by Years end. We are experimenting with OGG and FLAC files right now, but have not made a decission on which if not both we will release. I actually had a meeting this morning to discuss bitrates and quality for these releases. Those of us on the production end want high quality files, but Management wants something in the middle of the road, (So most people get it, We producers want 320kbps [if these were mp3] and management wants 192 kbps [again if these we mp3]). No decissions have been made but its definitally on its way.

Yeah, the people I deal with at the labels say this is the way of the future, but I don’t see it as progress unless you can still obtain music in some kind of lossless format.  I know many people can’t hear the difference, but when I have a piece of music on some piece of storage media, I want it to be lossless.

Some of the execs I deal with say that in a few years, it will be very difficult to get lossless copies of especially top artists, like Rhianna, Justin, Britney, etc.etc.  The smaller acts will still probably have lossless, which can be used as a “Selling Point”.  I sure hope it doesn’t come down to this…:cry:

Im at an Indie label, which is probably no supprise. The only reason I am on the team responsible for this is because I suggested we stop compressing anything, at the time they were compressing the audio the minute the files hit the computers. I started using Machines out of the storage room (a 4 track and 8 track machine) to record and master some stuff, and the management was so impressed that we have started using it more often for out bands, we have vocalists and electronic groups who are still getting compressed but we are taking steps forward. I do worry that all this work will be for nothing as the higher ups may decide its not cost effective, or that its not worth the revenue.