Reuters recently reported that Music Giants, a company that aims to sell lossless music downloads in WMA format for $1.29 per song, has made a deal with the Big Four (EMI Group, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal and Warner Music Group). Currently the service is only available in the USA, but their FAQ says they have plans to eventually expand to other countries.

What I'm curious about is the fact that the files have DRM. I'm assuming with a decent sound card that is properly set up, you should be able to convert the music to another format the old fashioned way (line out to line in), and that even though this creates a second generation, the resulting file should still be far superior to pretty much any lossy format. The reason I ask is because my portable player is not capable of playing lossless WMA DRM files, so if I were to buy music from them I would need some way to get the songs onto my player (which I consider within the realm of fair use). All comments are welcome.

The old line-out to line-in method is rubish for trying to get lossless files into appropriate lossy or lossless format. I am downloading their software now to check it out. I imagine you would have the ability to burn the lossless files to a audio CD (CD-RW for multiple use) then rip the CD using whatever encoder you want. Even Napster, MusicMatch, MSN Music, Yahoo Music, and Real Networks allow you to burn their DRM'd music files to an audio CD. If this music service doesn't let you burn their purchased songs to a CD, then it really isn't worth it.

Brrrr

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....howtopic=34529&

Yeah it's enough to drive sane man crazy. It's worse with the 800,000 Creative X-FI threads. Should make a list on the front page of topics that have already been discussed 8,000 times.

you probably could use TotalRecorder, or something similar, instead of a cable.

I've been out of it for awhile, sorry if this has already been discussed, but...

I checked out the site, and their software seems to offer a fidelity meter based on bitrate. Since these are lossless what's the point? Moreover, if there's any correlation between fidelity and lossless bitrate, it's probably negative. I.e. my albums with more clipression tend to have higher bitrates...so isn't the meter backwards?

Yeah, I know it's been posted about before. But the latest news is about the deal they just got with the big four, which is partly why I posted. Mostly I posted because of my question though.

Regarding $50 annual fee, I couldn't find anything about that in the TOS or their FAQ (unless I'm blind). Only that it's $1.29 per track, and that the tracks are in WMA lossless format. As for the fidelity meter, I think that is just a marketing gimmic that looks good. Anyways, I'll take a look at Total Recorder. Thanks for taking the time to post everyone.

Edit: Looks like some of the info regarding their TOS and FAQ in that other thread is a bit outdated.


You lost me. What are you talking about exactly?

Ah heck, the $50 fee isn't in their FAQ or TOS, but I did finally find it on their site. Even if the service was available here in Canada, I would have to decline. The fee is waived if you purchase at least $250 worth of music, but that is too unreasonable for me, especially since for full albums I would still prefer used CD's because it's cheaper. Too bad too, since $1.29 per song is reasonable for a lossless file IMHO, even if it does have DRM.

Edit: Oh, and I may have been wrong about the big four part, and that it's actually old news. Big fat thanks to the site I got the news from today. Well, it was news to me anyways.