American record companies at their best...

[Rob Williams]

Tiesto released a new album... as my avatar suggests. But that's not my rant. The rant is that American record companies ALWAYS rip out tracks out of the original disc before selling over here. Why? Who the hell knows. Ministry of Sound for example, releases "The Annual" each year. If you buy the import version, you get a 3-CD compilation instead of the 2-CD compilations they sell over here. For the SAME price equivalence.

This "cut-back" takes the cake though. Here is the track listing for Tiestos new album, "Elements of Life".

Ten Seconds Before Sunrise
Everything
Do You Feel Me
Carpe Noctum
Driving To Heaven
Sweet Things
Bright Morningstar
Break My Fall
In The Dark
Dance4Life
He's A Pirate

What song does the import version have that the US version doesn't?

"Elements of Life".

Enough said.

 

[MacMan]

Yes, but aren't most American record companies owned by the big four, all but one based in Europe. THe other being, of course, Sony which is, in fact, half owned by European interests.

 

[Rob Williams]

Most record companies are owned by the big four, aye. Maybe not if you consider the sheer amount of independent, but the sales would no where match what the big four push out.

In the case of Tiesto, like most artists overseas, the album gets passed to an entirely different label, one that might not even be associated directly. In the end, it's up to the stateside company to decide what to do to the album prior to selling it.

What's more odd, is that sometimes US bands have -better- albums overseas than here. Interpol for example. I bought their album as an import from Japan (I believe) and it included two bonus tracks on the main disc and an entirely extra disc with five remixes. In the end, it actually cost me less than it would to buy it from my local music shop.

Of course it's no surprise that North Americans get ripped off on their music...

 

[moon111]

Last time I checked, it was all available for the pirates.

 

[Rob Williams]

That's the sad thing. I ordered the import version which gets me all the tracks in addition to a few extra ones. Costs a little more, but at least I can avert the RIAA that way (I think).

 

[MacMan]

Tietos, never heard of them.

Tiesto released a new album... as my avatar suggests. But that's not my rant. The rant is that American record companies ALWAYS rip out tracks out of the original disc before selling over here. Why? Who the hell knows. Ministry of Sound for example, releases "The Annual" each year. If you buy the import version, you get a 3-CD compilation instead of the 2-CD compilations they sell over here. For the SAME price equivalence.

This "cut-back" takes the cake though. Here is the track listing for Tiestos new album, "Elements of Life".

Ten Seconds Before Sunrise
Everything
Do You Feel Me
Carpe Noctum
Driving To Heaven
Sweet Things
Bright Morningstar
Break My Fall
In The Dark
Dance4Life
He's A Pirate

What song does the import version have that the US version doesn't?

"Elements of Life".

Enough said.

I never heard of Tiesto, but being the curious old fart that I am, I checked the album out on iTunes, of which I have an accountant, and which I absolutely love. Its addicting, unfortunately!

iTunes has the album in question, but the song, 'He's A Pirate' is not on it. Elements of Life is, however. After listening to the clips, I sorta of like it, but I 'm not sure it will replace my 'Beethovan, Bach, and for that matter, Madonna collections.

All-in-all, not a bad collection for someone I never heard of. The album is $8.99 Cdn on iTunes, but no doubt your the type that would rather wait until Apple goes with the losless, DRM free versions next month?

 

[Rob Williams]

Personally I will never purchase music off an online service regardless if it's lossless or not. I prefer to own the actual disc and see my collection grow, not just virtually. Owning the actual disc gives you better freedom as well. You could rip to FLAC and then to MP3 if you wanted. Buying online, you just take whatever format/settings they prefer.

I don't really consider the savings to be worthwhile either. $9.99 is fine, but currently they are low bitrate. I could imagine lossless would be closer to $15. At that point, you might as well purchase the album and rip to your own preferred settings. Out of curiosity, do you know what lossless format Apple is using? I hope it's not some proprietary crap.

Glad you decided to check Tiesto out, and surprised you enjoy it. Good stuff.

 

[NicePants42]

Personally I will never purchase music off an online service regardless if it's lossless or not. I prefer to own the actual disc and see my collection grow, not just virtually. Owning the actual disc gives you better freedom as well. You could rip to FLAC and then to MP3 if you wanted. Buying online, you just take whatever format/settings they prefer.

Uh, I could be wrong here, but last time I checked (which was a while ago) iTunes let you burn CDs in .wav format, with all the MP3/FLAC options you desire.

I've read that it's common practice among some people to burn CDRWs of iTunes music so that they could rip the songs to MP3. Rinse and repeat.

Like I said, I haven't checked it out in a while.

 

[MacMan]

NicePants is Correct!

Uh, I could be wrong here, but last time I checked (which was a while ago) iTunes let you burn CDs in .wav format, with all the MP3/FLAC options you desire.

I've read that it's common practice among some people to burn CDRWs of iTunes music so that they could rip the songs to MP3. Rinse and repeat.

Like I said, I haven't checked it out in a while.

Yuppers, your correct NicePants. You can convert songs to mpgs, Apple losless, etc. and burn them to a CD, I just checked after reading your post.

I have programs like DRMCleaner to strip the DRM from iTunes, but usually, being lazy, I just burn copies on CD.

Its easier to let iTunes export songs in what ever format you want than to first burn them to CD, but being the lazy guy that I am, I just leave them in the AICC format. Can't wait to try the higher-quality, DRM free versions next month.

 

[Rob Williams]

Uh, I could be wrong here, but last time I checked (which was a while ago) iTunes let you burn CDs in .wav format, with all the MP3/FLAC options you desire.

I've read that it's common practice among some people to burn CDRWs of iTunes music so that they could rip the songs to MP3. Rinse and repeat.

Like I said, I haven't checked it out in a while.

Ouch...

Consider this scenario. You download a 192KBps MP4 file off of iTunes and need to burn it to a CD. Even though the bitrate is falsly increased, you will still not be hearing better than 192KBps. You can't gain data quality out of thin air. That's what happens when you do conversion of any kind. Even upconverting likely lessens the quality.

WAV is always 1411KBps, so converting to FLAC will result in files ranging from 800KBps - 1100KBps, depending on the song. With a file like that, you have a LOT of room for conversion, and you will not be losing quality (as far as MP3 files go) when downconverting to an MP3 since you didn't lose quality to begin with after the initial direct rip to FLAC.

Burning to CD's from iTunes is fine, but that's not the problem I was speaking of.

 

[MacMan]

Absolutely

Ouch...

Consider this scenario. You download a 192KBps MP4 file off of iTunes and need to burn it to a CD. Even though the bitrate is falsly increased, you will still not be hearing better than 192KBps. You can't gain data quality out of thin air. That's what happens when you do conversion of any kind. Even upconverting likely lessens the quality.

WAV is always 1411KBps, so converting to FLAC will result in files ranging from 800KBps - 1100KBps, depending on the song. With a file like that, you have a LOT of room for conversion, and you will not be losing quality (as far as MP3 files go) when downconverting to an MP3 since you didn't lose quality to begin with after the initial direct rip to FLAC.

Burning to CD's from iTunes is fine, but that's not the problem I was speaking of.

Absoulutely, by all means, buying the actual CD's is great. I have, of course, done the same. When you upload a CD into iTunes the quality of the music is the same as the CD. Mind you, it takes a lot more space and what-not, but if you have the space by all means.

Personally, I'm old and my hearing probally couldn't detect any thing over 2k in size in the first place. I just know that I hate having a million CD's to store and sort through. I like the 'full-screen' iTune mode, the freedom of typing things in and getting instant satisfacion along with my news videos, radio stations, etc.

Hey, I'm old, over-the-hill, and heading to the bone yard faster than a dead moose in-heat going downhill on roller skates, to really be fussy about my music.

If, at my age, I can still hear it, that's all that counts!