$5 album downloads at amazon

[bascom]

Huey Lewis, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Kenny Rogers, John Coltrane, Brahms, Shakira, and more. There is probably at least one album here you would like:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-20012862-58.html

[Satellite_6]

Yarg! If only they used LAME consistently.

I bookmarked this anyway, cool stuff.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Satellite_6

Yarg! If only they used LAME consistently.

I bookmarked this anyway, cool stuff.

Almost every album I've gotten from there has been LAME.....either 256 CBR or V0, and version 3.97.

[McDougal]

These albums are priced very good...much better than iTunes Store. I haven't looked through them yet, maybe I will, cuz I'm starting to get tired of my music, if you know what I mean. I'll just hope that the next Muse album is $5, probably unlikely, though. Anyways I plan to order the CD (instead of downloading) when the next Muse album comes out, whenever that will be.

[music.sike]

I'm confused, can you download all of these albums in VBR? If so, that would be absolutely heaven.

[YeppBoy]

Music.sike, the downloads are VBR MP3s by default. My Porcupine Tree downloads are from Amazon and they are in VBR MP3.

[dgb52]

There are also a lot of free samplers at Amazon. i have downloaded quite a few and found some good stuff to listen to

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by dgb52

There are also a lot of free samplers at Amazon. i have downloaded quite a few and found some good stuff to listen to

+1 with dgb52 - amazon does offer some great free stuff. You gotta sort through the wheat from the chaff and check the site often, but definitely some gems out there, across all genres...

[dfkt]

-v0/-v2 ripped with EAC/AccurateRip/test and copy/gap detection/append silence to previous track (or equivalent 100% perfect rip) - or GTFO.

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

I keep an eye on Amazon.com for good deals, and occasionally come across an interesting album for less than $5.00. It has become my main source for new music, although I prefer to get the CD.

[McDougal]

I love AmazonMP3, much much better than iTunes store. And the best part about Amazon, the songs aren't protected! They just act like a regular MP3 file that you might rip from a CD. Sometimes I like to get the CD, though, just for fun. I usually get the CD when it's something special, for example, I plan to get the next Muse album on CD, instead of downloading it, because the next Muse album will probably be something BIG.

[Marvin the Martian]

If you check frequently, quite often when a new album comes out, the MP3 download is really cheap the first couple days, like $2.99 or $3.99.

[McDougal]

That's weird, because my experience is it gets cheaper the older the album gets, for example, Absolution is their longest album, 15 songs, and it's only $6. Their newest album, The Resistance, is $10, if you look here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no....30_209&fsc=-1
Maybe it's different for different artists.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by McDougal

That's weird, because my experience is it gets cheaper the older the album gets, for example, Absolution is their longest album, 15 songs, and it's only $6. Their newest album, The Resistance, is $10, if you look here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no....30_209&fsc=-1
Maybe it's different for different artists.

In most cases, you are correct.....the key is where I said "the first couple days". I bought the newest Arcade Fire album that way for $3.99 recently, and now it is $7.99. At that price, I would have gone ahead and paid a little more for the CD itself.

[Satellite_6]

Originally Posted by McDougal

I love AmazonMP3, much much better than iTunes store. And the best part about Amazon, the songs aren't protected! They just act like a regular MP3 file that you might rip from a CD. Sometimes I like to get the CD, though, just for fun. I usually get the CD when it's something special, for example, I plan to get the next Muse album on CD, instead of downloading it, because the next Muse album will probably be something BIG.

iTunes isn't protected either and it's 256 kbps AAC. My guess would be that this is probably better quality on average than amazon b/c of their occasional fhg files. . . but it's AAC and it's from apple so those might be good reasons not to buy from iTunes. . .

CDs are the best way to go. . .

[McDougal]

I guess iTunes store isn't protected anymore, but its still in the apple format, and I would still have to convert it. And, of course, I would have to install iTunes to access the store, which I really really do not want to do. I also agree that CDs are the best way to go, not only are they generally higher quality, but you also have a backup of your music.

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by Satellite_6

iTunes isn't protected either and it's 256 kbps AAC. My guess would be that this is probably better quality on average than amazon b/c of their occasional fhg files. . . but it's AAC and it's from apple so those might be good reasons not to buy from iTunes. . .

CDs are the best way to go. . .

Interesting, Satellite...can you detect a difference between LAME and Fhg rips? I myself cannot, though of course I prefer and use LAME exclusively. I did purchase some stuff from Amazon and they did happen to be Fhg rips, but they seemed pretty high quality as well.

Always though Fhg was a good/capable encoder for mp3, just that LAME was much better.

[eboyer93]

Fhg did pretty well in listening tests. In fact I think it did better than LAME. It was cbr though.

Also AAC is not an Apple format, the tags they use are though.

[skip252]

Originally Posted by eboyer93

Fhg did pretty well in listening tests. In fact I think it did better than LAME. It was cbr though.

How did it do on gapless playback?

[dfkt]

No way did FHG better than LAME. Link?

Also, no way CBR can match VBR at any reasonable bitrate.