[Mathew_M]

For those of us who are either jumping on the high rez bandwagon or spending our money on vinyl to be able to easily download our music for digital purposes?  I.E. Mp3 players

I like most people spend a lot of time listening to music outside the confines of my high fidelity system.  Currently SACD and DVD-A are completely copy proof which means besides hybrid discs I would be stuck listening only on my hi-fi system.  That sucks and is one of the reasons I have yet to buy into either format.  Vinyl is cool and all but besides trying to preserve the recordings I'm stuck with again only listening to them in one room.  

My solution for the studios would be if they're not going to release a hybrid SACD disc or include a cd with the vinyl they should allow you to download a digital copy from a server.  It would be very easy to do this with some sort of password or subscription service.  You buy a new record or SACD and included is a code that gives you access to say Warner music and that album that you would be allowed to downloard one time only.  They really wouldn't have to worry about music sharing or swapping because we audiophiles are a niche group (and I believe honost for the most part).  

We live in a digital age and they (the studios) need to realize that if we're going to pay for a piece of music then we want to be able to play it anywhere.  Vinyl and high rez are currently niche markets and they will have a hard time expanding because people like me don't want to pay for the same music multiple times.

[Rob Babcock]

I agree, but unfortunately the Big Music guys would rather foist off the same odious "user agreement" that we have with computer software.  I just read recently an article in which a network talking head flat out said that when you watch a TV show you're making a contract with the network to watch the commercials, too.  He admitted that there is some "tolerance" for an occasional bathroom break, but otherwise we must watch his ads!   Wow!  We may occasionally use the can during a break!  That's very big of him.  And this jackass wasn't joking.  And what would you say to this numbnuts if you're getting your TV via cable, where you're already paying for the content?

No, I doubt there's a lot of incentive for the fatcats at the studios to graciously provide easy content copying.  They look at us and see only two catagories of people:  those that steal from them and those that might steal from them.  Everyone is presumed a thief.  I guess they assume no one else has any more integrity than they do.

Rob B.

[JoshK]

Matthew,

In both cases, either hi-rez or vinyl, you can make CD copies using the analog inputs of your TT or hi-rez player into your computer and then burning that to CD.  Many CD burners have the same functionality.  You can also make MP3's from these as well.  I have heard some MP3's ripped from vinyl that sounded really good.

[Rob Babcock]

That works fine if you're just talking stereo.

[Mathew_M]

Yeah I know you can make copies that way but it's rather cumbersome and you don't have track breaks for MP3 players such as the Apple iPod to identify.  

Basically my idea is similiar to Napster but with the legitmacy.

I don't want to base what format I buy a piece of music on depending on where I will play it the most.  Fortunately 95% of the music buying public only have one format (CD) to worry about.

[Rob Babcock]

I've been reading about the rise of watermarking and other odious forms of copy protection being added to regular CDs lately.  In the past this has triggered lawsuits, as the discs often will lock up a PC or player with a CD-ROM drive at its heart.  Phillips has gone on record as saying that these discs don't follow Redbook standards ergo they aren't CDs and must not be labled as such.

I do sometimes make recordings from the analog inputs of my component CD recorder.  It is a little cumbersome, but I did that way for decades before there were CD recorders, thought!