Startup to offer CD-quality downloads, will Apple follow?
While the majority the online music industry is focusing on different ways for consumers to obtain compressed digital music files — whether it be purchasing songs from iTunes or renting them from a competitive service — upstart MusicGiants plans to cater to a new rising crowd: those who want to download online music at pristine CD-quality.
Of course, MusicGiants won't interest everyone. Not just because of the higher music costs and download times, but also due to a need for pricier hardware. Users of the service would likely need a high-end sound card and quite a bit of storage space. Today's standard 80GB hard disk drives would only hold about 200 CDs in the lossless format. That's why MusicGiants plans to move outside the PC box and into the living room — an area where Apple has failed to make inroads outside its AirPort Express product.
Along with its music service, MusicGiants reportedly plans to sell a wireless keyboard and handheld mouse to navigate the site. Three other remote-control manufacturers are reportedly designing compatible models. And for the die-hard audiophile, the company will offer a $9,500, 400-gigabyte device called the SoundVault that sits in a stereo cabinet, similar to a CD-player or receiver. It will bundle a high-end sound card and networking gear, allowing consumers to bypass their PCs and load songs directly into their living room stereo system.
"It's hard to sell gas, if no one has a car," MusicGiants chief executive Scott Bahneman told BusinessWeek. His foray into the music hardware business will last only as long as it takes for other manufacturers to begin selling comparative gear, he says. In the meantime, Bahneman is trying to build a distribution network with high-end home builders and home-theater installers.
For a tiny company, its ambitions are enough to make any serious music lover drool. However, a burning question is whether there is a market large enough for MusicGiants to prosper. It may be too early to tell, but if the company does well, competitors like Apple may be forced to follow in its footsteps.
Over the past two years reoccurring rumors have suggested that Apple was preparing to offer tunes beyond its current 128 kbps AAC format, but these rumors never materialized. Instead, the company has argued that iTunes users are happy with current compression standards and that the human ear can't distinguish between CD-quality and bit rates of more than 192 kbps. MusicGiants will be the first to take a stab at proving them wrong.
For those interested in hearing more about the company, the BusinessWeek article is a great read.
25 Comments
I wonder if the fact that they're pushing these high-storage dedicated playback systems implies that the DRM they use will restrict customers from burning their own CDs. After all, being able to burn your own CDs from lossless downloads would give plenty of people a reason to be interested in a service like this without caring about their PC's sound card or where to store all of these large files.
total crap, thirty cents more and less selection. High quality is nice for partys with good quality speakers, but is not useful for everyday use. However Apple should join this 'field' and give users an option for this.
nitriletiger
When the time is right, Apple will dive in.
I would say that time has arrived when Apple can make money selling iPods with enough storage space to support playback of 10,000 lossless files -- at the same prices as today's iPods which can only handle that many songs in a compressed format.
I'd be happy if this new service, along with the fact that Real and Yahoo are both offering downloads at 192 kbps, encourages Apple to either upgrade to 192 or at least offer it as an option.
I'd be especially happy if I could re-download old purchases at a newly-offered higher bit rate, and would even pay something like $0.25/song to upgrade my old purchases.
total crap, thirty cents more and less selection. High quality is nice for partys with good quality speakers, but is not useful for everyday use. However Apple should join this 'field' and give users an option for this.
nitriletiger
There are always people who only buy cheap junk, and there are always people who buy high quality.
I don't have an iPod, and so I don't buy from iTunes. If Apple offered lossless, and I could save it somehow in case I had a crash, I would buy an iPod and buy songs this way. The idea of buying crap and never being able to have a better use for it is something most people such as yourself don't think about.
But I like to listen to most music on my audio system, and I can tell you that 128 AAC is just barely listenable.