Archive for May, 2008

DRM free uncompressed music download from HDtracks

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Finally things start to happen. HDtracks is a new online record store offering DRM free downloads of uncompressed music. Currently they are offering AIFF, FLAC and MP3 (320 kbps), which means its files are compatible with all digital players, and they even they plan to extend their offer to also include downloads in HD, meaning 24 bit/96 kHZ, which match the quality of DVD-Audio. I really need to buy the Slim Devices Transporter soon…

The catalog of HDtracks is currently quite limited, but it holds some titles of i.a. Henry Rollins Band, Ray Davis and The Kinks, Norah Jones, The Byrds and some other interesting artists. The price charged for a complete album is $ 11.98 which is quite reasonable.

I’ll test it out as soon as I get home to my Squeezebox. You should test it out too at www.hdtracks.com.

Update:
Unfortunately, I just realised that HDtracks offer their dowload services  to US citizens only :-(

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Nine Inch Nails with free downloadable record in high-resolution

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Nine Inch Nails have just released their latest album “The Slip” for free download on the net! This is the second album available as download from NIN, the previous being “Ghosts”.

The Slip is available in both MP3 (320 kbps), FLAC and high-resolution WAV (24 bit/96 kHz). Downloading of the largest files are offered as torrents and downloads in just a few minutes. And not only is it free, but they even encourage to distribute it and share it with friends under the Creative Commons licence. The physical CD will not be available before July. It will be interesting to see how much that will sell… But even though NIN offers this download for free I would be happy to pay for such services in the future.

As you may have notices from my previous postings, I have been waiting for someone to do this for a long time. Until now I have been forced to by the CD for then ripping it to achieve this quality. Now I finally get full CD-quality and above without having to go via the physical media. (Unfortunately my Squeezebox only supports 24 bit/48 kHz).

This is the way to go, Trent!

Download the album at www.nin.com.

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Neil Young will launch his “Archives” on Blu-ray

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

This is fabulous news for those of us who are pure Neil Young fans and audio freaks :-) Neil Young, well known for being an audio freak himself, has announced that he will launch his “Archives” on Blu-ray. The Archives project has been going on for a while, and will be a complete biography of Neil Young’s more than 40-years musical career. First out is the ‘Volume 1: 1963 – 1972′ a ten-disc collection including previously unreleased studio recordings as well as live performances. Release date will be sometime this fall. The 2006 ‘Heart of Gold’ DVD was fantastic! This will probably be even better!!!

Previously Neil Young has released many of his albums on DVD-Audio as his high-resolution audio format and I guess Blu-ray will be comparable to DVD-Audio regarding quality both formats supporting 24 bit/192 kHz in stereo, although it will not match SACD :-(

One of Young’s main arguments for using Blu-ray is the possibility to navigate the extras while listening to high-resolution music. He also plans to release even more extras via the Internet. To get this you will need a player supporting the Internet functions of profile 2.0.

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Posted in Hi-Fi | 3 Comments »