lenw

Use dbPoweramp to rip my RBCD library in Flac format to the 710+. Download CD quality and 24-bit resolution Flac files to the same NAS music folder.<br /> <br /> Use Raid 1 to mirrow all Flac files for backup.<br /> <br /> Use my networked Windows 7 Home Premium laptop connected to my audio DAC with J. River Media Center to access the Flac files on the NAS drive.

that cause me to be very wary of embracing music downloads. I love to listen to music, but if the sound reproduction is mainly loud and compressed I find it uninvolving and fatiguing. And while I know the recording and mastering process is the key element in sound quality, I've embraced SACD's because all else being equal they sound more open and natural. So I'll only be interested in high resolution downloads as an alternative if the selection is much wider than SACD. It appears from this discussion my only hope is SACD's will remain a niche market like LP's (too much maintenance). But unfortunately SACD's don't offer a wide selection either, and companies like Analogue Productions and Mobile Fidelity appear to be releasing old material rather than contemporary artists. It's sad commentary in the 21st century the best we can do with music are niche products. So I'll be standing on the sidelines waiting to see where this music download revolution is ultimately going. Currently I don't see that being in my interests.

I certainly share your frustration because I haven't found many people willing to address this subject seriously. I'm not really interested in RBCD quality music downloads. And without a realistic revenue stream solution I'm afraid high resolution downloads will never become a reality. I'd be willing to use any reasonable system that would result in most music being available via high resolution downloads - "pay for listen" or a streaming (if the bandwidth would support it) business model. NetFlix is beginning to use a similar business model for films which must use a similar bandwidth. Perhaps a monthly fee to belong to a high resolution music download service could be another option. Perhaps your "pay for listen" idea could be expanded if the music industry could develop a method of allowing users to buy a play back license that would accompany the download high resolution file but couldn't be copied or transmitted. The license file would have to accompany the music file on each client server to allow playback. In the 21st century there must be someway for technology to solve this problem without corrupting the actual music file such as past anti-theft systems have purportedly done.

With all due respect and based on the responses so far, I don’t think many people have thought this high resolution download business model through very well. I’ll be very surprised if high resolution downloads even reach the selection SACD’s have afforded and even that has not been very good. There’s currently over 6600 SACD’s listed on SACD.net and only 10% of that number of high resolution downloads on HDTracks. I don't believe musicians or producers are going to simply take the word of music lovers that proclaim they will never "copy" high resolution music because they can afford retail prices. I also don't think their going to spend signficant sums of money on recordings only to promote concerts. And why in the world would a group of musicians expend significant effort and money to produce a recording that has the potential of being copied rather than paid for? IMO the music industry will never allow the potential to wholesale copy their music master files onto DVD’s or USB flash drives to be given away to friends or sold on the black market! But I could be wrong - we'll see.

How will the music industry business model change with high resolution downloads? If one can pay a one time fee to download a high resolution .flac file that's equivalent to the original master onto their PC, make as many copies as they like to send to friends, or perhaps even sell on the black market, how will the music industry sustain itself? My concern is artists and recording producers will simply stop making new music albums if the profit margin becomes to small to make a fair profit.