CDs vs Downloads

[VodkaDilc]

As a technophobe, I just know that downloading wouldn't be for me - I have just bought an i-pod in order to transfer some English lessons from CD, and I am going crazy at the lack of any basic useful instructions from Apple for a beginner like me. Sorting out the tracks is a nightmare - even their website manual appears to have no consideration for someone in my situation. Call me old fashioned, but I'll definitely be sticking with CDs.

Ditto, Micky - except that I can't be bothered to get into Ipods either. CDs give me everything I want - though I wish that the sleeves and art work were on the scale of LPs; even with my reading glasses I struggle.

[MickyD]

Thanks for the support, VodkaDilc...
I bought the i-pod specifically to make life easier with my English lessons - not having to cart several CDs around with me in my bag etc. It is early days yet and I need a lesson or two with my friendly computer geek friend, but so far I feel I have made an expensive mistake.

[Dave2002]

Which iPod did you get?

I think you should be able to get this sorted quite quickly, and then you may find it useful.

You need (unless you're so geeky you can find a way round this, which I doubt) a copy of iTunes.

If you are using Mac OS this is likely to be installed. If you are using Windows you'll need to download and install it.

Once done, import a CD or two into iTunes - that should be simple, and then check you can play back from there.

Then connect your iPad to your computer. You may need to set that up with some basic stuff, but once done it should then sync from the files on your computer.

I strongly recommend writing down the name and details of the computer you use to get this set up done.

Further, if you've more than one computer to do the setup and initial installation, select the one with the largest disc drive. If you've a choice between Mac and PC choose Mac. This will minimise possible future problems.

I made the mistake of setting my iPod up using a backing store challenged Windows XP netbook a few years ago, which has had the effect of crippling the portable device, and the only way I can see now to get round the problems is to wipe the iPod and start again - which is a slight shame as there some items which I can't upload, so they will be lost if I reset the iPod.

I think there may be ways of recovering these items (music tracks), but the software needed may cost more than the cost of the tracks I'd lose. i've spent years thinking about this, and trying to get round the problems. Thanks Apple!

Apple is quite good at a lot of things, but just because I believe they generally do a better job than Microsoft doesn't mean they don't ever screw up. They do!

[PJPJ]

exactly what I was refering to. I downloaded a Brahms Symphony Cycle that plays the first movement of all 4 symphonies before it progresses to the second movements of all 4 symphonies, etc. Giulani's Dvorak recordings also were delivered in this fashion. I could recite several other examples as well.
Correctable? Probably, but I haven't figured out how.

Have you tried putting the symphonies into separate folders?

At the moment I guess you have four track 1s, and the player will play those before going on to the track 2s.......

[Dave2002]

Have you tried putting the symphonies into separate folders?

At the moment I guess you have four track 1s, and the player will play those before going on to the track 2s.......

I suggest that folders won't make any difference - it's the tags which need to be changed. Sometimes having different folders makes a difference,
and it may help you to organise the files, but the way many mp3 players organise tracks and albums is based solely on the tags.
Folders are for your convenience, but you need to deal with the tags.

I suggest giving a name to each "album" - e.g Abbado's Beethoven, Cluyten's Beethoven, etc.
If necessary add a number to each "album - e.g Klemperer's Beethoven Symphonies [CD2], etc.

If you edit the info within iTunes you can see the tracks moving around as you do this, and it's then not too difficult to figure out what to do.
The problem with operas/music dramas can be far worse, as you may have to do quite a lot of figuring out to work out where things should go.

I have been sent details of a helpful web site - I'll see if I can find it and post it up here.

[Suffolkcoastal]

For me iTunes doesn't download things out of order very often. If it does I create playlists of CD length and slot the tracks in order into them, which is handy if like me, you like to make a CD copy to play in the car etc.

[Nick Armstrong]

As a technophobe, I just know that downloading wouldn't be for me - I have just bought an i-pod in order to transfer some English lessons from CD, and I am going crazy at the lack of any basic useful instructions from Apple for a beginner like me. Sorting out the tracks is a nightmare - even their website manual appears to have no consideration for someone in my situation. Call me old fashioned, but I'll definitely be sticking with CDs.

I'm surprised at that Micky. I'm a bit of a technophobe too, in the sense that I am stupid when it comes to understanding (or remembering) how computery things function. Which was why my discovery of Apple products was a revelation - all the things I need to do are rendered blissfully simple. And that includes downloading, whether from iTunes (don't do that much) or from amazon or other more specialised sites like Chandos. Using iTunes plus iPod (plus setting the preference to manual syncronisation, rather than automatic) has given my listening a new lease of life. Podcasts from BBC Radio and France Musique are the most astonishing resource (I've recently completed downloading to iTunes all the archived Desert Island Discs, including the fragments right back to the 40s - I don't transfer them all to the iPod, but select some to hear which look interesting. What a treat on recent journeys, flights etc, to be able to listen to Ralph Richardson, Peter Pears, Lotte Lehmann, Mel Brooks, Benny Hill... see also current Clifford Curzon thread)

As to CD -v- downloads, I think it depends so much on the individual's lifestyle, preference for listening etc. I find that I listen to music sat in front of the 'big stereo' less and less these days. Listening on the move, outside, in the bedroom etc. is much more something I appreciate. To this extent, downloads often do me very well. I know one can buy the CD and then import them into iTunes to listen to elsewhere, but increasingly I feel I don't need the disc - the clutter, the unlistened to CDs, the booklet notes are more and more things I'd rather do without.

And downloads are often much cheaper. Particularly since another advantage of downloads is that I am increasingly selective - I don't necessarily want everything on the CD. I love the flexibility to be able to select one or two pieces from a recording (sometimes this is frustrated by a sales tactic which makes certain tracks available as part of the 'full album only').

And I must say I have never been bothered by the hifi arguments - that mp3s are inferior in sound quality: they've always been fine for me in the light of the way I listen to music. I've tried a few 'lossless' downloads, and must say that the difference is slight enough for me not to be particularly bothered.

Case in point: I was very struck on Saturday by the coverage on CDReview of Andras Schiff's new recording of Bach's "48". The extracts, AMcG's comments, and the fact that I am an unconditional Schiff fan meant that this was an essential purchase for me.

The CD version is £30.99 on amazon (£35 at HMV) whereas the amazon download of the entire "48" is £15.98 - no contest, for me. These are performances I shall want to be able to listen to everywhere. They are nestling in my iTunes, on my iPod, and backed up to my hard drive.

Sorted!

[MickyD]

Thank you folks, for all the helpful posts and your patience with ditzy old me. My geeky friend came round this afternoon and did actually give me a good lesson in downloading all the English lesson CDs and I can now say that thanks to him, I am a lot wiser! But I realise that never having done this sort of thing before, it will take me a while to get into the rhythm of it and adjust accordingly. I need a lot more lessons! But I am heartened by my (small) progress. Obviously I need someone to be physically present to explain all the steps in simple fashion - and I managed to understand it all in French, too! So there's hope for me yet.

[Dave2002]

I have been sent details of a helpful web site - I'll see if I can find it and post it up here.

Here is the web site I mentioned earlier - http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/itunes.htm

The site owner is very helpful.

[MickyD]

Thank you very much indeed, Dave....when I get a moment, I'll take a look.

[kernelbogey]

I came across these interesting statistics in a piece by David Mitchell in today's Observer.

It was announced last week that CD sales rallied in 2021, spearheaded by the new Adele and Abba albums, reaching £117.2m, a rise of 1.4% and the first increase in four years. Meanwhile, vinyl only reached £116m, though that represented growth of 34% and happened despite a global shortage of PVC (one of the few global shortages I hadn’t previously heard of, thanks to my unimpeachable private life). The bigger picture here, according to the British Phonographic Industry, which released the figures, is that physical music sales grew faster than streaming revenue.

Of course these figures will be significantly influenced by non-classical sales; nonetheless I (as, hitherto, a non-downoader) found them cheering.

Mitchell argues that the significant factor is CDs as gifts.

[richardfinegold]

I came across these interesting statistics in a piece by David Mitchell in today's Observer.

It was announced last week that CD sales rallied in 2021, spearheaded by the new Adele and Abba albums, reaching £117.2m, a rise of 1.4% and the first increase in four years. Meanwhile, vinyl only reached £116m, though that represented growth of 34% and happened despite a global shortage of PVC (one of the few global shortages I hadn’t previously heard of, thanks to my unimpeachable private life). The bigger picture here, according to the British Phonographic Industry, which released the figures, is that physical music sales grew faster than streaming revenue.

Of course these figures will be significantly influenced by non-classical sales; nonetheless I (as, hitherto, a non-downoader) found them cheering.

Mitchell argues that the significant factor is CDs as gifts.

Perhaps CD the decline in CD sales have finally bottomed out, but I don’t expect them to roar back to their former dominance

[Bryn]

I came across these interesting statistics in a piece by David Mitchell in today's Observer.

It was announced last week that CD sales rallied in 2021, spearheaded by the new Adele and Abba albums, reaching £117.2m, a rise of 1.4% and the first increase in four years. Meanwhile, vinyl only reached £116m, though that represented growth of 34% and happened despite a global shortage of PVC (one of the few global shortages I hadn’t previously heard of, thanks to my unimpeachable private life). The bigger picture here, according to the British Phonographic Industry, which released the figures, is that physical music sales grew faster than streaming revenue.

Of course these figures will be significantly influenced by non-classical sales; nonetheless I (as, hitherto, a non-downoader) found them cheering.

Mitchell argues that the significant factor is CDs as gifts.

To give some context to these rises, see these 1983 to 2020 figures for the USA: https://www.statista.com/chart/12950...les-in-the-us/

[gurnemanz]

I came across these interesting statistics in a piece by David Mitchell in today's Observer.

It was announced last week that CD sales rallied in 2021, spearheaded by the new Adele and Abba albums, reaching £117.2m, a rise of 1.4% and the first increase in four years. Meanwhile, vinyl only reached £116m, though that represented growth of 34% and happened despite a global shortage of PVC (one of the few global shortages I hadn’t previously heard of, thanks to my unimpeachable private life). The bigger picture here, according to the British Phonographic Industry, which released the figures, is that physical music sales grew faster than streaming revenue.

Of course these figures will be significantly influenced by non-classical sales; nonetheless I (as, hitherto, a non-downoader) found them cheering.

Mitchell argues that the significant factor is CDs as gifts.

A pity, but I won't be buying any more CDs as gifts. (I bought my father quite a few and later inherited them back when he passed away). The only CDs I buy are specific albums by favourite artists, eg latest Dylan, and discs, especially song recitals, where you get the lyrics conveniently to hand and those that have been attractively or lovingly produced, eg Phillippe Jaroussky's Mélodies françaises on Verlaine’s poems on Erato. Alpha Classics and Harmonia Mundi, likewise French, are also good at producing aesthetically appealing albums that you might want own physically.

I don't quite go along with David Mitchell when he refers to CDs' "annoying unreliability, their propensity to get scratched and skip, to become grubby and then get further scratched when you wipe them". It can happen but I have not found it to be a major problem. But I do take his point on their "their maddening, clattery, self-disassembling boxes".

[pastoralguy]

I don't quite go along with David Mitchell when he refers to CDs' "annoying unreliability, their propensity to get scratched and skip, to become grubby and then get further scratched when you wipe them". It can happen but I have not found it to be a major problem. But I do take his point on their "their maddening, clattery, self-disassembling boxes".

Absolutely no reason at all for cds or their cases to fail apart from them not being taken proper care of!