Cloud-Based Streaming Is Coming. What Does That Mean for People Who Want High-Quality Audio?
Great question. While some streaming services can offer 320 kbps music files, that’s a far cry from the audio resolution we get on CDs or vinyl. As music delivery and consumption moves more towards access over possession, what’s an audio freak supposed to do?
I, for one, hate 128 kbps compressed crap for serious listening. I want the real thing–which is why I will continue to buy CDs and vinyl.
I’m not alone, either. Check out this article on the impending quandry facing “bit snobs.”
When compiling my road trip playlist (I'm as far as Sault Ste Marie, and driving Northern Ontario was every bit as hell as people warned me 🙂 ), knowing I had 80+ hours of music to somehow fit in my car, I broke down and converted all the CD`s & iTunes tracks into 128 kbs mp3`s so that it would fit on a smartphone, then put a FM transmitter on it to deliver thru the car`s stereo (couldn't trust cell service to stream/download it from a cloud, which proved to be the right move).
I though to myself "I may be a musician and audio purist, but it won't be THAT easy to tell the difference will it?"
The answer is yes. It's shit. Perhaps if your ears are not trained to tell differences (i.e., most of the general public), maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but I could tell, and it is tolerable, but not by much. Even when I knew the FM trans was not the issue, I could still hear a lack of something, which like the Matrix, "is like a sliver in your mind… driving you mad".
Combine that with the fact that when I spend money on music I want a physical SOMETHING in my hands not some electronic file that doesn't really exists save in bits & bytes, I'll continue to be a fossil in this particular area of the industry.
I'm a dinosaur, too. Long live high quality physical formats!