On the Record

Jim Carrollon music

Downloads: the high price of high quality

You could say that they were the bits of the story that everyone ignored.

The big hullabaloo about EMI getting into bed with Apple concentrated on how the major music company's catalogue will be available free from all digital rights management (DRM) restrictions for the very first time. But the fact that these tracks will also be available as higher quality downloads seemed to pass everyone by.

From May, digital music buyers will be able to buy tracks by EMI artists from Apple's iTunes store encoded at 256k bps (bits per second). This means that the audio quality will, according to many audiophiles, be virtually indistinguishable from the original recording.

Of course, higher quality means a higher price: you'll pay €1.29 per track if you want these super-duper, DRM-free tunes, as opposed to 99 cent per track the other way. The extra 30 cent might go some way to addressing EMI's 20 per cent decline in CD sales in the first seven weeks of this year.

The Apple move will probably come as welcome news to those who shop at high-end music equipment stores. They are a constituency who have long bemoaned the audio quality of digital music and feel the majority of MP3s are not fit to sully their Van Den Hul cables, Primare amplifiers and MartinLogan speakers. Given how much they talk about how much their sound systems cost, the higher price will probably be to their satisfaction.

On the other hand, the move will probably not make a blind bit of difference to the growing number of music fans who listen to music on mobile phones, digital music players and through computer speakers.

To them, the most important considerations are price and convenience.

When it comes to purchasing music, the latter group are now in the ascendant, as can be seen in how the growing volume of digital download sales are beginning to dwarf conventional CD sales. Just week, the media research company Enders Analysis predicted that, by 2009, overall music sales will slump to half their 1997 $45 billion global peak due to the decline in the CD's fortunes.

Is better audio quality going to address this fall? As more and more people swap home systems for portability, chances are the industry will have to rethink this one yet again.

Oxegen eats up Live Earth

Will there be an Irish Live Earth concert? Shows are already slated for New Jersey, London, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro for July 7th, but on that day here the Oxegen bash gets under way in Co Kildare. So Al Gore's attempts to raise awareness about global warming may take a back-seat in Ireland.

Among the many acts who've already signed up for Live Earth are Madonna, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers (left), Snow Patrol and Kanye West. The organisers hope the various shows will attract a global TV audience of two billion. Registration for tickets to the London concert begins today on www.livenation.co.uk/liveearth

2FM DJs hit the road

In May, the RTÉ 2FM 2moro 2our (see what too much coffee does to you) will take Choice Music Prize-nominated Messiah J & The Expert, Limerick shams Giveamananakick and the excellent Flaws around the land. In addition to the three acts, 2FM's Rick O'Shea, Jenny Huston, Cormac Battle and Dan Hegarty will broadcast their shows from different towns on the tour.

This, though, is surely an ideal opportunity for all of 2FM's jocks to get out there and meet the kids. Get Gerry Ryan to MC the Galway gig on May 21st. Have the Breakfast Show lads do their chortlefest in Dundalk on May 23rd. Allow Will Leahy to show off his commitment to public service broadcasting remit in Limerick on May 18th.

Lets hope it's not the case that 2FM thinks these fine Irish bands should be confined to the alternative ghetto.

Roll, Nina roll

There's currently a whole lotta Nina Simone in the pop ether. Ignore Timbaland's butchering of Nina's Sinnerman on his Shock Values album, but we really like the cut of Sea Lion Woman from Feist's The Reminder album.

Now we hear that Common's new album, Finding Forever, includes some Simone magic on Misunderstood. The album, due in July, also features Lilly Allen, D'Angelo and productions from Kanye West and the late J Dilla.

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