Believe in Better? (Part 4)

Normally I'd stick something like this as a little comment on the original. But then it just looks like I'm trying to bump up my comment count. 

I was just re-reading my last post when I noticed a lovely piece of misdirection, above and beyond that about it being lossless and "virtually indistinguishable". They claim that mp3's at 192kps are "virtually indistinguishable" from CD. They then claim 320kps mp3's offer "extremely high quality sound files". The clear implication? If mp3's ripped at 192kps are as good as CD then, 320kps mp3's must be better.

Yeah I know.

Another interesting thing about this service (in their defence it's not limited to Sky, Apple, Play, HMV and the rest are just as guilty) is that in a lot of instances the mp3 version is actually more expensive to buy than the CD version. Yip you pay more for the intangible, low resolution packaging free, DRM soaked version than you do for higher quality, nicely packaged, DRM free CD. 

Right. 

Am I the only one who thinks this is bonkers? Why would anyone pay (as an example ) £6.49* on the Sky service to download the most recent U2 (leaving aside the merits of the music for a second) when you can buy the CD version of the same thing for £4.99 from Play? 

No I can't figure it out either.

Anyway I think I've worked the whole Sky / HMV / mp3 thing out for my system for another while. Guess what I'll be blogging about next? (Clue - it involves recruitment agencies)

*HMV appear (for completely unfathomable reasons) to charge the same price for the mp3 version as the CD version. It's bonkers. But, as you'll be aware if you've been in an HMV recently, they've kinda given up on selling music. There must be more money in flogging "5 DVDs for £20," Wii games and t-shirts than from trying to sell Dark Side of the Moon CD for £16. What I also find hard to understand is how they can sell a Movie for less than a fiver on DVD, and at the same time sell the Movie's soundtrack on CD for £15.

If I was being generous I'd suggest that this incongruous pricing was, at best, peculiar. But as I'm not being generous....