Two issues have come up over my front-page story on the Electric Fetus’ new music-download service, based on reader feedback. One is a comparison of the Fetus’ Think Indie site to eMusic. The other is the usual hue and cry over the quality of MP3s.

A few readers pointed out that eMusic has a similar indie vibe to Think Indie and that eMusic came first. In fact, eMusic has been called the “indie iTunes,” and it has a “we know music” editorial approach. There are some major differences, though:

1) eMusic is subscription-based, whereas Think Indie is pay-per-download. eMusic is cheaper per song, but only if you download the allotment for your monthly plan. If you don’t, you lose those downloads.
2) eMusic’s bitrate for MP3s is a paltry 192 kilobits per second. That’s really lame. Think Indie’s is 320kbps, the highest available.
3) While eMusic offers loads of indie artists on all kinds of labels, Think Indie aims to offer music by local bands that aren’t even on labels.
4) When you buy from eMusic, you’re supporting a company based in New York City (”New York City?!”). When you buy from Think Indie, you’re supporting a retailer that has been based in Minnesota for 41 years.

Regarding the quality of MP3s, I understand that some people don’t like the audio format. But I don’t put much stock into their anecdotes about doing a sound comparison between an iPod, a CD and/or an album. The test has to be blind (meaning the source is unknown) to make a valid comparison. Also, I don’t believe that MP3 critics are listening to the compressed audio files at the highest bitrate, 320kbps. Lower bitrates, such as what was historically offered at iTunes (anything before a few months ago) and sites such as eMusic, are easier to hear on a home stereo because they do sound inferior. 256kbps, which is what Amazon and now iTunes have, is a little tougher to hear. But 320kbps is virtually indistinguishable from a CD. Yes, there is a technical difference, but it’s really hard to hear.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under Audio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.