Why are HD downloads so expensive?

Mauidj

Consider this a very non hostile post....

I was paying about $15 a month for Rhapsody, and buying quite a bit of music from them. The quality of the download doesn't match the quality of my system. Cancelled Rhapsody.

Over the past two years, I spent about $2300 buying music from iTunes. Their download quality was about the same as Rhapsody...I didn't know what a mistake I was making till I put together the system I have now. I don't live near a town that really has a good selection of music for my taste, so I can sit in my office with a highball and shop with HD Tracks, without driving to a store (I live in Lake Tahoe, Reno is an hour drive each way and $35 of gas) or waiting for the postal system to deliver it to me. So, I am willing to pay what HD Tracks offers, and I am thankful I have the choice. Listening to the high quality HD Tracks downloads has made it almost unbearable to listen to my library of the purchased Rhapsody and iTunes downloads. I have looked for any competition HD Tracks has, and I just don't see the selection available.

Peace to you Brother, I do not think you are a thief or obnoxious. However, you may be a Communist.

:)

And as for your accusation that I am a thief.... only an idiot would say a thing like that to a complete stranger.

I stated that it may appear to be a "ripoff" to those who steal music (illegally by downloading it for free from peer to peer and other such digital file sharing tools)

iTunes charges a buck a track for highly compressed lossy audio! So please explain why should HD tracks which has to go to the extra mile to get high resolution 24/96 should match their price or be cheaper?

Or is iTunes a complete ripoff too?

You are the one with the "rant". You want a free ride.

I am simply sticking up for a company in the small niche business of offering higher quality music to audiophiles. I am actually proud to support the better quality music offered by this company (through my purchases) in a world dominated by illegal downloads of compressed crap. I have no affiliation with HD Tracks.

I too am surprised that there is apparently no competition yet. Why is that? It's like an electrical company: take what you are offered or have no electricity. There is a difference of course. However, in some segments of economics there is very little or no open competition.

HD Tracks has done an excellent job of signing up key labels and getting them ro release a lot of good stuff. A newcomer would have to play catch-up on that score.

However, I don't care for the user interface at HD Tracks and as the content grows, it's going to need to change. I hope they are working on it.

Mauidj,
I didn''t mean to come off as hostile. Lots of people gripe about stuff here. You can too but you may get some blowback. That's just the way it is.

I think it is probably more expensive for HDTracks to send a hi-res download, which includes the cover and booklet, than it is to get a cd or Lp to you at this time. And many people who have tried downloads prefer them to having a physical jewel case, cd and booklet. You can sit in your listening chair and cruise through your collection, checking out liner notes and covers without getting up. You can probably control the print size too. So a hi-res download may have more intrinsic value than a cd or Lp (just make sure you backup the downloads).

HDTracks is a start up in a very risky business. Most startups fail.

They are the trailblazers. They have to make all the expensive mistakes and buy all the custom made hardware and software and work out all the bugs.

So at this point I say give them the benefit of the doubt. If someone can offer downloads at a cheaper price in the future, we can buy from them.

So if you're in Maui, head down to the beach, take in all that beauty and forget about downloads for a while.