HDtracks: Why settle for iTunes now that you can get CD quality music downloads?

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Even hardcore audiophiles have to face the music--brick and mortar record stores are fading fast--and it's starting to look like the CD is on its way out. Sure, no card carrying audiophile would be caught dead downloading MP3s or iTunes, the sonic sacrifices are too drastic. Well, what if there was a site that offered bona fide CD quality downloads, would audiophiles go for it? That's HDtracks' prime directive, but I don't think the high-resolution download store is just for audiophiles.

Then again I never understood why anyone would pay more or less the same price for a low quality download as for a CD. Well, now that iTunes has become the #1 U.S. music retailer I have to admit the answer must be that buyers put a higher value on convenience than sound. Well alright, HDtracks offers three higher-resolution download alternatives: "CD quality" UNcompressed AIFF and lossless FLAC files or 320kbps MP3s. All three are DRM free. Oh, and when you buy a complete album you also get the cover art and liner notes as a PDF. Complete albums go for $11.98, individual tracks, $1.49.

True, iTunes isn't in any immediate danger of losing market share--HDtracks is just starting up--so you're not going to find Radiohead, R.E.M., or the Rolling Stones' music there just yet. HDtracks' selection is quirkier, less mainstream, with folk, gospel, blues, jazz, Latin, pop, R&B, rock, classical and soundtracks from a wide spectrum of independent labels. HDtracks is adding new labels all the time.

HDtracks was started by David and Norman Chesky, who will continue to run their audiophile record label, Chesky Records. HDtracks will in the coming months begin to offer ultra high resolution 96-khz/24-bit files, which will sound even better, much better than CD quality downloads, for a limited number of titles.

In the interest of full disclosure: I have worked for Chesky Records as a producer and writer, and written for HDtracks.

[bob.mcclenahan]

I'm all for higher quality downloads, but until they offer popular artists, I'll have to go elsewhere.

[acardes]

Finally, an alternative to iTunes rather than a bash-rant! Thank you Steve, I hope this company does well.

[johnmcochran]

This is absolutely fabulous news, but it seems the site is not quite ready for prime time. The software it requires you to download locked up in my case, and when I had aborted out of it, there was no sign of the album I had just paid for.

[john55440]

My current alternative to iTunes - buying CDs on Amazon.com.

Long live the CD! :-)

[v1m]

Steve, I agree lossy iTunes junk is hurting music as an art form, so I'm glad to see real alternatives appear.

Arguably, though, the pricing model is stuck in old-school thinking. By comparison, used CDs on Amazon or eBay can be had for about half what HD Tracks asks.

As we leave the brick and mortar past, this is the digital audiophile's best value in music today: buy used, rip with EAC, compress to FLAC, enjoy.

[minimalist]

Although its good to see John Zorn's Tsadik releases represented at HDTracks the rest of theselection is mostly unknown Jazz, Classical and Folk artists. The few artists they have who are well known have maybe one random record from an independant label with the records people will really want being conspicuiously absent.

The site has a lot of potential though. Its going to be a challenge to get the big guns on board until record companies stop playing chess with their drm-free offerings. Some site have some recordings, some have others, only Amazon seems to have them all.

Mostly I'm happy that all downloads include liner notes and album art being in PDF form. This is such an easy way to keep people who have avoided digital downloads happy. iTunes experimented with this about 3 years ago but then they switched to the horrendous "digital booklets" which are so gimmicky and resource intensive.

[research1st]

I've never been a fan of downloaded music. Whether free or purchased. Too poor of sound quality. No liner notes. No artwork. No inserts. No gatefolds(for those old enough to remember what a gatefold is). But the main reason. No physical media in hand. Just a file of 1's and 0's floating around on a magnetc disc or in flash memory. And you better remember to back up that magnetic disc, or your 1's and 0's may get lost and now your back to square one.
I have friends who are big "collectors" of downloaded songs and media. I have also seen them have hard drive crashes and no backups. Thousands of songs gone in a flash.
I hate to admit, but I didn't feel sorry for them. If you buy a CD, you automatically have your physical backup. Along with the artwork, liner notes, etc. And with a lot of the newer enhanced CD's you get videos, internet bonuses, etc.
Personally, I love the CD. I can play it 1,000 times without loss of sound quality. I can play it in my car. I can play it in my boom box or portable CD player. And I've never felt the need to carry more than a dozen or so in my car, at work, etc. I have never the felt the need to have all 2,000+ of my CD's ready to play at the touch of an MP3 Player button.
Yes, I do have an MP3 player. And it gets loaded with songs ripped from my purchased CD's. Yes, the portabliltiy and small size is nice, but I don't kid myself into believing that this is the way to really enjoy good sound quality music or that digital files are anything more than temporary while on an MP3 player.
Sorry, but I hate the idea of buying a data file, and then having to spend the time to download it, burn it to a CD, make a CD Label(because I hate writing the artist/album name on it with a sharpie), make a CD Case insert. etc. etc. And if you want album art or liner notes, thats more additional time at the computer.
Just let me buy the d*mn CD!!!
At 1st glance HDTracks sounds like a step in the right direction with lossless sound quality. Great, it's about time. But in my opinion you still have all the other downsides of any downloaded song. All you've got are 1's and 0's floating on magnetic media.
It's up to the purchaser to make it any more than that.
And they call this progress......

[cardes]

Ok, so hard drives crash... fires can burn down you house with CDs in it or somebody could steal them. Buy a 500gB hard drive for $90 and backup. Wow, you didn't feel bad for your friends? That sucks.

[minimalist]

Houses burn down and CD's get stolen, scratched and lost and ultimately they wear out. And the 1's and 0's you feel are so nefarious are the same 1's and 0's that are on your CD's. The difference is just the storage medium and the flexibility of being able to shuffle songs around as sound files.

And seeing that hard drives cost only 21 cents a Gigabyte these days, you can easily buy two 500 GB drives and store 650 or so lossless albums in duplicate, keeping them in different physical locations. Once a CD is gone its gone. But files can live in numerous locations so if one gets corrupted or lost there is always a backup.

[Jerry A]

you can buy WMA Lossless from here:

http://mgn.musicgiants.com/

Selection is a bit more mainstream

[cardes]

Steve, can you review a couple of portable players that support the audiophile codecs? My Rio Karma is getting tired....thanks!

[osynnek]

I'm wondering why I can't go down to my local music store and pick up an SD card with an entire album permanently burned into it. That spinning disc is one more moving part that can break down along with a laser that may burn out.

I am for high quality recording, whether they be on media or downloads, but know that not everybody has broadband to their homes. Would I pay extra for higher quality? That's a tough question. Why am I paying more for poor quality now? Isn't it up to the producers to put out their best quality product possible rather than "claim they're losing money because people are stealing" their poor quality stuff?

[johnmcochran]

Just a quick follow-up to my original post: I was able to finally download from HDTracks. And actually on that note, Steve, if you could delete that earlier comment (and this one) that would be great.
JC

[gaelinbrown]

This is really cool. Another way to get my music heard.

www.songaweek.ca

[WhyaDuck]

Why not just buy CD's in the first place? As a songwriter and musician there is no comparison between compressed audio files and a real CD. There is something about owning an actual CD which sounds orders of magnitude than AAC and MP3 files. When I want to use my iPod I simply make a digital copy of my CD.
HDTracks is an interesting concept but the selection is rather meager and I am wary of any website that does not a physical address (which they do not). Also, their privacy policy is a bit scary. Further, their website is not what I would consider to be user friendly in terms of searching for music - in fact it appears rather outdated.
Too bad the brick and mortar CD stores are disappearing faster than record labels. Nowadays I purchase most of my CDs from CD Baby on the web. A great website for independent music - which is much better than most of the pop drivel on the charts today. As an independent artist myself I have yet to find a better site for indie music.
You can check out my music at http://www.myspace.com/howardthesongduck.