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Re: Napster



I don't really see how Napster is much different than software companies 
and their struggles with cranked software. Maybe I'm missing something, 
but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there, like me, who would like 
to have an actual hard copy (CDs) of the music. The difference is that CDs 
don't cost several hundred dollars a copy like software does. So, buying a 
CD is not as big of a deal as buying an actual copy of some software.

Also, after reading all of the posts here on coding methods, MP3's (and 
most others?) use data compression and so it seems to me that no matter 
how good they are, they are not going to be the same fidelity as an 
original CD. Same with cassettes. They usually have horrible quality 
compared to the real thing but that never stopped anyone. And like the 
others have said, it helped sales of real copies of music rather than hurt 
it.

The HIFI market is going to even higher fidelity with things like HDCDs 
which are 20 bit instead of 16 bit (not sure about sampling rate, 48kHz?). 
And there is all kinds of talk of even higher fidelity with things like 
audio DVDs and other things. We are talking 24+ bit and 88.2 or 96kHz and 
higher sampling rates. That is a lot of memory. I don't really see how 
MP3's and the like can compete with that kind of "quality".

Napster does raise some interesting ideas about the future of stereo 
systems. Maybe in the not too distant future you can get into your car and 
pop in a Zip disk and listen to music you downloaded the night before. 
Just a thought.

Ben Porter.


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