I completely agree about bitrates. Now that all the record companies are finally getting their act together and realizing that DRM is completely pointless (and probably negative: there’s no way I would buy DRMed music, so the only way to get it would be illegally. Now that unDRMed music is available I am happily paying for it) I think this is the Next Big Concern in the online music community.

DG is definitely the premiere classical music download site at the moment. I actually also purchased Boulez’s Mahler 9 from there yesterday, based on your and other comments on the last Mahler post. The quality and functionality are superb. If they just offered lossless FLAC as an option it would be absolutely perfect.

I also use eMusic. It’s good for quickly grabbing things I am interested in hearing, and the quality is pretty good. Variable bitrate is what I use for my own MP3 ripping, as it increases the bitrate for the more complicated sections and reduces it for less dense parts, when it is not as necessary.

Overall i think it’s great that so many options are springing up, and that iTunes finally has competition. I can’t stand bloody iTunes.

Perhaps Boosey’s format for their site isn’t the answer, but more competition form vendors should help improve the marketplace. If early standards like iTunes want to maintain their pre-eminence they need to improve sound quality - 128 kbps doesn’t cut it (yes, I know they offer some of their selection at 256 kbps now, but it’s a very very small percentage of their total catalog). eMusic offers most of their downloads at rates between 160 and 256 (they use variable bitrates for some reason, so you end up with odd bitrates like 187500 or 196400) - not outstanding in some cases, but better than iTunes.

The best download site I’ve found for classical is the new Deutsche Grammophone site, which offers all downloads at 320kbps, and also gives you a nice pdf file of the full original CD Booklet and jewel case inserts so you can print them out and have the full original packaging. DG is a bit more expensive, but the quality improvement is worth it (And it’s not even really that much more expensive: For example, I recently downloaded Boulez’s recording of Mahler’s Ninth from DG for $10.99; the same album is available at iTunes for $9.99, but in 128kbps. The choice is obvious.) DG also let’s you re-download unlimitedly for free, unlike iTunes, so if a file accidentally gets erased (as happened to me), no problem. With iTunes I would have had to buy the CD again in order to re-download the movement I accidentally erased before having a chance to burn it.

I also don’t understand why sites like iTunes (or, more accurately, the record companies that license their products with them) are so stuck on using DRM. Don’t the suits at the record companies know that it’s easy to get around the DRM, so it’s a pointless limitation? Because even the DRM files allow you to burn them to a CD playable on any regular CD player, all you have to do is burn the downloaded files to a CDR as a music disc, then rip the music back onto your hard drive from the disc as MP3 files (or whatever format you choose), and those files will then be DRM free! DRM problem solved.

I hear lots of grumbling about DRM, which is really a minor issue, but not as much outrage as there should be about low quality bitrates, the much more serious problem with sites like iTunes.

I think there is a niche to fill with a high-quality internet-radio type deal, so that you can listen during at work and discover new pieces.

But in general, I think having as many people trying to give us a classical music store is a good thing. Natural selection, etc. Having said that, Boosey is definitely not the fittest of the population…