I agree with Roger on this subject. I think that the record companies  
are in a transition phase. Maybe they finally decided that suing  
their customers wasn't such a wise business move. In regards to the  
poor quality that downloaded music offers, I think that this  
distribution model is still in it's infancy and is slowly improving  
as technology has allowed it. Off the top of my head, iTunes only  
been around as a download source for a few years now? When it first  
started to sell music, it was only available as Mp3 or AACs. Then  
some of the downloads were available in Apple lossless. The fact that  
most folks migrated from dial up to DSL in the last couple of years  
would have made large files impractical before that. Apple's recent  
announcement that iTunes would begin offering HD movies with DTS 5.1  
sound in March should be evidence that there is no lack of bandwidth  
to stream any audio format currently in use.  Maybe it's just wishful  
thinking, but I think that it won't be that long before iTunes makes  
it's next improvement in sound quality options. I just hope that they  
start with the "live" orchestral concerts.
Steve
On Jan 25, 2008, at 2:56 PM, Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:

> http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/12/27/special- 
> report-the-death-of-high-fidelity-in-the-age-of-mp3s-sound-quality- 
> is-worse-than-ever/
>
>  I see there are currently twenty posts in this topic.I do not  
> download music from the web,except for a few well transferred 78  
> rarities from members of the Google classical group,and probably  
> never will.I do stream,though.As I said to Tom offlist,there is a  
> great variance in the quality of one stream to another,just as  
> there is among the sound of one radio station to another.
>
> What a lot of people do not seem to realize,is I believe we are  in  
> the transitionary phase of a dramatic paradigm shift in the way  
> recorded music is sold,and distributed.Basically the end of all  
> physical formats of recorded music, as a whole. Yes there will  
> still be new vinyl and CDs pressed,but they will be limited edition  
> runs sold on eBay,Amazon,or label/artist websites.That will be  
> it,period.The other option will be CD-Rs burned on demand,like  
> Smithsonian/Folkways offers. The retail store selling new vinyl/CDs  
> will go the way of Betamax in the next few years,"collectors"  
> stores aside.
>