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"But I suspect that was a problem. You see, it would probably be difficult to sell those VBR files — some of which were quite a bit lower than 256 Kbps and a f
by hanklazard 11y ago
"But I suspect that was a problem.
You see, it would probably be difficult to sell those VBR files — some of which were quite a bit lower than 256 Kbps and a few even lower than 128 Kbps — because customers might perceive a loss of value."
The vast majority of customers do not care about the actual Kbps, as long as the sound quality remains above certain standards. Just market the different quality levels at different prices and most people would never think twice about it (and most would choose the cheapest version).
- ohitsdom 11y agoIf enough "audiophiles" repeat the claim that Apple or Amazon has worse audio quality, it could seriously hurt their brand's reputation.
- hanklazard 11y agoAudiophiles have and will say that regardless, since all of the discussed options are lossy. (I'm not ignoring Apple's lossless codec, just don't think it's relevant for this conversation)
- dexterdog 11y agoIsn't Apple + Beats enough to convince people that Apple is not about audio quality?
- eli 11y agoIsn't the popularity of Beats (not to mention default iPhone headphones) proof that Good Enough is fine for most people
- untog 11y agoWould it? It might harm their brand's reputation with audiophiles but I don't see the average customer caring.
- bitwize 11y agoNot only do customers not care, in blind testing young people prefer the sound of MP3 artifacts. It's this generation's "warm sound".
- tomrod 11y agoMp3 artifacts?
- smileysteve 11y agoThat stuff that sounds like tinny tamborines.
- function_seven 11y agoI've always thought of it as a "swirling" sound. It's really really bad on SiriusXM, especially with percussion. (Why the hell am I still paying for XM?)
- archagon 11y agoI've never heard this before. Source? (I'm very skeptical given that the higher base level of MP3/AAC encoding that the big music stores use these days has eliminated most of the obvious artifacts in lossy music. In fact, I don't think I've heard any artifacts in retail music since the Napster days!)
- ssalazar 11y agoJonathan Berger's research is typically cited for this[1] but I haven't found the actual publications. [1] http://www.audioholics.com/news/kids-prefer-poor-quality-mp3 http://www.audioholics.com/news/kids-prefer-poor-quality-mp3
- hitekker 11y agoWhile I haven't heard of "warm sound" before, I do know that we unconsciously associate 60fps+ in videos to "home videos" and 30fps to movies and films.