> Also, humans prioritize and are sensitive to visual input more than sound to a large degree. Our evolved ability to detect and localize sound in the dark at

> Also, humans prioritize and are sensitive to visual input more than sound to a large degree. Our evolved ability to detect and localize sound in the dark at night is why we're here typing. Ironically codecs tend to see phase information and say "hey, we can ditch most of that and save a few bits!" Any filmmaker will tell you that audio can make or break a picture. But for some reason audio always gets screwed commercially -- especially among technologists. The early iPod headphones and even modern MacBook/iPad audio is awful. The iPhone still only has a mono microphone. Beats headphones are shameful. Satellite radio is godawful. Anyone here want to sing the praises of "RealAudio"? Yet people tolerate it because there's no industry leader standing up for quality. And even when someone does, they're usually off in the weeds themselves (192k audio fad). SoundCloud is a hopeless business, bleeding cash. Fred Wilson can claim he loves music but apparently he's not willing to say "Hey, maybe y'all should serve something that sounds at least as good as iTunes did in 2001." Like no other artistic medium I'm aware of, music appears to be worth significantly less than the bandwidth required to stream it properly.