Jeremy Charette
10-07-2005, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1868071,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1868071,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530</a><br /><br /></div><i>"You sign up with a music download service, get your 128-Kbps (or 192-Kbps, if you're lucky) music files, and put those files onto your portable audio player. Everything sounds fine when you're listening through your low-end earbuds on the subway, but when you try to play those files through your high-end home stereo or headphones, you will notice that their sound quality is pretty poor because of all that compression. Enter MusicGiants: Finally, a company is offering a music download service that uses a lossless compression format, Windows Media Audio (WMA) Lossless, which provides true CD-quality audio in about half the file size."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/0,1425,sz=1&i=108303,00.jpg" /> <br /><br />I'm not quite sure who these guys are appealing to. Most people who download music are going to drop it onto a portable DAP anyway. They won't want to take the time to convert their files from WMA lossless to a lower bit rate format. The customers who may want a higher quality sound file will probably just buy a CD and rip it themselves. It seems like they're shooting for a niche that just doesn't exist. :?