Tag: Internet

This article provides information about the current options for buying music in high audio quality, i.e. uncompressed in file formats such as FLAC or WAV (download) or listening to it online (streaming).

MP3 is certainly familiar to everyone. It is the most widely used format for audio files. The recording of a music track consists of a lot of data. With MP3, this is compressed into a manageable package so that as many files as possible can fit on your device. During this compression process, certain frequency ranges are cut off, among other things. If you listen to music with a small speaker, you will not notice this. However, if you want to listen to your music on a high-quality system, you will need music files of a suitable quality.

In the days of vinyl, that was no problem. And even today, vinyl as an analog form of music reproduction is an unbeatable musical pleasure. When converted to digital format, a recording loses its value. Anyone who switched from vinyl to CD a few decades ago could see that. Nowadays, however, the CD is already out of fashion and the quality of the music has become worse and worse. As in many other areas, mass has taken the place of quality.

The recordings on a CD correspond to a format called WAV. WAV files are uncompressed audio in CD quality. The alternative to WAV is called FLAC. FLAC files are much smaller than WAV without losing any of the quality of the recording,

Sometimes music and dancing also have something to do with politics. This is rare, but music can only be created if the social conditions are in place. And this includes musicians, authors, producers, publishers and many others who create music getting something for their work. These days the waves are boiling, because the vote is about a new copyright law in the EU. Let me start by saying that I can only congratulate any Member who dares, in view of the mobilisation against this reform, to give his vote to this draft law!

I run a small music label myself. Since the turn of the millennium my income has gone down the drain. A major reason for this was the use of music on the Internet. Since there were (and still are) no legal regulations in the field of copyright adapted to the digital age, the large Internet platforms¹⁾ on which you can listen to music have dictated their own rules for the use of music. On many platforms this meant that for a long time nothing (!) was paid to those who created this music. Until today, minimal amounts are paid with several zeros behind the comma for streaming. No musician can live on it, no music label can live on it.

Dear Danza y Movimiento friends!

This is finally the mail regarding “Downloads – Rescue out of the Music Crisis?” I’ve wanted to write for quite a while now. The problem is that we have not a lot of fact but a lot of meanings and several different predictions. All predictions I know are based on meanings. I change my mind regarding downloads all the time and I am trying to watch the market like a hawk.