Quote:
Originally Posted by noise
i have only bought a few albums online. most were flac, but one i remember was 320...
is that abnormal?
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Yes, that is abnormal. The napster mp3 store which is one of the largest has most of it's catalogue in 256.
And Apples iStore which is an even bigger actor on the market ..
Quote:
iTunes 4: About iTunes Store Song Bitrate
Purchased songs are encoded using MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, a high-quality format that rivals CD quality.
Songs purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store are AAC Protected files and have a bitrate of 128 kilobits per second (kbit/s).
The purchased song should sound as good as or better than a 160 kbit/s MP3 file. Because the bit rate is lower, though, the AAC file takes less disk space than the MP3 file.
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That was before, now they've stepped up to an equivalent of 256 kbps.
Source :
Apple - Support
And having checked on bands who sell or give away their music, I think the latest Marillion album was available as 256 mp3s at the highest. Radiohead's In Rainbow was at 160 kbps while Maudlin of the Well's latest album was high quality VBRs.
So yeah, I'd say that as the industry is moving away from physical formats like CDs, they are abandoning excess quality. At least they have the last some years.