Sixteen. I got this.
So before I start with more content (woot!) I’d like to make a quick mention to Simplenote.
Simplenote is a webapp and it allows you to write easy notes anywhere you have internet access. It’s got a really simple UI and it’s easy to use, you can tag your notes and organize them as well. I’ve begun using it as a replacement to my current to do list app (2Do). I think the biggest advantage to using simplenote is simply the fact that it loads instantly, and it’s very simple in what it offers. Using 2Do took a while because it was filled with colours and fancy graphics (yes they were indeed quite pretty) but it ultimately adds up to a number of distractions. I’ve also begun using simplenote as a place to store all my blog ideas (yes believe it or not I do have some ideas occasionally, but I tend to forget by the time I sit down infront of the computer).
Righto! I was flipping through Gizmodo last night (or was it TUAW?), and I found an article about how Apple’s itunes has finally begun selling digital copies of the entire works of the fab four, and this got me singing. What are the merits to buying digital copies of music?
I mean sure, Apple got rid of DRM in their tracks, which is always a good thing, but if its music worth owning (and the Beatles are definitely worth owning) why would you want a digital copy? Especially a digital copy that’s ripped in anything that’s not FLAC. If I’m gonna be paying roughly the same amount of cash for a copy of music, I’d rather own the actual CD as opposed to just a MP3 of the tracks and a pdf of the album booklet. The asian in me says that if I buy The Beatles Box Set, I damn well demand to get my freaking box. I mean seriously, it’s 129.99 US for the Beatles box set off Amazon, and it’s 149.99 for the same box set off itunes. It’s actually cheaper to buy the physical media than it is to buy the digital copy.
I just find that the physical media will last longer, you can play it to your kids on an old CD player, and give them a more honest to goodness experience to the Beatles (course, nowadays, rips sound just as good as the CD, but its still not the same experience as listening to a CD through a hifi stereo (course a better experience would be to hear it through a vinyl, but that’ll be harder to do 15 years down the line)).
Still though, this is just my thoughts, if I’m going to spend money on music, I’d rather buy the CD than the digital copy. Of course it seems that I’m in the minority here with iTunes recently crowned as the number one music retailer in the US.
