CDs or Downloads? It's not all black and white.

One of the guys from the Music Group emailed me the other day about Linn Records and their music download service. I'm the only one in the group who has taken any sort of a serious plunge into this whole downloading thing, and he very thoughtfully wondered if I'd be interested in what Linn has to offer. As it happened, I certainly was, principally because of the quality of what's available to download. As well as my sizeable CD collection I have over 10,000 tracks which I've downloaded from various sources, but none of these up to now have taken the Linn route, which is heavily geared towards 'audiophile' music enthusiasts. As well as high-quality MP3s, they include a true CD-quality option for every album, and then go even further in many cases by providing what they describe as 'Studio Master' versions, which are of higher quality than the standard CD specification permits.

I fell for all this hook, line and sinker, and I've been on a bit of a download orgy since. The highest-quality Linn files are huge (1.5 GB for one album alone), and prices are high to match (27 euro per CD being the norm). Since I got the email with the Linn link I've downloaded ten albums from them (all Classical, since that's what I'm interested in -- but, I hasten to add, not all Studio Master versions), and I've been devoting more time than I should to both the download and the listening process. It's been enormously worth while as a demonstration of the potential of digital downloads, and coincidentally has happened at the same time as my friend Derek has taken the plunge and has replaced his CD players with a DAC unit as a first step towards setting up a computer-based music server at home. Derek continues to carry out a lot of research into this whole area now that his DAC has arrived (he connected it up yesterday), and he's been sharing this with me since I told him about Linn (which he already knew about from internet forums he's been following).

The whole technical end of things isn't what's important, of course; it's all primarily about listening to and enjoying the music. What I've found is that I'm listening much more to music since I became interested in downloading it rather than buying physical CDs. It was a firm tradition on trips abroad that I'd return with a sizeable number of new CDs to add to my collection, but that's changing. I did buy the 3-disc set of Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland performing Beethoven's piano concertos during my recent trip to Nice, but even in that case I'd already downloaded the first two discs months ago, and only got the physical set because the latest one isn't yet available for download. I can't help wondering if this will be my last CD purchase. The experience of the last few days suggests that it may well be.

Apart from all this music obsession, I've also been busy with work, so haven't had time for blip commenting. I'll catch up soon. I promise.