I don’t consider myself to be an audiophile, but I do have a deep appreciation for quality and authenticity in music. When I listen to a song, I want to experience sound as the artist originally intended. But I also want a way to acquire tracks simply, singly, and serendipitously.
In the current market, the primary choices are limited to buying compact discs or downloading their lossy equivalents. CDs have the edge in sound quality, but when it comes to speed, ease, and portability, downloadable audio files win hands down. My own collection heavily skews toward AACs and MP3s acquired from iTunes and Amazon over the years. The promise of higher fidelity sound is simply not enough to make me consider owning physical media.
And yet, I’d love to have the option of higher resolution sound when downloading music and am perplexed why record labels don’t offer audio in lossless formats widely. A small market, larger file sizes, and formats that aren’t nearly ubiquitous as MP3 are all factors that serve as legitimate excuses. However, I can’t help but feel that if record labels were to step into the present and offer consumers HD music downloads, they would find themselves duly rewarded.
