reesesWeb

Bleep is eggsackly what an online music store should be, in so many ways. They have music I can't find on iTMS because it's not major label, it's mp3 without DRM (although, that doesn't really bother me at all), and most importantly -- it's cheaper than the CD!

That's right, you get the mp3s of the album you order, and rather than pay $16.99 for this, you pay $11.99. It makes perfect sense. It comes from the label, doesn't go through the cd pressing process, doesn't go through the distributor, all they pay for is production, promotion, and properly sending that bad boy through the ether to me. You don't get the jewel case, the cd, the uncompressed audio, the liner notes, or the liner art, so you don't pay for them. It's cheap enough that, even if you have the cd, it's worth your time just to pay the $12 and not spend the ten minutes to rip it and encode it.

I know "albums" on iTMS are $9.99. But all the big or good ones are more, because Apple calls them "partial albums" so you have to buy the component songs instead, at $.99 per.

The other thing is, while I'm on the road making sekrit movies, I don't want to haul stuff around between trips home. If I don't buy music online, I do without.

Oh, and I finally got fed up with the Sony noise-cancelling NC-11 earphones (and how they've almost completely destroyed my appreciation for portable music) and bought a pair of Shure E2s. I wanted the 3s or the 1s, but the store was out (after arguing even the existence of the E3s) so I had to settle for spending $100 less. :-)

With the foamy tips, they're glorious, and instantly my favorite portable earphones/headphones. They don't need a headphone amp, and the iPod is more than sufficient to drive them. I haven't tried them with MiniDisc yet, because the iPod and its universal library are just too compelling, despite the weight and horrid battery life. They don't have the same problem as the Etymotics, which have been relegated to home earphones worn when someone else wants to watch tv or just make noise. That is, there is no conveyance of sound when the cord is moved. The Ety's have these stupid little cord support things you stick on to keep the scrapy noise down, but I'm awful with accessories.

I'm honestly really, really pleased with how good some cheap audio gear is. My three sets of earphones/headphones that I use most often are much closer to the low-end of the spectrum than the high end. I have the Shure E2s which are now my portable earphones, my Grado SR80s which are my listening-to-music-while-someone-is-asleep headphones, and the Etymotic ER6s, which fill the aforementioned role of stationary-ambient-noise-blockers. Two of them were just under $100, and the other, not much more.

I love progress.

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