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Buying Music from iTunes or Amazon?

shhk88 11:07 PM - 11 January, 2012
What's up SSL fam? I always get my music from my record pools or CD shops. However, I just moved out of the county and it is very expensive to buy the newest CDs here. It is much cheaper to buy it from iTunes or Amazon. Which one has a better quality? I prefer getting the musc in mp3 format because most of my music is in mp3 and I use MIK. I would love to hear from you guys. Please feel free to comment! Thanks!
shhk88 11:34 PM - 11 January, 2012
Btw, I don't use iTunes with SSL. Thanks!
revoke 1:13 AM - 12 January, 2012
you can buy from itunes and change them from MP4 to Mp3, then drag them to where ever you have your music, be it an external or internal hard drive. The quaility is good. I think 320kbs...
DJ Unique 1:31 AM - 12 January, 2012
Quote:
you can buy from itunes and change them from MP4 to Mp3, then drag them to where ever you have your music, be it an external or internal hard drive. The quaility is good. I think 320kbs...

I thought iTunes sold their music compressed as AAC. If you take that AAC file and convert to MP3 you'll have worse sound than the original AAC. If you buy from iTunes make sure they are not DRM protected so you can use in Serato.

I buy from Amazon, which already comes in non-DRM MP3.
reggae delgado 1:51 AM - 12 January, 2012
I've been trying to track down some decent quality digital files of some of my hard to find vinyl and I've been very disappointed at some of the quality from Amazon. At times it's been 256 but often a lower vbr, even 128 a few times. boo. ITunes frequently has high quality but is indeed mp4 at times.
DJ Reflex 1:54 AM - 12 January, 2012
I buy from iMazon or Amatunes. Good stuff there! :)
DJ Unique 2:14 AM - 12 January, 2012
Quote:
I've been trying to track down some decent quality digital files of some of my hard to find vinyl and I've been very disappointed at some of the quality from Amazon. At times it's been 256 but often a lower vbr, even 128 a few times. boo. ITunes frequently has high quality but is indeed mp4 at times.

If you have the vinyl then record that sucker.
reggae delgado 2:37 AM - 12 January, 2012
Quote:
Quote:
I've been trying to track down some decent quality digital files of some of my hard to find vinyl and I've been very disappointed at some of the quality from Amazon. At times it's been 256 but often a lower vbr, even 128 a few times. boo. ITunes frequently has high quality but is indeed mp4 at times.

If you have the vinyl then record that sucker.


I was... and then as I was saving it I realized I had about 12 gigs of music I had already ripped and never done anything with... ooooops! Not sure if I'll ever find time for that. For those few times where you just all of a sudden realize there's a gap in your collection, 99 cents isn't bad.
dj_soo 2:45 AM - 12 January, 2012
Quote:
you can buy from itunes and change them from MP4 to Mp3, then drag them to where ever you have your music, be it an external or internal hard drive. The quaility is good. I think 320kbs...


yea, most definitely do not do this.

Quote:
I thought iTunes sold their music compressed as AAC. If you take that AAC file and convert to MP3 you'll have worse sound than the original AAC. If you buy from iTunes make sure they are not DRM protected so you can use in Serato.


there is no more DRM-protected tracks being sold on iTunes - hasn't since the beginning of 2009. All itunes are 256 AAC which is basically identical (or better depending on who you believe) in quality to 320 MP3s.

The only annoyance of AAC is a few less ID3 fields to tag including a lack of a key tag...
DJ Unique 2:49 AM - 12 January, 2012
Thanks for clarifying dj_soo.
I haven't bought any tracks from iTunes in a long while.
If I ever need anything I usually buy from Amazon cause they're ready for Serato.
dj_soo 4:48 AM - 12 January, 2012
by now, unless you're stuck on 1.7, itunes files are also ready for serato.

Personally, I would buy from amazon if i could, but the mp3 store isn't available in canada...
reggae delgado 6:36 AM - 12 January, 2012
Quote:
The only annoyance of AAC is a few less ID3 fields to tag including a lack of a key tag...


I knew the DRM was gone from most, I didn't realize that about the key field. Thanks for the info!
shhk88 11:22 PM - 12 January, 2012
Thanks for all the comments! If I buy it from iTunes, it is in AAC format. Can I manually write the key tag? Does it save in SSL? Thanks!
Daktyl 5:38 PM - 15 January, 2012
The first store i check is www.7digital.com Most of their songs come as 320 mp3 files, a few here and there are 256k... They're cheaper than itunes and amazon too. plus they have a lot of stuff you won't find on the other stores, like studio acapellas and such. in the rare instance that i can't find a song there i'll hit up itunes. They also keep every purchase you've ever made on file. So if you ever lose any songs from a hard drive crash or whatever, you just click on the history tab and re-download every song you ever bought from them in one giant zip file.
Daktyl 5:40 PM - 15 January, 2012
you can also re-download previous purchases one at a time btw....
Blackdevil77 6:42 PM - 15 January, 2012
Quote:
Thanks for all the comments! If I buy it from iTunes, it is in AAC format. Can I manually write the key tag? Does it save in SSL? Thanks!


Yes you can, that's what I had to do. It'll right the keys in the comments column. All you have to do is type it in the key column on serato and it stays
WarpNote 8:11 PM - 15 January, 2012
Quote:
The only annoyance of AAC is a few less ID3 fields to tag including a lack of a key tag...

Yeah, annoying when running stuff through MIK, and have to type them in by hand in SSL.
GOOD- 5:48 AM - 13 June, 2023
Quote:
What's up SSL fam? I always get my music from my record pools or CD shops. However, I just moved out of the county and it is very expensive to buy the newest CDs here. It is much cheaper to buy it from iTunes or Amazon. Which one has a better quality? I prefer getting the musc in mp3 format because most of my music is in mp3 and I use MIK. I would love to hear from you guys. Please feel free to comment! Thanks!

Maybe you can use a music converter to free download Amazon music. An amazing ViWizard Amazon Music Converter developed to download and convert songs from Amazon Music Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Amazon Music HD to MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, M4A, and M4B while retaining the original sound quality and ID3 tag info.