HD Tracks still closed (to me)
Been a while, but I still get the mesage advising that tracks are not avaklable in my region. I've looked at Linn records, but very limited range of titles, so is there anywhere else to download hi res music from? I'm more intersted in 24/96 if only because I cannot hear any improvement in the admittedly one track I have hard at 192k, though a change in DAC soon may change that perception of course.
Music preference is rock, blues and mainstream pop.
Music preference is rock, blues and mainstream pop.
Try here
Andrew,
There are Albums on that site not available to UK purchases as well.
What is stopping these places selling in the UK (licensing aside).
I Keep getting that as well Steve, the only music I have successfully downloaded recently from HD Tracks are standard 16/44.1kHz files, and I only did those because they were offering a 15% discount and didn't really want the CD's taking up space.
I am also disappointed with the limited offerings from B&W and Linn, which predominantly seem to be classical or opera.
I have also tried a couple of European sites and also get told I can't download in my area.
I assume these are restrictions put in place by the UK music industry to restrict us downloading higher quality music....rather than buying the CD's.....however in most cases you can pretty much download and listen to them for minimal cost via Spotify.
Im intrigued as to what and why the legal restrictions are/exist?
There are Albums on that site not available to UK purchases as well.
What is stopping these places selling in the UK (licensing aside).
It's all down to licensing. And agreed there's still content there not available to the UK, but there's also stuff there available to us that you can't get via for example HDTracks.
More and more you see artists selling HD audio themselves. The latest album from Kate Bush for example I bought directly from her site. (extremely well done HD album by the way). Furthermore burningshed has a limited HD store (https://www.burningshed.com/store/24/) where you can find some very good albums.
Hopefully the new initiave from Neil Young can change something to this situation in Europe...
More and more you see artists selling HD audio themselves. The latest album from Kate Bush for example I bought directly from her site. (extremely well done HD album by the way). Furthermore burningshed has a limited HD store (https://www.burningshed.com/store/24/) where you can find some very good albums.
Hopefully the new initiave from Neil Young can change something to this situation in Europe...
Thanks for that, I'm a fan of porcupine tree too.
It looks like theyve been under pressure to tighten up. If you had a .com e mail then that used to be good enough. Then they started to use IP tracking but you could still buy tunes using a proxy. Debit cards registered to UK addresses were declined but you could still pay by paypal. Now they've removed payment by paypal and insist on taking a US address that matches the debit/credit card address. They still say they're working on releasing the catalogue outside the US but there's been no signs of movement in that direction at all. Why there would be rights issues on HD versions of music that have already been released on CD worldwide is beyond me.
Music preference is rock, blues and mainstream pop.
Try here
Andrew,
There are Albums on that site not available to UK purchases as well.
What is stopping these places selling in the UK (licensing aside).
Not sure about non US credit cards. I am working in Chicago for a few weeks and then have a US ip address but had no problem using my Dutch credit card.
More and more you see artists selling HD audio themselves. The latest album from Kate Bush for example I bought directly from her site. (extremely well done HD album by the way). Furthermore burningshed has a limited HD store (https://www.burningshed.com/store/24/) where you can find some very good albums.
Hopefully the new initiave from Neil Young can change something to this situation in Europe...
Thanks for that, I'm a fan of porcupine tree too.
In that case.... both the HD audio from Porcupine Tree (Atlanta comes to mind) is fantastic, as is the solo work from Steven Wilson.
B&W Society of Sound is very good value for a one off subscription
You can download their back catalogue and then 2 more albums a month for a year
Doubt I would have bought much of what I have downloaded but definitely money well spent
More and more you see artists selling HD audio themselves. The latest album from Kate Bush for example I bought directly from her site. (extremely well done HD album by the way). Furthermore burningshed has a limited HD store (https://www.burningshed.com/store/24/) where you can find some very good albums.
Hopefully the new initiave from Neil Young can change something to this situation in Europe...
Thanks for that, I'm a fan of porcupine tree too.
In that case.... both the HD audio from Porcupine Tree (Atlanta comes to mind) is fantastic, as is the solo work from Steven Wilson.
I've just d/loaded Fear of a Blank Planet in 16/44 and The Incident in 24/96. Both superb albums, and well recorded. For some reason the former is no longer listed on Spotify, but The Incident is.
I'll give Steven Wilson a listen, thanks for the tip.
Back to my original gripe, what is surprising and extremely disappointing that there is no mainstream standard res sites anywhere, you can buy just about anything on mp3 so why not 16/44 FLAC or "CD online". I guess it's market forces, as there can't be any licensing reason.
Music preference is rock, blues and mainstream pop.
Try here
Consulting Editor, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision/whathifi.com Audio Editor, Gramophone