[drg371950]

This question has doubtless been asked before, but it keeps coming up again and again when I download music. Why is there such a wide variation in bit-rates on recordings on the various online music shops?

I don't understand why a 140 or 160 bit-rate recording would be placed on a site for download. IF the site owners could get the 140-160 bit-rate, then why can't they also obtain the 192-256 bit-rate? It would seem that the source of the data is the original CD recording, so why do they not provide the higher rate?

[Mellifluous]

It's been discovered that some shops (naughty naughty) source some of their music from pirate sites, i.e. from compressed music files, so they can't offer better quality than those in some cases.

I don't think Allofmp3 does that, but I gather there is a "upload music for credit" scheme which a very limited few do, so you do get lesser quality on Allofmp3 occasionally.

[Gaucho]

Originally Posted by Mellifluous

It's been discovered that some shops (naughty naughty) source some of their music from pirate sites, i.e. from compressed music files, so they can't offer better quality than those in some cases.

I don't think Allofmp3 does that, but I gather there is a "upload music for credit" scheme which a very limited few do, so you do get lesser quality on Allofmp3 occasionally.

I just downladed some Gil Scott-Heron tracks - low bitrate but it's the best I could find. However, I just played one of the tracks and it jumps - it was obviously taken from a vinyl record and no-one had even bothered to see if it played before putting it up for sale.