Pono Music Store online and out of beta according to report

[Skeptic]

It would certainly help if you could search by bit depth and/or sampling frequency.

It would. Almost everything that I have looked for so far has been 16/44 - including albums that I own on SACD or DVD-A, and they are missing the latest releases from a number of artists.

 

Prices for these 16/44 downloads seem ridiculous, often being at least twice as much as buying the CD off Amazon.

So far the most ridiculous that I have seen has been $42 for a collection that I can get for $9.

 

I can buy albums directly from the artists (CD+High Res download) for less than the Pono price.

 

With the advent of streaming services - especially those which now stream lossless 16/44, I just don't see how they think this is reasonable.

They are eliminating manufacturing costs, shipping costs, the used market etc.

If they want to replace CDs, and show that the artists care about the quality of their music rather than higher profit margins, they need to be selling the high res files for CD prices or lower and CD-quality downloads need to be priced a lot lower than that.

 

Downloads are no longer a convenience. I would just as happily buy a CD off Amazon and wait a day or two for it to arrive, than purchase a download.

If I wanted instant gratification and cd-quality sound, I'd stream it now.

[Skeptic]

I did a quick comparo. Peter Gabriel 3 (the melt album) Pono DL $14.29, Amazon CD $10.69; Pattry Griffin "Flaming Red" Pono DL $9.29 Amazon CD $9.70. The 24 bit stuff seems identically priced to HDTracks (so much for competition- I guess this is Lowes v. Home Depot).

 

I guess it pays to compare with the CD-res stuff. I'd like to think that Pono will expand the 24 bit offerings compared to HDT. Regardless, I plan to buy some titles from Pono - I really want them to succeed.

It seems like there is price fixing going on by the labels for digital downloads, so I would expect them to cost the same whether you are buying from Pono, Qobuz, HDtracks etc as long as they are not running a promotion.

 

I suppose that might be why buying downloads directly from the artist, when available, is often the cheaper option - though that is typically the expensive option if you're buying physical media like CDs or Vinyl.

 

The price difference for CD vs download seems to depend on how many tracks an album has, and how old it is.

The older an album is, the cheaper it usually is to get on CD. Digital downloads for music seem to have a fixed price that never drops.