For me, its a little disappointing that the stream is as low bitrate as it is, and there is definitely some clipping at the extreme high and low ends. Having said that, in reality, it doesn't sound as horrible as it might have done; they've definitely done a good job on the compression.
In terms of bandwidth, it doesn't really make sense in this day and age. Also, in terms of piracy, there will be higher rate rips available very soon, when the CD starts to leak.
But, the sound on the stream isn't totally horrible, and it will do, for now.

"Mmmm yes let me steal your music sooner."

I totally understand the reasoning. I just don't think that putting out a lower quality BEGN stream will have much effect on the overall level of of piracy on the album.
But, as I said, I don't have a major issue with it. The stream sounds "ok" through good headphones, a bit of clipping aside.
Incidentally, after a few listens, I love the album.

It's not an anti piracy thing....it's just a little preview bonus. If it was an anti piracy thing they wouldn't even have put a stream online, they'd just wait for the "inevitable" leak (bound to happen as soon as promo copies are out, methinks).

I don't buy that really. There's no reason for the preview bonus to be low quality these days - I'm pretty sure they didn't want to put up a high quality stream because they know it would end up on torrent sites as soon as it was released.
Anyway, no major complaints from me, but I do see the point people are making about 128kps being a little too low.

I'm pretty sure someone already said that.

As the thread goes in circles.

Yeah this thread is fucking pointless will someone close it and pay attention to my glorious threads instead

Just responding and sharing my opinion, much as you are.

Oh, no, don't get me wrong, I don't care. I'm just referring to the post I made on the last page about every good point being made but this thread will continue for 4 or 5 more pages. Carry on!

ok... i'll try sum my opinions and end my "contribution" to this thread.

Well Nic, i don't see the point of this "bonus'' stream. It is just a marketing stunt. If the band and label would truly be ineterested in releasing the actual thing, the stream would have not been. I'm pretty sure anybody in SY can make a difference between streamed 128 Kbps MP3 and CD and i'm pretty confident in Thurston's opinion regarding quality in music.

Remeber Shellac's 12'' with FREE bonus CD? Well, that was a bonus!

As we can understand from the preavious posts, many of the boarders are satisfied with the 128 stream, even if they paid for the CD/12''. Sad...

yeah sonic youth's marketing over the last year gets an F-

the starbucks cd still pisses me off. $15 for one song?! fuuuck you

haha I never even heard that song.

the starbucks song slow revolution? its ok. kinda reminded me of pell mell. i dont exactly listen to it all the time

yeah, slow revolution. Someone sent me a link to it once and I think I just forgot about it. I kinda wanted to forget the whole starbucks shitstorm thing. Man, this board freaked out then. Even worse than it is right now, maybe. Though of course, we still have a few more weeks of "THE ETERNAL RULES!" "NO IT DOESN'T IT SUCKS!"/"THE ETERNAL SUCKS!" "YEAH? WELL YOU'RE NOT A REAL FAN!"/"SONIC YOUTH KEEP DOING THE SAME SHIT!"/"THIS ALBUM'S TOO DIFFERENT!"/"I WAS HOPING THEY'D GO BACK TO THIS STYLE..."/"I WAS HOPING THEY'D DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!" threads.

Come on dude, 128 isn't even so terrible. I didn't hear the stream (I didn't preorder it, and I will wait for the proper release date to hear it), but all the music on my iPod is in 128kbps and come on, it's totally listenable and enjoyable. The point of music isn't "Oh man I can't hear this 19879 Hz frequency"

Right. Unless you have dog's ears.

I see you like Arovane. I love them!

Actually, I don't know Arovane yet, but last.fm recommanded it to me yesterday, and I liked what I heard, so I'll check his works. I'm enjoying the last.fm recommandations radio while it's still free in France (which will not last for long)

Ok. Criticizing/questioning the "reasons" behind this idea is legit, but it's a different thing form the thoughts you posted earlier (which I disagreed upon).

No idea what you mean here, as it seems pretty obvious to me that they are releasing a record+live lp+ other goodies..?? :eek:



That's for sure, that's why the stream is a bonus. I don't consider it an extra I paid for (coz it was apparent from the start that as soon as the stream was online someone would have uploaded it somewhere...and it's not the same as saying I wouldn't pay for a cd coz it can be ripped).


This need "disambiguation". One thing is to be happy to get the chance to hear the album before it comes out on street date (not much different than being happy to hear/see live recordings of the new tracks), another thing is considering this "preview" fullfilling.
Personally it just makes me want to blast the "real cd" in a decent system with volume cranked up, coz the production (except for those panning voices bit, perhaps) seems to be great even with all the limitations of the preview and I really really like the album as of now.
For the other category, check my comment about tvs and bathrooms in my other post :D.

Hope you get that I'm saying these things not as an "attack" to you or anything, just for the sake of discussion and trying to express my views on the matter.

They're going to charge for it soon?! :(

yeah, except in the USA, UK and Germany I think. It was posted on the last.fm blog a few weeks ago. I guess I'm just gonna use Slsk more :D