Am I being terrible about this? Thoughts on bad mp3 purchases.

[Synaptic Flow]

Hey everyone. I wanted to talk about something that really annoyed me recently and in the past.

I bought a lot of vinyl back in the day; mostly tech house records. I had no desire to DJ really. I just bought them to record and listen to. I would let a friend DJ with them though. Over the years I built up a nice and large catalog. So obviously I have nothing against vinyl, but over time my purchase habits would change.

I started DJ'ing with Traktor and bought tons and tons of mp3s. I changed my stance of vinyl to only buying it if that was the only format available.

So on to my complaint. I bought a release from a digital release from a deep house label a couple of days ago. The mp3s were ripped straight from vinyl records (pops, clicks, and all) I felt really cheated. Why on earth wouldn't they use a digital master from their hard drive or a CD?

Then I had to ask myself "Are all of their releases like this? I don't want to spend money with them if that's the case."

I feel like any number of things could be at play here. 1. Maybe it was just a dumb mistake? 2. Maybe the label just doesn't give a poop. 3. Maybe they are thumbing their noses at the customer because they are angry that vinyl is not the leading format and they can't earn as much from sales?

Whatever the case, I think it's not wrong that I should expect a high quality digital copy with no pops, hiss, and clicks.

It makes me think of an even worse case I suffered years ago when I bought a bunch of mp3s from a drum and bass label. This very prominent drum and bass label vowed against and hated digital releases for years. They refused to offer them despite numerous customer complaints. When they finally gave in, they did this same thing but took it even further, seemingly taking any old crappy copy of their vinyl and converting it to mp3
instead of using a digital master source. Even using a brand new copy of vinyl to make the mp3s was beneath them. It was quite upsetting.

So what do you guys think? Has this been a problem for anyone else?

Also, I have bought mp3s where half of the song is cut off.

Last but not least, don't even get me started on the mp3s I have bought that are pushed so hard that even the softer elements like pads and chords and clipped and distorted. Yuck.

[mdcdesign]

My personal issue is with VBR MP3s; never had a release where they'd done a vinyl --> MP3 conversion though.

[sev]

was the quality poor when you previewed the track before purchasing?

[Synaptic Flow]

was the quality poor when you previewed the track before purchasing?

Well the previews are usually in the middle of the song at it's loudest point, so I couldn't tell at all it was from vinyl. I only notice it after I am listening to the whole songs just for listening pleasure. Also I usually where I get mine there is usually only a 30 second preview. When I'm buying I don't really have time to listen to an entire song, especially with the amount that I buy.

[antifmradio]

actually according to laws here in the US
even though they are the label, they still arent allowed to rip a vinyl and sell the audio from it

They can only sell the VINYL
otherwise if the audio is to be sold as a digital download, it has to be stated (Vinyl Rip) in the sales area
OR
they can only sell the audio download as a copy of the master.

To that, it means they can NOT sell BOTH, its either one or the other, unless absolutely specified as such (Vinyl Rip)

My man, its possible you have opened the door to a legal argument with them

[Synaptic Flow]

actually according to laws here in the US
even though they are the label, they still arent allowed to rip a vinyl and sell the audio from it

They can only sell the VINYL
otherwise if the audio is to be sold as a digital download, it has to be stated (Vinyl Rip) in the sales area
OR
they can only sell the audio download as a copy of the master.

To that, it means they can NOT sell BOTH, its either one or the other, unless absolutely specified as such (Vinyl Rip)

My man, its possible you have opened the door to a legal argument with them

That's interesting. Of course any labels that do these things with careless defiance, know that people like myself are not going to pursue them for damages over a few EPs or singles. I wouldn't be very profitable for me. I just want some honesty upfront or credit for new mp3s in most cases. I think I have had some success with about three labels. Most don't even respond when you write a complaint letter. One well established deep tech house label gave me about 7 downloads from there catalog when I pointed out to them that an mp3 I just bought had a skip in it. That's a very classy response on their part, since they went beyond fairness.

Maybe the massive amount of digital dance music output is to blame for some of this. People can't even be bothered to see if their music has errors before they hurriedly put it up for sale. Or they rip it from vinyl and say "suck it."

PS: I'm trying to keep it polite by not naming the labels that have given me these problems.

[djproben]

actually according to laws here in the US
even though they are the label, they still arent allowed to rip a vinyl and sell the audio from it

They can only sell the VINYL
otherwise if the audio is to be sold as a digital download, it has to be stated (Vinyl Rip) in the sales area
OR
they can only sell the audio download as a copy of the master.

To that, it means they can NOT sell BOTH, its either one or the other, unless absolutely specified as such (Vinyl Rip)

My man, its possible you have opened the door to a legal argument with them

Can you provide a link to this law? I've never heard of such a thing and I kind of doubt it exists.

[Synaptic Flow]

Update: The house label that I purchased from a few days ago has contacted me. They said this should never occur with their label and they want me to send them the file. I will follow up when I can.

[sev]

Update: The house label that I purchased from a few days ago has contacted me. They said this should never occur with their label and they want me to send them the file. I will follow up when I can.

its a trap

[djproben]

Trap? Nah, it's house.