By David Antony Clark
You may have noticed that many of our children's music CD's offer links to our UCA MP3 Download Store and other digital download companies like iTunes. I’ve prepare this article for those of you who are new to the music download scene but are interested in how it works and how you and your family may benefit.
But firstly let me say that, until recently, I was a sceptic, convinced that the downloading of music from the internet would bankrupt the music industry, do me out of a perfectly good job, and possibly end western culture as we know it. But I’ve changed my mind: I’ve become a download enthusiast. Why? Read on …
What exactly is downloading?
In a nutshell, it’s taking recorded music, usually from a CD, changing it to a computer file, placing this file on a website, and inviting people to download it onto their computers - normally for a fee. Once on your computer, you can play it there or move it onto a portable music player like an iPod.
Downloading can also refer to the process of streaming, whereby you can listen to music directly off the provider’s website in real-time: not unlike listening to a radio program, only you select the music you want to hear. This is often done via a subscription process.
Why would I want to do this?
Convenience and portability, mostly. If you purchase a portable music player like a higher-end iPod, you can store literally hundreds of CD's in a palm-sized device: thousands of songs. These can be your own conversions of your private CD collection and/or songs you have paid to download from an internet music provider like the UCA MP3 Store or iTunes.
Or, if like me you have a smaller unit, you can store songs on your computer and move a few CD’s across as your mood takes you and charge off into the world with it: hiking, jogging, skiing, driving.
If you are a teacher, you can collect a large range of children's music on your portable player and move about the school plugging into stereos, TV sets, boom boxes and, via an adaptor, your car stereo for the trip home. I’m currently learning conversational Spanish from podcasts downloaded to my player. Great when commuting!
What exactly is MP3?
MP3 is the best known of many formats used for converting audio from a CD or record to the small handy computer file that can be played from your computer, portable MP3 player, or downloaded from a website via the internet.
The UCA MP3 Download Store uses high quality, 256 kbs MP3 conversions of its children's muisc and offers the advantage of availability from any location on Earth. We own all rights to our own catalogue so we are not bound by country-specific regulations.
iTunes uses a different format called AAC. Napster uses Windows Media Player (WMA). But consider MP3 the industry standard.
But doesn’t the quality of the music suffer in the process?
Yes it does – a little. But if the conversion process is done well, any slight difference in the quality should be greatly outweighed by the convenience of having highly portable music. To most listeners the difference should be negligible.
Isn’t downloading just for teenagers?
Not any more. For example, the world’s largest independent classical music label, Naxos, is now alive with its Classics On Line and doing very well indeed.
Is downloading more expensive than buying CD’s?
Downloads of children's music from our UCA MP3 store, are, in all cases, cheaper than the physical CD!
In the case of other providers, pricing will depend on what you expect to pay for a CD, where in the world you live, and from whom you are downloading. But rest assured, greater minds than ours have thought long and hard as to what we are prepared to pay for the convenience of downloading music.
As a rule, downloading is cheaper than full-priced retail and in some cases, considerably cheaper. Also you won’t have the dispatch fees that you typically have when purchasing from a mail-order site like us or Amazon.
I only have dial-up. Can I download?
Yes you can, but bring a sleeping bag and lots of warm cocoa – it may take a while!
How do I get into Digital Downloading?
The best-known download site is, of course, iTunes. Using it as an example, you would sign-up from their homepage giving your email address. You would then download and install their own proprietary software and follow the instructions.
From the iTunes software you can, among other things, audition millions of songs by searching genre, album, artist, etc. If you wish to purchase a single track or an entire CD or CD’s, you enter your credit card details which you can have securely stored for future purchases. With a good broadband connection, downloading can be remarkably fast.
Our UCA MP3 Download store offers many of our children's music titles as full albums or individual songs without having to first install proprietary software. Simply click and follow the steps with credit card in hand.What’s in it for UCA?
Well, we don’t make as much money if you choose to download rather than purchase the CD; that’s for sure. But we don’t have to do as much work either. No manufacturing, packaging, freighting etc.
Also, with downloading we can very easily analyse what people are buying and tailor our children's music to meet demand. For example, we have noticed that parents in the United States are downloading our Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes CD in droves, so we have developed the sister resource, Mother Goose Action Songs!
Also, everybody benefits, along with the environment when it comes to manufacturing and freighting CD’s to the world. To supply our 29 current digital download partners worldwide, we send only two physical CD’s to a wholesaler in the United States!
So for a company like us based in a small, remote country like New Zealand, digital download is a largely a positive.
Conclusion
Downloading is here to stay and it is the future. The advantages are increasingly outweighing the disadvantages for a growing number of folk: speed of access, home browsing, lower cost, lower environmental impact etc.
The major counter-argument is a slightly diminished sound quality, but for most folk, no biggie!
And appreciation of high quality music does not exclude the advantages of mobile listening. I, for example, have a large collection of classical CD’s which I enjoy playing on my higher-end stereo system. I’m also a keen hiker and recently trekked to the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar, Nepal, in a driving snow storm, listening on my MP3 player to Bach’s B minor Mass. It didn’t make the trudge any easier, but it did lend a vast, expansive baroque setting to the experience. Try doing that with a gramophone, amp, and pair of speakers.
Thanks technology!
UCA MP3 Download Store FAQ's
Last Updated: October 01, 2008