I don't think the question of quality's importance to non-audiophiles is so black and white. What seems to have been fully determined is that non-audiophiles don't care about quality MORE than price. Free downloads that sound so-so beat better sounding CD's at $12.99, which beat better sounding SACD's that cost $18.99. Very similar to the popularity of so-so tasting pizza that's conveniently and quickly delivered to your door vs. the much better pizza you have to go to the little shop to pick up. If it were as easy and (almost) as cheap, I'd take the better tasting pizza every time. But since it's not, I eat the so-so convenient pizza way more often.
The Future of Recorded Music
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082157/
It's just 200,000 compressed songs now, and apparently only accessible to us Mac users (who deserve it, of course), but a Windows application, a bump in bandwidth that allows better quality downloads, and a steadily growing selection, and this could be the medium of the future. Once Microsoft steals the idea, of course.
It's just 200,000 compressed songs now, and apparently only accessible to us Mac users (who deserve it, of course), but a Windows application, a bump in bandwidth that allows better quality downloads, and a steadily growing selection, and this could be the medium of the future. Once Microsoft steals the idea, of course.