Scott Dolan

I had the pleasure of seeing Gerald Wilson at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2007(IIRC). Cat was 90-something at the time, but he bounced around that stage like he was a teenager!

Mine wasn't necessarily packaged poorly, but it still sustained some very minor damage to the box. Whatever. I care about the music more than the packaging. It would have had to have been really fucked up in order for me to make a stink about it. Sounds like a friendly email is in order. I never received a shipping number.

The best vocalist to come out of the Grunge scene, hands down. Wasn't a huge Grunge fan, but Soundgarden did have some pretty amazing tunes. Outshined is one of the best to come out of any recent genre. Rest peacefully, brother.

Interesting. I wonder how that works. Bluetooth crosstalk? Are you going to get a second one and try it?

I can't wait to dig into it this weekend! I'd start it now, but I don't work weekends, and wakeup hours before my wife and son. So that's primetime listening for me. The booklet is quite impressive. I also have incredibly low expectations when it comes to the sound quality, so Elgin'scomments give me hope. And as I've said elsewhere, I wish somebody would have documented Eric Dolphy in this manner.

Hey, the cat could have been under a lot of pressure and having a really bad day at the time. Who knows?

I didn't mean the bandwidth issue existed on our end, but on theirs. Netflix has little issues, but keep in mind all they're streaming is movies. Whereas the iTunes/Apple servers are dealing with downloads, streaming music, AND movies. So the models are significantly different. At the end of the day I get exactly what you're saying and largely agree. I still prefer to own music, and even though I can't explain why, I still rip my CDs to lossless.

I'd imagine it would be a logistical nightmare mostly because of the server space and internet bandwidth need for Apple, for example, to offer ALAC on top of AAC for over 40 million titles. It also likely wouldn't be financially feasible as downloads have lost a LOT of ground to streaming over the few years. They could potentially spend tons of money to upgrade their infrastructure, and never break even. I think the lossless thing is simply a nonstarter as well, because Apple Music and Spotify are still outperforming Tidal which DOES offer FLAC/ALAC streaming. It seems that the market is mostly dominated by younger people that don't pay attention to numbers, or those like me that can't hear a difference.

I guess they found it more efficient and financially advantageous at some point, but I can't wrap my head around why. You'd think after three years of shipping woes they'd bring it back in house, or at least find a more reliable shipping partner.

I'm glad you two know what you're talking about!

I hope it was an awesome B-Day, Larry!

My point exactly. From what other posters noted earlier, it seems like that was around the time they farmed their shipping out to a third party. Perhaps un-farming that shit back in house is long overdue?

It is! I only thumbed through it, but it looks incredibly well done. The picture of Benedetti with his band at The Palomar was of special interest, because I'm pretty sure I'd never seen a picture of him before. I agree with you 100% (mark your calendars, kids!). I meant to say so earlier when you spoke about this. Because as I said earlier, you have to wonder how much this played into their current state. How many people simply got fed up with the shipping errors? I seem to recall several posters here mentioning that in the previous thread. Or perhaps it was in this one? You have to really work your ass off to alienate me. But in my experience most consumers are exactly the opposite. You don't meet their demands, and right quick, they'll take their business elsewhere. Seems rather hilarious coming from me, but that really wasn't called for. Hans owned up to his mistake. Probably time to cut the cat a break.

The Benedetti set was waiting outside my front door when I got home from work today! Box is a little beat up, but not deal-breaking beat up. Looking forward to sitting down and spending some serious time with it this weekend.

I've rarely used Spotify, but the differences as I see them is the Apple Music UI is bad, while the Spotify UI is too damned busy and confusing.

Not to mention the fact that shipping has been mentioned as something they've been struggling with for awhile. So one has to wonder how big a role that played into them being in the situation they currently are. I'm a really patient person when it comes to this kind of thing. But they are a business. They can't just take that for granted.

Hmmm... Mine was ordered on the 4th as well. Oh well, thanks for the info. I'll give them a call later this week...

Yes, the UI on the mobile version of Apple Music leaves a LOT to be desired. Especially the search/results function. That's it's biggest black mark so far.

The only reason I avoided Amazon is because they're still using the stone age MP3 for their downloads and streaming. If they'd bump them up to 320kbps, then they probably would sound very good. But 256kbps MP3 CBR isn't good...

What date did you receive that email? Mine came two Sundays ago, 5/7.

I figure if I don't receive a tracking number by Thursday I'll give them a call, since that will be two weeks since I placed my order. But yeah, perhaps I'll be picking up a phone for my next order as well. Sound advice.

I think I know what you mean. Buying a CD/LP creates a sense of anticipation, right? Especially if you actually go and buy it from a store yourself. You pick it up, inspect the front and back covers, but it, take it home and unwrap, etc., etc... With streaming you simply click on it and off you go. Nothing to touch, or really look at. No booklet of liner notes... It is a very different experience. But, what I will say is that now that I'm somewhat used to it since I never buy CDs anymore (outside of box sets), I find myself focusing on the music more intently right out of the gate. Perhaps because that's all that is confronting me. Does that make sense?

A lot of what you've said here sums up my feelings as well. But I do have a question: why does it have o be a cursory stream? Why not stream it multiple times to make sure it's something you want?

Does anyone else here do streaming? I have to admit I always stayed away from it because when Spotify first took off their sampling rates for the free model were an atrocity (96kbps MP3, IIRC). But after reading up on the new and improved streaming from Spotify Premium (320kbps Ogg Vorbis), Tidal (320kbps AAC, and FLAC/ALAC if you want to pay for it), and Apple music (256kbps AAC), I decided to audition it again today. Naturally, being a big iTunes fan I decided to give Apple Music and their three month free trial a go. So far, so good. The sound quality is the same excellent quality they offer with their iTunes store downloads, and it seems to run just fine, unless I'm overloading my processor as I'm web surfing on the same iPad I'm streaming on. The catalog is quite impressive, even for more obscure Free Jazz and European Improv releases. There are 53 Evan Parker albums, for example. So, today's listening: Van Halen - Van Halen Evan Parker - 50th Birthday Concert Parker/Guy/Lytton Schlippenbach Trio - 2x3=5 Björk - Vulnicura Three distinctly different styles of music, and all sounded wonderful. I'm still an old fart that insists on buying and owning music, but I can see this as a nice little $10 a month supplement! Anyone else have an experience with streaming that they'd care to share? I do admit I'm very impressed with it so far.

Still no shipping/tracking number for my order yet...