Music downloads offer better sound quality and extensive song collection, which may even include the top 100 songs in 2001 and other hit-makers.
Internet music retailers offer millions of tunes, in every genre from opera to hip-hop to Palestinian folk songs. But it's still hard to find online music that sounds good on a $10,000 stereo system.
Online music sellers like Apple Inc. and Amazon.com use digital compression technologies to shrink the sizes of music files, making them easier to store and download. But compression also hollows out the music, eliminating many of the sonic subtleties cherished by hardcore audiophiles. That's why many finicky music lovers won't sully their ears with today's downloadable tunes and are clamoring for something better.
