That's all well and good, and I applaud your efforts and values.
"The music has to be easy to download, the price must be reasonable, and the quality should be great."
Implicit in these qualities should be a few things:
1. As mentioned, loss-less quality should be the preferred, or 'premium,' option for those that this matters to. The unrestricted MP3 format may indeed become the standard, but it's a lousy sounding format for such important and sought after archival material. The music industry -- or anything else that deals with substantially mainstream product -- will most-likely settle for MP3 sound quality because the _average_ listener will (and already is) settle for it because of the convenience etc. However, many of us prefer to have superior sound while taking the extra time or financial effort to obtain it for the experience of hearing these 'lost' performances how they were meant to be.
2. FLAC files, as mentioned work very well, not for all of us, but for many. One of the key factors is that live shows need not be spliced BACK together with spaces, clicks or noticable indication that there is a break in the file between songs. Again, this takes away from optimal listen experience. And I am assuming that a large percentage of your 'audience'' is above the casual listener status.
3. While I am not looking a gift (crazy?) horse in the mouth, the Vault, as amazing as it is, is, I am assuming, dealing with some limitations on what will be -- or CAN be -- making available. Case in point: as interesting as it may be to hear the 'other' artists from The Rolling Thunder Review Tour, there are no Dylan performances included and that would most likely be because the artist has not allowed you too? Similar I would think with The Rolling Stones. The Detroit 1978 recording, available in collector's circles in pieces and incomplete for years, is a wonderful and intriguing addition which must have _somehow_ received clearance from the band. Nicely done, and no easy task. But these types of hurdles need to be worked on even more for the Vault to really blossom to its full potential.
3. On that same subject, while this is an extraordinary opportunity to hear previously unavailable recordings/performances, one has to ask what of the missing two songs? (Respectable/Far Away Eyes). Again, not looking a gift horse, but if you want to provide downloads/purchases for fans and you are concerned about what they are interested in I'm sure most would say "Give me whatever" since we have all been dying for something like this for years. But most would really say "I'd kinda like the whole show, thanks." Often times there are technicasl reasons for songs being ommitted - lost, damaged, incomplete etc. If this is the case this should be included somewhere in the write up of the show. Additionally, if certain performances are available but incomplete for some reason, the partial performance is much preferred over total ommission. The fade out was invented for many reasons....
4. Finally, you are right to be thinking in the opposite pattern that the industry generally does, i.e. they focus on what people are doing with the music AFTER they obtain it, while YOU are focusing on the consumer BEFORE they obtain it. Make the product what they want and sales will go up. Restrict what they can have, charge them an arm and a leg and watch the proliferation of folks trying to record your streamed broadcasts without paying anything. And, no, I don't think any of us are naive enough to believe that isn't happening already.
We want the whole show, in as clean and dynamic quality as possible, and we want them from our favorite artists.
Thank you for what you have done so far, keep up the good work, and keep asking us about what we think.
