NationStates Jolt Archive

Sure, I don't*coughcough* do it, but I find actually buying CDs cost wayyyy too much and downloading it is the only thing I can do, but, the companies are getting pathetic suing people, and I just wanna know your views on it. Poll coming.

Until people dont have to pay almost 20$ for some shitty new cd, that MIGHT have one good song on it....people will continue to illegaly DL music.

If the average cd costs say $7.00.....I wouldnt have a problem with it.

Until people dont have to pay almost 20$ for some shitty new cd, that MIGHT have one good song on it....people will continue to illegaly DL music.

If the average cd costs say $7.00.....I wouldnt have a problem with it.
According to my friend it costs more here in NZ than it does in the U.S. too, about $30 NZD

I make heavy use of ITunes and Rhapsody.

I am willing to pay a reasonable price for the songs and/or albums I want. I am also perfectly willing to illegally download the songs I can't reasonable get. For instance; I can't get 'American Pie' by Don Mclean without purchasing the whole album. Screw that.

The RIAA and the individual artists will accomplish nothing by fighting the future.

I'm all for it, so long as it's stopped.

I am a thinking an awesome idea would be a computer that, situated in a music store, you got to make a compilation disc with the songs that you choose on it, and of course it has all the music that has passed through the music store, so if I wanted just a couple of songs from an artists that I knew were great and some more from different artists I wouldn't be wasting lik 30 bucks on a Cd with a couple of good songs but for a Cd with the songs you choose, charging $1 to the song, so if I had 19 songs on a disc I would pay $19.

I am a thinking an awesome idea would be a computer that, situated in a music store, you got to make a compilation disc with the songs that you choose on it, and of course it has all the music that has passed through the music store, so if I wanted just a couple of songs from an artists that I knew were great and some more from different artists I wouldn't be wasting lik 30 bucks on a Cd with a couple of good songs but for a Cd with the songs you choose, charging $1 to the song, so if I had 19 songs on a disc I would pay $19.

Other than the volume of music available that way, that's no different to paying for a download, is it?

If you can't listen to music beforehand, how do you know you like it enough to buy it?

The radio's good to introduce you to new bands, but they usually only play one or two songs from an album (over the course of a few months, often). What if you want to find out if the other twelve songs are any good?

The radio's good to introduce you to new bands, but they usually only play one or two songs from an album (over the course of a few months, often). What if you want to find out if the other twelve songs are any good?

Go into a music store and ask the clerc to play them ?

Go into a music store and ask the clerc to play them ?


How many bands have you gotten into, after hearing thier stuff for the first time, and not liking it, until you had time an opportunity to listen a few more times?

With on-line services like iTune, the CD is dead.
I only buy albums I want or singles with the extra video on them.

I say drop CD prices. Downloading is economically driven.

Music worth hearing is Music worth buying

Go into a music store and ask the clerc to play them ?
Well, that would mean going to the nearest music shop. Don't even know where that *is* - I usually buy CDs from Amazon, Play or the local supermarket.
If that were the only choice... Well, I wouldn't buy any music, I'd just listen to the radio. Much as I did before I could download music. So the music producers (and artists) lose out.

There are reasons to buy cd's, but they're shrinking. The sound quality is better on a cd, but with the rapid rise in mp3 players, fewer and fewer people are worried about that. They've sacrificed sound quality for portability. I have. Pretty much the only place I still listen to cd's is in my car, and frankly, my system isn't good enough for there to be a noticeable difference.

I make use of emusic. Ten bucks a month gets me forty downloads, and if I want more, I can buy more. The files are mine once I buy them. I can burn them to cd, can transfer them to another computer or mp3 player with no issue, and I don't have to worry about rootkits popping up on my computer. The reason it's cheap is because they don't have very much in the way of new, poppy stuff, which is fine by me. I listen to old blues and jazz most of the time anyway, and I've really filled out my live Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker collections with this. Got some Ornette Coleman just the other day. And they also tend to have early albums by bands who have just gotten popular--I downloaded the first My Chemical Romance cd for my daughter last month.

Did I mention that you can stream any song they have before you buy it? This is the new model, I believe. It's cheap, fast, lets you listen before you buy. What else do you need?

There are reasons to buy cd's, but they're shrinking. The sound quality is better on a cd, but with the rapid rise in mp3 players, fewer and fewer people are worried about that. They've sacrificed sound quality for portability. I have. Pretty much the only place I still listen to cd's is in my car, and frankly, my system isn't good enough for there to be a noticeable difference.

I make use of emusic. Ten bucks a month gets me forty downloads, and if I want more, I can buy more. The files are mine once I buy them. I can burn them to cd, can transfer them to another computer or mp3 player with no issue, and I don't have to worry about rootkits popping up on my computer. The reason it's cheap is because they don't have very much in the way of new, poppy stuff, which is fine by me. I listen to old blues and jazz most of the time anyway, and I've really filled out my live Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker collections with this. Got some Ornette Coleman just the other day. And they also tend to have early albums by bands who have just gotten popular--I downloaded the first My Chemical Romance cd for my daughter last month.

Did I mention that you can stream any song they have before you buy it? This is the new model, I believe. It's cheap, fast, lets you listen before you buy. What else do you need?

CD quality sound is great, but I'm not going to lugging around lots of CDs. If I can pack a lot of 64K WMA encoded music files into my MP3/WMA player, I can live with that. Oh, and no CD swapping.

My other gripe is the quality of CD media. I have some old CD-ROM media and they are rather thick compared to the new CD-ROM media. Saving on plastic and the new CD-ROMs are thin and brittle.

I buy cds and download music.

The radio doesn't play a lot of good bands that may not be so big, however, they're freely available online... so I download a band that I hear about but have never heard and if they're any good, I buy a cd when I get the money (this is a slow process as cds cost too much for a student budget)

How many bands have you gotten into, after hearing thier stuff for the first time, and not liking it, until you had time an opportunity to listen a few more times?

None. But I don't download songs I do not like either ;)

Until people dont have to pay almost 20$ for some shitty new cd, that MIGHT have one good song on it....people will continue to illegaly DL music.

If the average cd costs say $7.00.....I wouldnt have a problem with it.
amen.

i would actually like to pay for music because you're not just screwing the 'evil corporate music inudstry' out of money, but the artists, too. with pop and manafactured bands, like say Britney Spears, i couldn't (or wouldn't) care less, but with bands who actually put time and effort into their music, play their own instruments, produce their own albums, write their own music, etc, then it matters to me that they get their dues because if i were in their place, i'd be pissed off.

but i don't like the sound of legal musicsharing things like the new napster... i just hate the DRM. i don't know why because in practical terms it wouldn't really make a difference to the way i listen to my music (apart from not being able to listen to it when not connected to the internet apparently :rolleyes: ) but i hate the idea of the music companies still - to all intents and purposes - owning the music. if i have music, i want it to be mine to do with what i will. plus, because of the myriad of different music companies and who owns what copyright, no legal service ever has full access to all the music i want, so i'd have to go back to illegal means anyway :rolleyes:

but the DRM thing... thats why i still buy CDs. i think £10 for a cd isn't so bad, really cos it used to be, on average, a lot more. you own the cd, you can lend it to other people, write mix-cds for the car, put stuff on your mp3 player, and you actually have a tangiable cd to hold in your hand.

i do occasionally use illegal p2p progs but not very often. the reason being that i like having full albums (i tend to stick on and listen to full albums rather than using playlists or jumping between artists all that much) and all i can ever seem to get are bits of different albums and a few tracks, often poor quality and which take ages to download despite broadband, continually saying "more sources needed" :mad:


short answer: p2p is just crap, cds aren't that badly priced all things considered (depends how often you buy them), and DRM is the scourge of the planet and must be destroyed.

it is not the first time..

The "Music industry" did Fight the Cassette tape and even if they lost..they kept fighting..

the Music/Movie Industry(AKA ShowBiz Corps) convinced the World to adopt the CD/DVD.. on promises that the new media was almost indestructible.. But it was all a big lie. CD/DVD are more fragile than cassettes.

The ShowBiz Corps killed the DAT and corralled the MiniDisc (both were superior to the CD/DVD)

a finished CD/DVD costs less than $2... I am not going to pay 2000% to these Liars.

it is not the first time..

The "Music industry" did Fight the Cassette tape and even if they lost..they kept fighting..

the Music/Movie Industry(AKA ShowBiz Corps) convinced the World to adopt the CD/DVD.. on promises that the new media was almost indestructible.. But it was all a big lie. CD/DVD are more fragile than cassettes.

The ShowBiz Corps killed the DAT and corralled the MiniDisc (both were superior to the CD/DVD)

a finished CD/DVD costs less than $2... I am not going to pay 2000% to these Liars.

Now they are trying the self-destructing downloaded music file thing. If you have MP3 or WMA version of a song, you can play it as much you like. It looks like they want "limited lifespan" downloads which don't work after X plays on top of current DRM attempts.

Some of the mp3 qualities of illegal downloads are crappy. But other than that, it's ok.
It would be better if iTunes charged, like, 40p(or about 70c) for tracks, but noo. They charge about 79p. That's bullenschisse.

Now they are trying the self-destructing downloaded music file thing. If you have MP3 or WMA version of a song, you can play it as much you like. It looks like they want "limited lifespan" downloads which don't work after X plays on top of current DRM attempts.
I'm telling y'all--emusic.com. You buy the file, it's yours. No qualifications, limited downloads, nothing.

i do occasionally use illegal p2p progs but not very often. the reason being that i like having full albums (i tend to stick on and listen to full albums rather than using playlists or jumping between artists all that much) and all i can ever seem to get are bits of different albums and a few tracks, often poor quality and which take ages to download despite broadband, continually saying "more sources needed" :mad:

short answer: p2p is just crap,


Simple answer, bit torrent :)

Simple answer, bit torrent :)
meh they closed down all the torrent sites i used to use :(
and i don't know any new ones

besides bT client progs take over my sytem resources like a bitch :rolleyes:


but yeah... might go see if i can find some torrent servers... for... research.

meh they closed down all the torrent sites i used to use :(
and i don't know any new ones

besides bT client progs take over my sytem resources like a bitch :rolleyes:


but yeah... might go see if i can find some torrent servers... for... research.

P2P servers are becoming less and less these days. WinMX servers are no more :(

meh they closed down all the torrent sites i used to use :(
and i don't know any new ones

besides bT client progs take over my sytem resources like a bitch :rolleyes:


but yeah... might go see if i can find some torrent servers... for... research.


Try isohunt.com

It is very rare when I cannot find what I am looking for.

meh they closed down all the torrent sites i used to use :(
and i don't know any new ones

besides bT client progs take over my sytem resources like a bitch :rolleyes:


but yeah... might go see if i can find some torrent servers... for... research.

Stuff bittorrent - Use soulseek. http://www.slsknet.org/

Honestly, they don't make their money selling thier music. They make most of their money making apearences and music tours. They are just being greedy!!! CD's cost to much and downloading them from pay sites cost even more.
Or at least that's what I've heard.

Honestly, they don't make their money selling thier music. They make most of their money making apearences and music tours. They are just being greedy!!! CD's cost to much and downloading them from pay sites cost even more.
Or at least that's what I've heard.

Most of $$$ goes to the record companies anyway. They don't want CD prices to fall. I can buy DVDs cheaper than CDs now.

Try isohunt.com

It is very rare when I cannot find what I am looking for.
hehe i'm already there (but i can't find what i'm looking for :headbang: )

hehe i'm already there (but i can't find what i'm looking for :headbang: )

What are you looking for?

What are you looking for?
Alex Skolnick Trio - Transformation album


downloaded soulseek (thanks... it sounds good :)) so i'll probably give it a shot after work. any luck finding that skolnick album on there by any chance?

Alex Skolnick Trio - Transformation album


downloaded soulseek (thanks... it sounds good :)) so i'll probably give it a shot after work. any luck finding that skolnick album on there by any chance?

Yep. There's a queue, but someone has it.

I am a thinking an awesome idea would be a computer that, situated in a music store, you got to make a compilation disc with the songs that you choose on it, and of course it has all the music that has passed through the music store, so if I wanted just a couple of songs from an artists that I knew were great and some more from different artists I wouldn't be wasting lik 30 bucks on a Cd with a couple of good songs but for a Cd with the songs you choose, charging $1 to the song, so if I had 19 songs on a disc I would pay $19.

Yea, I was just thinking that the other day. It would be a good alternative to iTunes and such for people who don't have high-speed internet, are not that computer savvy, can't sign up for PayPal...

I don't buy cds 'cause the artist gets les than 1$ off every copy sold, the rest goes to record company leeches. And, relative to the cost of production, they're ridiculously overpriced. Where I live, new cds cost around 18$; if they cost around 9$ I would buy maybe 1 a month, as it is, I don't buy 1 every two months, I never buy them. So, sucks for them...

I occassionally download music, mostly old stuff or things I can't get from the store, like Latin American and Spanish rock. Sometimes I download songs from a band I hear on the radio, or from something I see at the store but don't know, and if I like them I buy the CD, if not I delete the songs. No point in keeping them there.

I still buy a lot of CDs, but rarely new things, only after they put them on sale or reduced price.

Yep. There's a queue, but someone has it.
good to know. i won't be downloading it though cos that'd be illegal.

just found it on amazon instead...
*cough*

I am willing to pay for a CD if it has what I want on it, so at $1 (or sometimes less than $1) a song I think it's a fair price for me to pay for my music. I like the flexibility of being able to legally download music and make CD's that I like. Oh, and no I don't illegally download, that's stealing.

I am willing to pay for a CD if it has what I want on it, so at $1 (or sometimes less than $1) a song I think it's a fair price for me to pay for my music. I like the flexibility of being able to legally download music and make CD's that I like. Oh, and no I don't illegally download, that's stealing.

Of coures the down side to legally downloading music online (as opposed to cds) is that now you dont have control over the music. Its more like they are lending it to you.. you are restricted on the number of times you can copy it transfer it.. how many computers you can have it on.. and now if the whispers of limited play is also real, well.. I fail to see the benfits to downloading legally at all. Your almost better off paying the outragous prices for the cd (which isn't likely).

Sony has already ade outragous measures (injecting spyware to see your listening habits). If these companies continue to push the limits of what is tolerable, they will only push the illegal market more.

If we want quality music, we need to continue supporting the people who make it. Somebody needs to pay for these multi-million dollar studios that are used to record cd's as well as the dozens of technicians, producers, etc. it takes to produce them. I dont believe it is right to just go online and download the music for free. There are good pay music services, if you really want to download music and pay only for songs you know you like, there are alternatives like itunes that you can use.

Of coures the down side to legally downloading music online (as opposed to cds) is that now you dont have control over the music. Its more like they are lending it to you.. you are restricted on the number of times you can copy it transfer it.. how many computers you can have it on.. and now if the whispers of limited play is also real, well.. I fail to see the benfits to downloading legally at all. Your almost better off paying the outragous prices for the cd (which isn't likely).

Eeeehm... you NEVER buy control of the music through a cd or legal download. You buy the right to have *a copy* of the music for a specific use (e.g. listening to it in the privacy of your own home). You are for instance not allowed to play your legally bought cd in a disco for 1000s of people without paying the record company an additional fee.

. There are good pay music services, if you really want to download music and pay only for songs you know you like, there are alternatives like itunes that you can use.
evil DRM...

though i do agree with the rest of your post... paying is better... if only they didn't insist on such wanky protecion methods it'd be ok.

i mean "Digital Rights Management"... if this was the state doing this to people's computer files people would be up in arms about it, about the curtailing of their rights...

If we want quality music, we need to continue supporting the people who make it. Somebody needs to pay for these multi-million dollar studios that are used to record cd's as well as the dozens of technicians, producers, etc. it takes to produce them. I dont believe it is right to just go online and download the music for free. There are good pay music services, if you really want to download music and pay only for songs you know you like, there are alternatives like itunes that you can use.

again, those services come with sever restrictions coming to the point at which your "borrowing" the music. And perhaps if those record companies were actually producing "quality" music... The reality is, most "artists" today arn't that at all... they are just kids out to make a quick mill and have no skills at all. If the studios we are supporting is content with producing this type of "talent" then they dig their own grave. Loss in cd sales is not caused by illegal downloading (in large part). By the record companies own statistics 90% of the market dosn't download (illegally) or feels its stealing.

evil DRM...

though i do agree with the rest of your post... paying is better... if only they didn't insist on such wanky protecion methods it'd be ok.

i mean "Digital Rights Management"... if this was the state doing this to people's computer files people would be up in arms about it, about the curtailing of their rights...

I dont agree with or respect DRM, but that is a different topic. A drm system has not been invented (and will probably never be invented) that cannot be easily bypassed. I dont have a problem with bypassing DRM for fair use purposes. But that is a different topic.

In my opinion, copyright as we know it (forbidding the copy) is a perfect example of the stupidity of capitalism.

Capitalism requires scarcity to create value. Ressources which are not scarce have no value. So capitalism creates scarcity, by forbiding the copy, in order to create value and allow artists to live.

But if you think about it a bit, since the copy itself is costless, for the same amount of money paid in total by "customers" and the same amount of money given to artists, everyone could have access to every song, movie, book, ... Such a situation would just mean that everyone will be more rich, not money speaking, but culturally speaking.

Add to that the huge amount of money which disappear into the pockets of record labels and distribution, which is most of the cost of CDs, and in fact, everyone could have access to every piece of art while paying LESS, while artists could have MORE money.

Some people proposed, here, to add a flat fee (around 4 euros/month) to broadband Internet access, that will pay the artists for the copy. Such a fee would give to the artists TWICE as much money as they currently have from CD sales, while allowing everyone to access all content. I'm not too fond on broadband tax, and I would prefer a more fair tax like the progressive income tax, but it's anyway much better than creating scarcity in order to create value.

Sure, there is the problem of how to share the money. But a socialised system could have a far more fair way to share the money, not granting so much money to the few successful artists, and so few to the many not really successful, with a degressive pay (the more you are downloaded, the more you'll have in total, but the less you'll have per download, like 50c/download for 1-1000 download, 40c/download for 1001-10000 downloads, and so on). Under the current system it's the opposite, artists who sell more manage to negociate an higher per-sale amount than the less known ones, which is deeply unfair.

Anyway, it's the only solution, because you'll never be able to prevent people from sharing data, without locking all the computer world into DRM and TCPA, which will mean transforming the freedom that Internet is into a police state, where the govs or transnational corporations have their say on every single bit of data. The only way to prevent filesharing would be to move to the society described by RMS into his "the right to read" distopyan article, http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html. And I really, really hope we won't get there...

You are for instance not allowed to play your legally bought cd in a disco for 1000s of people without paying the record company an additional fee.

Yep - you technically aren't even allowed to play it for a single friend. (Unenforced to my knowledge, as of yet, though.)

again, those services come with sever restrictions coming to the point at which your "borrowing" the music. And perhaps if those record companies were actually producing "quality" music... The reality is, most "artists" today arn't that at all... they are just kids out to make a quick mill and have no skills at all. If the studios we are supporting is content with producing this type of "talent" then they dig their own grave. Loss in cd sales is not caused by illegal downloading (in large part). By the record companies own statistics 90% of the market dosn't download (illegally) or feels its stealing.
quite. cd sales and companies' revenues have been falling in recent years not necessarily due to a rise in piracy and music downloading, but because previously they made record profits and turnover from overcharging massively for CDs in the mid-to-late 90s. prices are being forced down to acceptable levels and the companies are whinging about loss of turnover and blaming it on filesharing to turn it into a bad thing in the eyes of the media...

plus, nowadays, multimillion dollar recording studios are really quite obsolete i think, with the advance in PC recording technology making the entire market a fair whack cheaper

It isn't illegal here, so I'm not quite sure what I should answer on the poll...

It isn't illegal here, so I'm not quite sure what I should answer on the poll...

Replace the word "downloading" with "sharing" or "uploading" and answer then.

quite. cd sales and companies' revenues have been falling in recent years not necessarily due to a rise in piracy and music downloading, but because previously they made record profits and turnover from overcharging massively for CDs in the mid-to-late 90s. prices are being forced down to acceptable levels and the companies are whinging about loss of turnover and blaming it on filesharing to turn it into a bad thing in the eyes of the media...

plus, nowadays, multimillion dollar recording studios are really quite obsolete i think, with the advance in PC recording technology making the entire market a fair whack cheaper
Another reason might be because there is hardly any decent bands around anmore or coming out, compared to the 60-90s we in a shit hole. A deep one.

I haven't bought any CDs in years. Okay, one.. to support them. Otherwise, it's MP3s all the way. CDs cost waaaaaay too much.. what.. $17 at least. Usually I just want the good trax anyway. So I download to my computer, burn my own. Or put onto my player. WTF. The music industry needs to change. And hey.. maybe the music would improve if passion took the place of profit.

Another reason might be because there is hardly any decent bands around anmore or coming out, compared to the 60-90s we in a shit hole. A deep one.

If you believe that, you're not looking hard enough.

What exactly is the chance of getting caught with downloading? I got LimeWire and it gives the copyright warnings. Or are there certain ways you should do it so that the chance of trouble is reduced?

Another reason might be because there is hardly any decent bands around anmore or coming out, compared to the 60-90s we in a shit hole. A deep one.

Popular music sucks ass, I agree. Haven't listened to it for at least 15 years. However, underground is thriving.

Eh, I never really had the urge to DL illegally. Considering that Rhapsody is cheap enough to listen to and I don't DL that often...

Down with big corporation control of the recording industry, they are the ones bitching. They should just die off anyway. Any artist worth their snuff can put out their own music and don't need some big stupid company, and they make their money off shows and related sales anyway.

Where's the 'No Opinion' option?

What exactly is the chance of getting caught with downloading? I got LimeWire and it gives the copyright warnings. Or are there certain ways you should do it so that the chance of trouble is reduced?

I think uploading is the huge bee in their bonnet.

I think uploading is the huge bee in their bonnet.

Sorry does that mean to download but no uploading? I heard from a guy at work that if you download a new song or get unlucky with some other then the music companies can put a trace back to your company and send you a warning letter to try to scare you off or if you're unlucky actually sue you. Be nice to avoid that if possible.

Maybe the music industry pudlickers don't realize that there are people who download a few songs from a CD to see if it's good enough to buy. If I like it, I'll go buy it feeling confident that it won't be a waste of my money. If I don't like it, I usually delete it, so I'm not mass-sharing. No harm, no foul.

Down with big corporation control of the recording industry, they are the ones bitching. They should just die off anyway. Any artist worth their snuff can put out their own music and don't need some big stupid company, and they make their money off shows and related sales anyway.

Yeah, what they said ^ ^ ^ .