Best places to buy mp3's?

[MarcusGHedwig]

I pretty much never buy CD's any more, cuz I like the lower price and instant gratification of downloadable music (and really couldn't care less about artwork beyond the cover to be painfully honest), but while I hate iTunes and thus have been using Amazon, is there any other place to get 'em that won't take such a huge cut? Cuz I'll be perfect honest, if all else failed I'd rather just paypal an artist $10 and pirate the album so I know they'd see the most profit from it, but that of course isn't usually practical (and would take some explanation )

I guess the best bet would be to go to the website of each artist and investigate the options (maybe they have a bandcamp, for example), just wondering if there's any other option

 

[greyskull]

Devil's advocate, I've been using iTunes....

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Yeah, but I hate the idea of a retailer taking a cut of the profits, cuz again literally the only reason I don't pirate all my music is out of my own sense of charity and obligation to support the artists, labels, and other creative forces behind it (which is a pretty fucking problematic situation for the music industry to be in, but that's another story); do any labels offer mp3 downloads?

 

[Sloan]

Try to download FLAC's from bandcamp if you can.

 

[updog]

Yeah, but I hate the idea of a retailer taking a cut of the profits, cuz again literally the only reason I don't pirate all my music is out of my own sense of charity and obligation to support the artists, labels, and other creative forces behind it (which is a pretty fucking problematic situation for the music industry to be in, but that's another story); do any labels offer mp3 downloads?

honestly, it's just so easy to buy music from itunes compared to most other competing means for buying mp3 or even pirating music, so them cutting into the profits doesn't really bother me - instead, i find itunes can actually help the artists find more customers, and thus more money.

itunes was the only service that was able to properly compete with piracy for that reason, and it pretty much still is.

 

[greyskull]

Yeah, but I hate the idea of a retailer taking a cut of the profits, cuz again literally the only reason I don't pirate all my music is out of my own sense of charity and obligation to support the artists, labels, and other creative forces behind it (which is a pretty fucking problematic situation for the music industry to be in, but that's another story); do any labels offer mp3 downloads?

How is that different from a record store?

 

[Jind]

My instant gratification need is mostly solved with a streaming music membership, but I still make the investment in bands/CD's that receive more than the cursory listen. I'm still buying on average 5 - 7 CD's per month even though most of my listening occurs via streaming. I tend not to buy compressed audio of any album that I intend to "keep" so most of the download services have not gotten a lot of my money.

Having a streaming service for the immediate listening needs has allowed me to be patient with getting a physical copy so whenever possible I try to order through a band's online merchandise outlet or label site. While I also do buy some CD's from Amazon still, most of my purchases have been from direct artist/label sites as of late.

 

[egan.]

Bandcamp if you can for the highest quality if nothing else. If apple sold lossless it would be a no brainer for me though.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

honestly, it's just so easy to buy music from itunes compared to most other competing means for buying mp3 or even pirating music, so them cutting into the profits doesn't really bother me - instead, i find itunes can actually help the artists find more customers, and thus more money.

itunes was the only service that was able to properly compete with piracy for that reason, and it pretty much still is.

Not true; Amazon mp3 is very popular (of course not as much as iTunes, but a strong 2nd), and that's what I've always used (though I'm realizing they're becoming an evil empire too, which probably means they take an obscene cut)

How is that different from a record store?

Well it's not if we're talking about some megachain, which I felt similarly about back when they existed - but I'd have no problem supporting local record stores, or rather I wouldn't if I ever had any around me

My instant gratification need is mostly solved with a streaming music membership, but I still make the investment in bands/CD's that receive more than the cursory listen. I'm still buying on average 5 - 7 CD's per month even though most of my listening occurs via streaming. I tend not to buy compressed audio of any album that I intend to "keep" so most of the download services have not gotten a lot of my money.

Having a streaming service for the immediate listening needs has allowed me to be patient with getting a physical copy so whenever possible I try to order through a band's online merchandise outlet or label site. While I also do buy some CD's from Amazon still, most of my purchases have been from direct artist/label sites as of late.

What streaming service do you use dude?

 

[updog]

Not true; Amazon mp3 is very popular (of course not as much as iTunes, but a strong 2nd), and that's what I've always used (though I'm realizing they're becoming an evil empire too, which probably means they take an obscene cut)

that's because itunes is still much easier and faster to use than Amazon.

if you feel you don't want to support 'evil empires' no matter the quality of their services they've set up for you, then you're probably best off pirating music and sending artists their money via paypal.

 

[egan.]

Apple keeps around 30%. What's nice about amazon mp3 is stuff goes on sale and there are coupons etc.
The pirate and send them money shit is nice in theory but not in practice. At least for label artists, soundscan numbers often decide whether you are going to get to cut another record.

 

[drew_drummer]

If you don't want to support evil empires, then your only choice is to only listen to indie bands who are releasing shit themselves in a DIY capacity. Like us!

 

[Morgan C]

Bandcamp if you can for the highest quality if nothing else. If apple sold lossless it would be a no brainer for me though.

That's fine for indie bands, but for your band for example? I'm going to be honest and say I pirated it, because it was delayed by like 2 weeks here in Australia. I want to buy it - where's the best place I can do this so that you'll see the most money? Again, digital, not CD. I can buy it off iTunes for $15, but how much of that do you see?

 

[drew_drummer]

I can buy it off iTunes for $15, but how much of that do you see?

Quite a lot of it actually. At least we do. It all goes through our CDBaby account.

 

[egan.]

That's fine for indie bands, but for your band for example? I'm going to be honest and say I pirated it, because it was delayed by like 2 weeks here in Australia. I want to buy it - where's the best place I can do this so that you'll see the most money? Again, digital, not CD. I can buy it off iTunes for $15, but how much of that do you see?

Labels are getting hip to it. Candlelight is selling our stuff there now. I'm going to talk to them about high res stuff in the future.
http://candlelightrecordsusa.bandcamp.com/

 

[Pman]

Relapse has all their artists on Bandcamp. http://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/

 

[drew_drummer]

Relapse has all their artists on Bandcamp. http://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/

Oh fuck. Money. Gone.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Labels are getting hip to it. Candlelight is selling our stuff there now. I'm going to talk to them about high res stuff in the future.
http://candlelightrecordsusa.bandcamp.com/

Relapse has all their artists on Bandcamp. http://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/

These posts make me extremely happy in the pants

 

[Morgan C]

These posts make me extremely happy in the pants

Yeah, seriously.

Unfortunately, googling "Daylight Dies Bandcamp" doesn't come up with this.

 

[Jind]

What streaming service do you use dude?

I'm using MOG and so far like it quite a bit. It offers streaming at 320 which many services don't (not that it makes that much of a difference) plus on my mobile device it allows downloads for offline listening.

They have desktop (Win/Apple) and mobile (iPad/Android) platforms with the offline listening feature for mobile devices.

Aside from a few cases of well known artists that don't see the benefit of streaming services (Metallica a prime example) and one case (there may be more but this one is the most obvious to me) of an entire metal label that has not published it's artists to MOG (Metal Blade) which may be a make or break issue for you. Personally for me it's not been that big of a deal and tend to look at it more as a loss for Metal Blade as I tend to buy more CD's from artists I've been able to preview both current releases and past releases and streaming music services give me that capability.

The $9.99 a month for the plan that includes mobile streaming/offline listening is well worth it for me. As I mentioned I still support through CD sales artist/releases I plan to listen through more than a time or two with about 5-7 Cd purchases a month even with the ability to stream them. If anything streaming music services have increased my CD purchases as I've stumbled across artists I knew little about from the similar artist feature as well as the artist radio feature mixing the artist and similar artists (if one chooses to have it add other artists).

As always - individual mileage may vary.