Do you all buy Opeth cd's?

[AlexGuinness]

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people can justify anything that they do.

I am personally against most downloading. I do not have too much problem with downloading to preview, but I am sceptical about how many people do get round to buying the actual CDs afterwards.

The arguments prevalent throughout this thread surprise me.

The way I see things (and I know this will upset some people):

1) You call yourself a fan of these bands, so buy their products (if you want to listen to them) and see them live (if you can and want to).
2) If you want to know what a band sounds like, go to their website. If they want you to have free downloads, that is where you will find them.
3) Cannot find the CDs in a shop...? use the internet. I import CDs from all over the world. You have all heard of eBay, you can buy almost anything on there.
4) Lack of information is no excuse, you are on the internet by virtue of your presence here.
5) Don't have a lot of cash? Be more selective about your purchases or find cheaper outlets.

Over the last few years we have had a great little independent rock music specialist shop in my town. It closes tomorrow for good. The owner is a friend of mine and he cites three things as the cause of him having to close... An increase in the rent of the shop, competition from the internet and the reduction of sales being felt everywhere resulting from piracy.

A real shame.

 

[Kenneth R.]

personally i'd love to unseat virgin, bmg, and all the other mega-labels that, in tandem with mtv, bet, and other mass media conglomerates, are destroying the industry they dominate like an imploding star.
i'm 100% for bands, 100% for local and independent shops, and totally against the superpower labels that abuse them and crush them.
is downloading illegal? in some countries it is. whenever the law comes into question, one must question the law... is it morally right? situation dependent.
i'm against ripping off bands and local stores. however i support preview (be it instore scan-listen or downloading legally or not) and i also support promotion via the internet, which is a powerful tool. the band dragonforce got noticed at a festival and at their mp3.com website, where they had featured 4 songs. these were taken down upon the release of their album, making it illegal to download them. however, before that point, it was their greatest source of publicity.

basically what i'm saying is, i think the law in this case protects the big labels. which is to say, it compromises quality, because unless you are able to go to a store and scan and listen to an album, you are forced to buy it blind or not buy it at all. labels know that once you've bought an album their money won't be taken back, so they are under no pressure to make good recordings, sign good bands. by putting the pressure on, i hope that we force the big names to put out quality material or else. else many will simply look elsewhere or pirate the second-rate music. i'm not condoning this, but i think they deserve to lose money, and they deserve to be put in the hot seat. on the other hand, i advocate that bands recieve more than what they currently get, and retain more control over their creative process.

 

[Nirnaeth Arnoediad]

I have in my hand "Damnation" european edition... I´ve just bought it...

 

[atilla000]

Strange that nobody mentions cd-reviews as a guide for buying albums, instead of dl'ing them and having heard them yourself. Indeed, no reviewer has the same taste as you, but I think it's really exciting, buying an album simply based on a review. It's like reading the reviewer's mind, and a search for a reviewer who thinks like yourself about music. I bought Emperor's Prometheus based on a 5 line review. Pretty weird experience. When I read the review (and the interview with Ishahn I must admit), I was completely convinced that Prom would be one of the best cd's I ever bought. When the cd arrived, it was pretty dissapointing. I threw it in a draw for six months...
Of course I discovered the magic afterwards and was euphoric for a whole day because I realised that I hadn't read something wrong in the magazine.

 

[Kenneth R.]

i should add, as much as i advocate for previewing, in the case of progressive music, i have been known to buy blindly for fun, based on album cover art and short blip reviews, to satisfaction almost every time. if this were true of the mainstream industry, i'm sure things would be a lot different

 

[Shadows Skulk]

Doesn't the whole "support the band by buying CDs" argument fall apart when the bands no longer exist or are already rich as hell?

 

[deliverance]

^ yeah, i've been thinking a lot about that spectrum lately as well. i'm starting to feel guilty for having all of this music on my computer, after this huge thread and all the comments haha.

 

[NFU]

Strange that nobody mentions cd-reviews as a guide for buying albums, instead of dl'ing them and having heard them yourself. Indeed, no reviewer has the same taste as you, but I think it's really exciting, buying an album simply based on a review. It's like reading the reviewer's mind, and a search for a reviewer who thinks like yourself about music. I bought Emperor's Prometheus based on a 5 line review. Pretty weird experience. When I read the review (and the interview with Ishahn I must admit), I was completely convinced that Prom would be one of the best cd's I ever bought. When the cd arrived, it was pretty dissapointing. I threw it in a draw for six months...
Of course I discovered the magic afterwards and was euphoric for a whole day because I realised that I hadn't read something wrong in the magazine.

I cant imagine how much money i saved by not buying albums based on peoples "reviews". Such as "check out the newest Norther album, its great!". Or "Dimmu borgir's latest album is awesome, you should buy it!"

::shudder::

 

[dorian gray]

Over the last few years we have had a great little independent rock music specialist shop in my town. It closes tomorrow for good. The owner is a friend of mine and he cites three things as the cause of him having to close... An increase in the rent of the shop, competition from the internet and the reduction of sales being felt everywhere resulting from piracy.

A real shame.

i hate to see small businesses go down. for whatever reason. sorry to hear about your friend.

 

[dorian gray]

basically what i'm saying is, i think the law in this case protects the big labels. which is to say, it compromises quality, because unless you are able to go to a store and scan and listen to an album, you are forced to buy it blind or not buy it at all. labels know that once you've bought an album their money won't be taken back, so they are under no pressure to make good recordings, sign good bands. by putting the pressure on, i hope that we force the big names to put out quality material or else. else many will simply look elsewhere or pirate the second-rate music. i'm not condoning this, but i think they deserve to lose money, and they deserve to be put in the hot seat. on the other hand, i advocate that bands recieve more than what they currently get, and retain more control over their creative process.

pretty interesting thoughts. i think you might be right in theory, but how would one know if the account managers at Virgin don't give a shit about the music? they are a for-profit industry but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't care. and I think there's even more of a chance the smaller labels care even more.
i like your idea that labels don't have to worry about refunding your money. that's a very cynical way to look at things but it's logical. but, i think a problem with that view is that labels have alot at stake. they don't sign bands without a ton of research and focus groups and blah blah blah. it could even be said that *everything* a label puts out is "quality" as it's a subjective term. We all know Britney Spears is shit and Opeth are about as high-quality as it gets, but try telling 10,000,000 Britney fans that.

 

[Lord_AgathoN]

Lol buying from reviews??????????
Buying from 30sec homepage-samples?
You are really strange people!

 

[AlexGuinness]

Lol buying from reviews??????????
Buying from 30sec homepage-samples?
You are really strange people!

What is strange about that? How do you think that the music industry has worked until the mass piracy of the last few years? Do really have to hear an entire album before you can decide if you think it is worth your pocket money or wages? How fucking tight is that? Tight may be the wrong thing to say as circumstances and economies vary. Perhaps selfish would be a better term.

I have boought many CDs based on one track, a review or similar.

I first heard Opeth on the Candlelight collection, then subscribed to Terrorizer because they were offering a copy of Orchid as a freebie. Each susbsequent album has been bought on the day of release with no previews.

I first heard Bloodbath on the In The Eyes Of Death II CD and could not believe that I had not heard (or heard of them before). The EP was bought immediately. The first CD imported from the states because I was impatient for the Euro release. Second album bought on day of release.

I first heard of Dark Tranquillity with a covermount CD on Terrorizer giving a preview of Punish My Heaven. Bought Skydancer immediately. Located Of Chaos And Eternal Night and all others bought on day of release.

I bought Nightingale's first album in a second hand store based purely on the artwork and the fact that it was on Black Mark. I now have all the albums, including the limited live one.

I first heard of Arcturus based on a review, went out and bought Aspera Hiems Symfonia immediately and loved it. Have all their work. I went down to London last night without a ticket to try and find a way into the Inferno Festival where Arcturus were playing (even went down with the models who were doing the press thing before hand), but we could not get in.

I could literally go on forever... Anathema, At The Gates, Emperor were all bands that I discovered in the early 90s playing small clubs in my home town with friends' bands.

There are a million and one ways to discover new music without illegal downloads. You should not even read articles that give reviews along the lines of "this is cool to like this, go and buy it" or "the latest kerrang approved band". If you do, expect nu-metal or some other bollocks.

Don't get me wrong, this is not purely a black and white situation. Some things are impossible to get hold of (and I don't merely mean challenging). I would consider downloading Eternal Soul Torture as I do not have any of the reissue CDs. This is the only track by Opeth that I do not have, but I am reluctant to go and buy the album yet for one track. I will when I see it at a bargain price, but I can wait. I also trade CD compilations with people as well, but that is to give others a chance to hear a band rather than an excuse to NOT buy their music.

What gives people the RIGHT to these illegal downloads?

 

[atilla000]

What is strange about that? How do you think that the music industry has worked until the mass piracy of the last few years? Do really have to hear an entire album before you can decide if you think it is worth your pocket money or wages? How fucking tight is that? Tight may be the wrong thing to say as circumstances and economies vary. Perhaps selfish would be a better term.

I have boought many CDs based on one track, a review or similar.

I first heard Opeth on the Candlelight collection, then subscribed to Terrorizer because they were offering a copy of Orchid as a freebie. Each susbsequent album has been bought on the day of release with no previews.

I also discovered Opeth on a CL collection cd! There were some other really good (Beyond the embrace and Daeonia or st like that) things on it, not half as good as Opeth, but still really good, but couldn't find anything about them...
Like I already said, I only buy a cd blindly if it was a high qualitity review, or if I thought highly about the reviewer. Not: "wow, this rocks" etc. And it is waaaay cooler to be surprised by a cd, instead of thinking, yeah, I already know this song and this song...

 

[Metalloid]

I don't know if this will be much of a contribution to this thread, but I know that I would never have discovered Opeth had it not been for a friend suggesting that I download some Opeth songs.

Since then I have the DVD, a few of the albums, been to a show, and bought a shirt. So I think the internet has really aided bands like Opeth.

 

[Ermz]

AlexGuiness nailed it pretty hard there. Stealing a band's work is inexcusable. Sure we can all complain about the labels profitting more than the band, being overcharged for CDs etc. These are all valid concerns, but they don't negate the fact that the band need CD sales to survive.

As I've outlined before, I support the purposes of online music sharing for promotional purposes and such... it makes it ALOT easier for bands like Opeth to get heard. However, there are many, many people out there who simply download and give nothing back. In all honesty, those folk deserve prosecution.

At the very least, buy your favourite CDs. I do this... I have hardly any money to spend these days, but I try to scrounge up enough to actually own a material copy of my favourite CDs. It's a small gesture of support towards artists who provide your entertainment.

 

[Henkka]

Yep, I have all the CD's and the DVD.
If you live in Scandinavia and you aren't having luck with finding Opeth CD's, behold: CDON.com.

 

[Sfarog]

I usually check everything out in mp3's before buying, but yeah, I own every single Opeth album (don't care about re-releases) and the dvd.

its hard to see it when you're just a listener.. but d/ling the music, digging it, plaing it over and over and not buying the album is ripping the artist off... and we all know metal artists are struggling bad as it is.. so .... go buy albums you like, people!

 

[Dark Thane]

I own all of Opeth's albums plus the DVD. i would never rip them off because they make great music which takes a lot of hard work to do. i don't consider anyone a fan if they don't own the albums they like. from my own experience, it didn't kill me to spend roughly 15 bucks per album, i am still alive and in good health.
mp3's sound weak anyways...

 

[Lord_AgathoN]

Thats true.........but i cant buy all the shit i discover. Its just too much. I pretty much download stuff........and if i like it still after perhaps 2 month i buy it. So iam left behind everytime ^^

 

[NFU]

Once again....having broad taste but not much money isnt the artist's problem. Nor is it your right to own their music (which you should have to pay for regardless) if you dont have the money.

Just because im hungry doesnt mean its ok for me to walk into a grocery store and steal a roasted chicken.