MP3 Pirating issue solved?

[AlexGuinness]

You Americans have access to such cheap music anyway.

I have made my views clear on this before, so will not repeat them all. Needless to say, there are a lot of people that think they deserve something for nothing.

I discovered Opeth on the first of the Candlelight Compilations back in the mid-90s. It was a budget priced sampler, showcasing some of the labels bands... Opeth and Solstice were my 2 great finds on that. Also some tracks from Emperor, Whores Of Babylon and a few others from what I can remember. Here in the UK it cost about 3GBP (most High Street stores currently retail CDs at about 17GBP).

So many of the labels have done this, so many people have been able to sample tracks by bands and decide if it is something they want or not. So many magazines have covermount CDs these days...

Thing is, just a few tracks is not enough for most of the people that say they just want to sample before they buy. How many do they need, the whole album?! I don't believe most of the people that say this, there are legitimate ways to sample but they are apparently not good enough for you.

I personally back most things up that I now get, but I will not download anything unless from a band or label website. Oh yeah, I buy a fuck load of CDs as well...

 

[spigot]

food >>>> music.
So yeah... I never buy cds... well almost never, especially considering that I live for a week on the amount that it costs to buy a CD. Besides, it is a lot more convenient to access the music on the computer than using a music system.

 

[the_3_toed_sloth]

Heh I'm pretty sure that's how the new Napster works right now-- you pay $15 a month to download as much as you want, but it will only let you play the tracks on your own machine and I think they expire eventually. The only problem is that there is a limited selection of music (only RIAA certified stuff). It would probably be difficult to create a such a service that unifies all the other record companies, because how would you divide the money? Plus there's always going to be some small independant labels who aren't going to be part of the service.
Still, you don't hear about many people using the Napster service because as stated before, it's much easier to leech off of a P2P network at this point in time.

Ahhh Napster...once so cool, now satan's bitch..when you only have such a small amount of music available (that you can pretty much hear on the radio anyway) there becomes no point at all in bothering. To really get off the ground my idea would need a much larger pool of music - my parallel was a video store, which don't work if all you have is a few copies of Titanic for hire. You need variety, you need competitive pricing, and you need to know you wont be sued if you invite a friend over to listen as well.

ps. spigot, i have little sympathy. Cds ARE overpriced, and i can understand cautious buying, but i think its crap not to buy any at all. We all make choices on what we spend our money on, and if you have chosen to buy a computer instead then that is your choice. Justify it all you want, but don't act like its anyones choice but yours.

pps. ...though maybe im just bitter about all the money ive wasted on cds, and not all good either.

 

[AlexGuinness]

It is still strange that most of the people that seem to complain that CDs are overpriced appear (on this forum, at least) to be American where you have some of the cheapest CDs that I know of.

If you apply exchange rates to our prices over here, you are approaching the $30 - $35 mark. I personally am not prepared to pay that for anything but a really special release. That price IS too expensive, so I find cheaper ways of buying things.

Maybe there is just a disproportionate number of US posters on here, I don't know.

 

[NFU]

It is still strange that most of the people that seem to complain that CDs are overpriced appear (on this forum, at least) to be American where you have some of the cheapest CDs that I know of.

If you apply exchange rates to our prices over here, you are approaching the $30 - $35 mark. I personally am not prepared to pay that for anything but a really special release. That price IS too expensive, so I find cheaper ways of buying things.

Maybe there is just a disproportionate number of US posters on here, I don't know.

US cd prices are 90% fair, reasonable and worthwhile.

 

[Nichrome]

I always import my cds from America (The End) or Europe (Sound Cave). I never EVER buy from the high street anymore.

For example, Morningrise costs $12.50 (£6.60) off the End, but £17.99 ($34.00) in HMV in Britain.

 

[AlexGuinness]

US cd prices are 90% fair, reasonable and worthwhile.

I agree, I wish I had access to more cost effective music WITHOUT the trans-atlantic postal charges.

 

[Rekkr]

It's already being done with .WMAs. But the idea will never work because people who WANT to pirate will just encode their files in a different format.

 

[ChrisEmerson]

also, people will write players / burners etc that just ignore the data, and just read the actual music.

 

[ryan1987online]

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread yet, so I don't know if what I'm going to add is necessarily relevant to what yall may be discussing right now, but anyway, in short..I never trusted napster. remember during its final two years or so as a free program that, in the news section, it was constantly trying to garner as much widespread support as possible? remember that? well, also remember when this issue FIRST came up in the news in about the late 90's? napster released an official statement saying that all they do is put music in their program and that it's not their fault if the users download it. try agreeing with that after seeing the total of THREE ways you could commence a download...by double clicking the song, rightclicking and selecting it in the shortcut menu, or clickign the BIG ASS "Download" button on bottom. that's why I never bought into napster's sudden change of heart and how they suddenly rushed into their fans' collective arms. consider that

 

[deliverance]

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread yet, so I don't know if what I'm going to add is necessarily relevant to what yall may be discussing right now, but anyway, in short..I never trusted napster. remember during its final two years or so as a free program that, in the news section, it was constantly trying to garner as much widespread support as possible? remember that? well, also remember when this issue FIRST came up in the news in about the late 90's? napster released an official statement saying that all they do is put music in their program and that it's not their fault if the users download it. try agreeing with that after seeing the total of THREE ways you could commence a download...by double clicking the song, rightclicking and selecting it in the shortcut menu, or clickign the BIG ASS "Download" button on bottom. that's why I never bought into napster's sudden change of heart and how they suddenly rushed into their fans' collective arms. consider that

why in the world would anyone d/l a filesharing program if not to d/l music?

billy: damn, i love those chatrooms on napster, meet me in 15?
manny: will do, william, make sure it's the bigbonedmidget chat.

 

[Mr Samsara]

You know... I was just thinking that I buy most of my CD's at the local record store in the "Used" section even though many are promo copies, or unopened "New" but for some reason is in that section... Average purchase price for me? $8.99...

I don't really think the bands get a dime of those purchases... am I wrong?

Out.

 

[NFU]

You know... I was just thinking that I buy most of my CD's at the local record store in the "Used" section even though many are promo copies, or unopened "New" but for some reason is in that section... Average purchase price for me? $8.99...

I don't really think the bands get a dime of those purchases... am I wrong?

Out.

if theyre promos? nope. if theyre just used...then yes they got paid when it was originally sold. but not when you bought it 2nd hand. they dont get paid twice.

 

[Mr Samsara]

if theyre promos? nope. if theyre just used...then yes they got paid when it was originally sold. but not when you bought it 2nd hand. they dont get paid twice.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking... so ethically I believe I'm still on solid ground since I am buying legitimate copies, but also I tend to pick up in that section things that are either very rare, unavailable, promo type stuff etc. (example, yesterday I picked up SYL - Alien ... it's like a pre-release in a single cardboard sleeve with no book, but a cool write up about the band on the back, a pic of the band on on the back as well and it's in the car, but I think it had the "Street date" on the back as well... not something just anyone is going to find and the CD itself looks exactly like the one I saw in the regular section for 18.99... my price? $4.99) From that, it is possible as it has happened to me before that I'll drop a few hundred bucks on them collecting CD's, DVD's, Concert Tix, Shwag... So yeah, I shop on a budget looking for rare, new and different shit and when I find something I really love... CHa ChiiIIINNNNGGG!! goes the bands cash register. Usually, when I go to a show I buy something from the merch table.. usually some music as that gives the band the highest return or margin for the sale of their music that I know of...

Ok, then.


Out.