downloading music

hisaishi

New member
I am a music fan and usually get it from inet downloading from soulseek, where i can find almost everything. But once i failed to find music i was searchin and had to download from web site. So when 90% of 170mb had been downloaded the electricity went off and next day i had to start from the beginning.

I know there are programms that continue downloads but dont know what they are and there to get them. May be you will advise me something??
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I advise you not to use soulseek and to pay for your music so that the artists who made it can continue to do so.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
it just occured to me that buying second hand records doesn't benefit the artists either. so following your line of reasoning you shouldnt buy second hand records as well.

Indeed. Having said that most of the 2nd hand records I buy are completely out of print, so there is not much chance of reimbursing the artist. Although (with the exception of promos) at least someone has at some point.

Plus I am rather fond of record shops, so buying 2nd hand records from them ensures that they continue.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
so do you think it is allowed to use soulseek/limewire for out of print records? (dont get me wrong, i buy a lot of original records, reimbursing the artist etc, paying silly amounts for postage as well)

I think that's probably alright, yeah. I do use actually soulseek for the following:

a) "public domain" stuff like recordings of soundclashes from the 80s
b) material by people who I don't like or want to give money to - i.e. neo-nazis
c) the odd track by people who have lots of cash already
 

john eden

male pale and stale
You are quite right,but retailers have to match the ease with which you can access stuff.
Why wait for a retailer like [for example] UK Record shop to come through when you could have the music you want in an instant?

I don't think they HAVE to, but it would be nice. For example it isn't really on to go into Virgin and shoplift a load of CDs because the queues are too long. Tho I would have more respect for someone who did that than someone downloaded all their music from slsk.

If nobody pays money for grime mixtapes then it seems very likely that there won't be any more. So instant gratification will be just that - short term. Delaying gratification often has benefits...
 

Tyro

The Kandy Tangerine Man
so do you think it is allowed to use soulseek/limewire for out of print records? (dont get me wrong, i buy a lot of original records, reimbursing the artist etc, paying silly amounts for postage as well)


You can sell what would appear to be bootleg DVDs of old movies/TV programs on Ebay.IF the footage is officially unavailable and you state that it is 'In the public domain'.I am not sure if the same would apply to sharing out of print music though.


http://www.myspace.com/thekandytangerineman
 

john eden

male pale and stale
But why would you want what they have to offer?

I think it's important to keep an eye on them from time to time.

A friend of mine is currently researching some work by a now relatively respectable musician who used to have links with the NF and it seems was involved with some bands which were released by nazi record labels. So soulseek was a good way of enabling my friend to hear the music in question and identify the vocalist.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
I know there are programms that continue downloads but dont know what they are and there to get them. May be you will advise me something??

They are called download managers. I use GetRight, which is one of the more popular ones. Not all servers accept broken connections to be resumed, though, and downloads from MegaUpload, Rapidshare, and other free file-hosts must be carried out manually, so these programs’ utility is severely circumscribed in practice.
 

blubeat

blubeat
freedownloadmanager.org - very good.

Should I pitch into the filesharing debate? Probably not. It's a bit like arguing Palestine vs. Israel. Everyone has a strong opinion and normally a discussion (online) turns into an argument.

I lived through the "home taping will kill the music industry" 70's, the "home videoing will kill the cinema" 80's, I dont remember much about the 90's but I appear to still be alive and living through the "downloading will kill the music industry" 00's.

I rather suspect that the music industry will prosper long after I am gone...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I rather suspect that the music industry will prosper long after I am gone...


I'm sure you're right, but I am more concerned about the artists than the industry.

It is indecent - downloading music by people like Prince Alla, for example, when he is living in a wooden shack.

People I know have seriously considered giving up releasing music over the last few years...
 

Tyro

The Kandy Tangerine Man
This is what will do it if you ask me, for smaller artists earning a couple of hundred quid off an album that took two years to make...

LEGAL downloading could in time be a possible solution to that.If an artist makes their work available to the pulic without incurring the costs of manufacture and distribution then releasing music becomes a more straightforward task.


http://www.myspace.com/thekandytangerineman
 

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
LEGAL downloading could in time be a possible solution to that.If an artist makes their work available to the pulic without incurring the costs of manufacture and distribution then releasing music becomes a more straightforward task.

Not really, distribution will still exists, download sites take 50% and distributor will take 20%, add studio time, time spent making the tracks, food, rent, mastering etc and that's a shit load of 30ps you need to make.
 

blubeat

blubeat
> but I am more concerned about the artists than the industry.

Fair point. But the Industry needs the artists so it will have to find other ways of paying the artists therefore other ways of generating revenue to continue making money. Setup a download site, give away the tracks but sell me something else is a possibility I have heard mentioned.

Also here's an example of how it works for me:

I have never heard of Prince Alla so what do I do now? I type his name into Soulseek and download some, probably, low bit rate mp3. I like it but it wont go on my iPod* unless it's "whole" and at least 128kbps. But if his album appears on eMusic.com (or had have appeared on karmadownload.com) then I buy. Without Soulseek he would have got nothing from me.

Somebody else downloads it, likes it, has no intention of buying it and, if it wasn't available by other means, wouldn't buy it anyway.

A lot of my friends like music but they dont buy it. The constantly copy or borrow. They probably would download but they have enough trouble sending an email. They dont spend money on music.

Music lovers buy music. I buy more than I steal. In fact I barely steal anything as it's so tedious. low bit rate, films that purport to be LOTR but are actually gay porn (just make sure I got that the right way round!) and incomplete albums. Yuck. Where I tend to frequent the p2p underworld is for stuff that cant be bought. Unlreleased tracks, tracks from daysgoneby, old Eminem MC battles. In short things I would buy but can't.

Amazons new DRM free downloads could be interesting but as a consumer I want high bit rate non DRM and possibly a choice of file format. Allofmp3 is an example of what I want but unfortunately the selection of music is crap. I would happily buy illegal music from allofmp3 as they give me what I want as a consumer. Pay a few pence for a low quality mp3 or a few quid for CDA and plenty of options inbetween.

I am a paid up subscriber to eMusic.com for much the same reason. Quality music, good bit rates, cheap. Plus unlike the tragedy that is the iTunes store if I lose my Music or am simply on another PC and want a copy of an album I have purchased I just download it again.

Boomkat are a bit short on mp3 releases but again offer the high level of service.

Finally, Napster led me to eMule, eMule led me to Grime, Grime led me to Dubstep. P2P and the way that it vastly increases your awareness of music has a direct correlation to my increase on spending on vinyl, CD and mp3 in the last two years.

Whatever your opinion downloading copyright material is against the law. But so was nicking StayPress trousers from Millets when I was 13. Hey ho!

* I am not proud I own an iPod and previously I owned a sonically superior iAudio X5 but iTunes (the music management not the store) is what is behind the success of Apple not the iPod in my opinion. It is certainly the reason I now own an iPod and the reason that I would not consoder switching. You get some decent mp3 players, iRiver, Sony, etc but the music management software is rubbish. Sony's SonicStage is even worse than Rubbish! Why dont the manufacturers see this? If they concentrated on a replacement for iTunes they wouldn't need to try and make pretty iPod clones. IMHO etc. Sorry, but it winds me up!!
 
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Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
and the above is the other problem ^^^^^ Everyone thinks everyone does as they do - be objective not subjective.

I'd guess most people here are music heads and respect artists and do try before they buy. However, to believe that this is the case for everyone is pointless and holds no water. There's two generations below us, that don't pay for anything and do see why they should, they don't know what an LP is nor care, they talk about gigabytes not amazing basslines, they borg the fuck out of thousands of pounds worth of music, 500gig a time. Trust me, it's going to get so much worse because the major corps don't know what to do, it's fucked.
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Allofmp3... what weasels. Somewhere between Soulseek and algae on the moral evolutionary ladder.

Though I imagine making/stealing a living in Russia is no joke.
 

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
Allofmp3... what weasels. Somewhere between Soulseek and algae on the moral evolutionary ladder.

Though I imagine making/stealing a living in Russia is no joke.


True enough, most of what they sell seems to be off soulseek to start with. When I worked in the games industry the Russian distributor use't to pay the local mafia to keep our products off the local copy stalls - very dark indeed.
 

ripley

Well-known member
I advise you not to use soulseek and to pay for your music so that the artists who made it can continue to do so.

To know if that would work, you would have to know the contents of an artist's deal with their label.

If the money is going directly to the artists, or there appears to be a good deal, as per Calabash, or they are on an indie I know something about, fair enough.

But many artists make nothing off royalties, some even lose money by album sales! - no joke, check it out here:

http://www.futureofmusic.org/contractcrit.cfm

This study (also by the Future of Music coalition, a very cool group of folks) suggests that at best, the artists they studied were divided on downloading, with 35% saying file sharing is not bad for them because of the marketing and promotion advantages (I know it was a biased sample of 2700 people, but it is significant anyway).

that said, I agree we should support artists (although I wish the US had a social system to prevent starving and homelessness, rather than relying on the market to do it as badly as it does).

But to support artists, you have to do a bit more work to know whether you actually are.
I also don't support propping up a system that makes it easy for labels to rip artists off, especially major labels.

okay off my hobbyhorse now
 
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