Do you pay for mp3s?

[Grievous Angel]

I'm becoming like one of those Jewish jazz fans in New York, who buy a record, play it once to record it, then never play it again.

But surely you have better hair?

 

[mms]

the one thing i did really download when i could be bothered was mixes, over a journey, which essentially i used ipod for they filled time and stretched out.

 

[Grievous Angel]

I've bought quite a lot of, well, not mp3s that much, but downloads, yes. I tend to buy WAVs or FLACs, though the mp3s (from Warp) were fine. I bought lots from Beatport prior to the price rise, HEAPS from Warp, a few bits from Boomkat and Juno. Mainly dubstep and house.

Is there a good reggae download store - other than Blood and Fire?

BTW - Linn, a high end hifi company that is also a record label, has started selling 24bit files - i.e. superior to CD quality. This is going to revolutionise the classical music market.

BTW 2 - An amazing number of jungle rarities can be found on ebay on old ragga jungle compilations that go for next to nothing - not everything by a long shot but quite a few.

 

[Edward]

I'd be very happy to pay a yearly subscription to some kind of central licensing body like the PPL for downloading music. I honestly think that this is the way forward. Emusic have the right idea but the catalogue's not there yet.

Hmmm... sounds good for the user but bad for the labels.

Here's why I say this: I sell mp3s from my label through a webshop, they have to pay 8.5% of my money to MCPS, who are supposed to take their cut and send the rest to me.

What they actually do is a mystery, they haven't replied to my emails and letters asking about it, but someone I managed to speak to on the phone told me that the money goes in a pot and is split between the biggest selling artists, because they don't have time to itemise every mp3 sale. Then he seemed to think he'd said too much and said he wasn't sure if that was right and that I ought to write another letter.

So when you buy an mp3 by an obscure artist you want to support, the MCPS share of that money actually goes to Beyonce or someone, or perhaps MCPS just keeps it so they can publish their shitty magaine that every member throws straight in the bin....

 

[mms]

Hmmm... sounds good for the user but bad for the labels.

Here's why I say this: I sell mp3s from my label through a webshop, they have to pay 8.5% of my money to MCPS, who are supposed to take their cut and send the rest to me.

What they actually do is a mystery, they haven't replied to my emails and letters asking about it, but someone I managed to speak to on the phone told me that the money goes in a pot and is split between the biggest selling artists, because they don't have time to itemise every mp3 sale. Then he seemed to think he'd said too much and said he wasn't sure if that was right and that I ought to write another letter.

So when you buy an mp3 by an obscure artist you want to support, the MCPS share of that money actually goes to Beyonce or someone, or perhaps MCPS just keeps it so they can publish their shitty magaine that every member throws straight in the bin....

sn't the big mcps finger always pointed at paul 'i have an face like an elderly betty boop ' mcartney? no wonder he's promoting his made in 2 minutes new tracks over apples ads!
i'ts all fairly ridiculous, there should be some grading system, ie smaller selling artists should only have to pay a fraction of what the benefactors do, as it simply doesn't add up.

 

[barry_abs]

the money goes in a pot and is split between the biggest selling artists, because they don't have time to itemise every mp3 sale.

that's outrageous.. fack me!

my brother is fighting an ongoing battle with PPL.. he runs a service which supplies customised in-store radio.. he's currently paying over TWICE the royalty commission per play than terrestrial stations (e.g. Radio 1).. PPL's justification: they cannot quantify audience sizes.. their reaction - double the price.

naturally, my bro is spitting feathers on the subject..

this is a similar case, internet radio:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6430489.stm

 

[leamas]

Hmmm... sounds good for the user but bad for the labels.

Here's why I say this: I sell mp3s from my label through a webshop, they have to pay 8.5% of my money to MCPS, who are supposed to take their cut and send the rest to me.

So does that mean that the only money you're getting from the mp3s is as publisher? If so that's shocking.

 

[mms]

So does that mean that the only money you're getting from the mp3s is as publisher? If so that's shocking.

i don't think thats what he means!
i 'm guessing it breaks down

distribution fee including mcps money or dist fee plus mcps money and then ed gets the rest

 

[nomos]

i've bought a few from bleep, though i mainly buy vinyl and a few CDs. i may start buying flacs and wavs now that i'm considering a go at laptop DJing.

it would be nice if there was a legitimate means by which to download a digital version of something you've bought on vinyl. i think an indie band just did that - you get a download code or something along with your material purchase.

 

[Edward]

So does that mean that the only money you're getting from the mp3s is as publisher? If so that's shocking

No, it means that 8.5% of my money disappears into an MCPS-shaped hole.
I still get 91.5% of what I feel I should get.

 

[leamas]

No, it means that 8.5% of my money disappears into an MCPS-shaped hole.
I still get 91.5% of what I feel I should get.

Right, so this is equivalent to the fee that you pay MCPS when you manufacture eg a compilation and you have to pay the pubishers for the mechanicals. Sorry, been a while . Never realised that they leveraged this fee on mp3s as well.

 

[Chef Napalm]

How come twice as many people have voted in your poll as have voted in mine, eden? Do you log in under 10 or 20 different names or something?

 

[claphands]

My CD collection was stolen back when mp3 downloading had been big a year or two (I was about 18) and suddenly I realized I didn't care about having a "cd." can't remember the last time i bought a cd for myself. and obviously there is no mp3 buying programs that's even remotely satisfactory out there to someone like me.

 

[barry_abs]

i own a couple crates of CDs, a pile of vinyl a few feet high and bags of tapes.. i'm sick of the fuckin sight of em..

i've moved house quite a few times.. i'm tired of boxing those cds/tapes/records up, winching them in and out of the removal truck, heaving them upstairs and unpacking them into their rack.. even after all that - you can't sort em by genre!

CDs - when napster blew up and i got an rio player and an mp3 car stereo, cd became obselete, instantly.. you can only fit 15 or so songs on a cd - and only a few of them are any good (generally, classics aside)! how shit is that?

my vinyls - don't know what i'm going to do with them.. i don't think i can even be bothered to record them back in.. probably just get a copy off btjunkie.org..

FUCK RECORDED MEDIA.. the digital revolution is the beat thing that happened to the music consumer / collector in a long time.. i'm really sorry the record shops are closing - that's sad.. but.. *shrugs*

 

[sufi]

(posting from a non-incriminated location - so nya nya bpi/riaa ip trackers )

yeah absolutely,
i think that the industry fosters a wilful blindness & ignorance about the benefits of digital meeja which it is failing to exploit

i listen pretty much exclusively to mp3, most music i listen to is unavailable in this country on legit releases - mostly african classics and arabic pop, mostly off forums and blogs but occasionally thru slsk, the industry doesn't provide an infrastructure that allows me to contribute financially to these artists, copyright doesnt exist in the same way in those areas which seem to work on a different financial model based on getting paid for performing rather than recording (as far as i know?), cds & mp3s serve only to extend the rep of the artists and that is a worthwhile job that they accomplish well,

a few artists are successfully exploiting this function of digital music which is actually an enormous advantage for the industry, which has allowed back street boys to rule in the middle east & access to shaggy across africa, just as distribution has been liberated, so the means of production has become egalitarian, the industry has lost it's grip on who can now record with minimal tech compared to a few years back

this is the last chance for the industry to milk it's crumbling monopoly, listeners should not be guilt tripped - the only cds i've actually purchased in the last few years are home produced street compilations, i consider that by boycotting the industry (just like mcD, starbux, tesco etc) i am flexing my meagre consumer power as best i can,

 

[sufi]

...Tech companies like Spotify, Apple, Google and Amazon are the new major labels...

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n01/derek-walmsley/brandenburgs-dream

seen the graph before, but I'd like to see that rippers' guide he mentions

 

[john eden]

I occasionally buy stuff off bandcamp these days.

 

[baboon2004]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n01/derek-walmsley/brandenburgs-dream

seen the graph before, but I'd like to see that rippers' guide he mentions

that was a great article. it's fascinating to pinpoint the individual choices and risks involved in such a transformational development as mass filesharing