*puts on thinking face*

<_<

i was watching newsround (don't ask)

and it was about downloading songs onto your 'omputer.
i don't do this (too bloody hard and stoopid) but i was wondering if anyone did, and what they tink of it. i like cds, with the cover an' all. like the cure.

x j x

As for as subscription services go, I'm not interested in them at all. It's just as cheap to buy the album as it to download it, and with downloads you don't get covers, lyrics, etc.

Up until about 18 months ago I was a farely frequent user of file sharing - mainly Audiogalaxy. It was extremely easy to use and you could just set it up, tell it which songs you wanted, and let it run - simple. I often used it to see if I liked the bands that other people liked, sometimes I would go out and buy the albums, though I admit I didn't buy them all the time. I know it's wrong and I should have done, and I can't condone what I did. At the same time though, Audiogalaxy introduced me to bands that I'd never have dreamed of listening to, and as a result I own albums by Linus Of Hollywood, and The Mello Cads. These small American artists would never have had my business without Audiogalaxy.

When Audiogalaxy shut I moved away from file sharing, too much spy-ware and viruses for me to risk it now, and since I'm older I have more money than I used to. I do make sure i bu all my music online, to get the cheapest deals.

Record companies are missing the point though. Audiogalaxy had rare tracks that you can't purchase any more. I downloaded rare b-sides from deleted singles, and scores of bootleg tracks from gigs, as well as legitimate demos that bands I like had made available to the public. These were impossible to purchase, and not available to download from any other source - where's the harm in that?

I also got mp3s of old tracks I own on cassette or vinyl. Have you ever tried to copy a vinyl to mp3? I did it with Part Of My Life by Silver Sun, but it doesn't sound half as clear as the vinyl does. I wish I could have found a clear copy on Audiogalaxy, but it was never there. The record companies will have us believe that is illegal. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I listen to all my music on mp3. Every CD I purchase, I rip immediately and integrate it into my collection to create customised playlists. Is that wrong? The new Fountains Of Wayne album has copy protection. Every mp3 will skip after 9 seconds. It's not much, but it spoils my enjoyment of the album. I have never to shared my files with other people, though mainly because I have terrible bandwidth and it would slow my downloads. Nobody will ever get a copy of my Fountains Of Wayne album, but I can't enjoy it as I'd like.

That's my rant, to summarise, any legitimate file sharing service should include free demos and live tracks, and should be a lot cheaper. And copy protection in CDs is the most frustrating thing I've encountered in a long time.

Wow, I didn't realise I'd written that much!

I got the Fountains of Wayne album from the States (or rather, my parents did) and that didn't have the protection on it. The whole 'copy protection' rant is for another time I think.

I'm not into depriving artists of money, and I've downloaded only three albums ever - the most recent efforts from Blur, Radiohead and Stereophonics. This led to me buying the first two and realising what I had suspected of the third - that they hadn't gotten back to the quality of the first album (which is, honest, very good). I deleted the files of all three.

However, I make lots of compilations for myself and friends, and occasionally if I really want to find a track for one but wouldn't want the album, I'll look for it on the net.

Controversially though, I think Metallica were misunderstood on the whole issue. People said "they have all the money they could need anyway". Well, absolutely right. So their argument could hardly be that they were fighting it so they could eat. But the guy who started Napster was every bit as much a capitalist as any band member you could name. Their point was over who had the right to distribute music. Unfortunately, they approached it in a very bad way - targeting the fans as much as the system.

There are so many facets to this - new acts can use the net to get people to hear their stuff. If people like it, the next step is going to the gig, and then hopefully buying their albums. Think about the guy from 39 Seconds (can't remember the name of his new band) giving us a link to listen to his stuff.

So... the whole fact that we CAN download, I like. There are lots of good things we can do as a result... but I do think ripping off entire albums with the intent to keep the files and never buy it can't be right. The public can't be arbiters of which artists can afford for us to do it and which can't. The vast majority of musicians are nowhere as rich as you might think. Take a look at this: http://www.negativland.com/albini

There's my few pence.

I've never downloaded any music from the net - I just don't have the patience! But I basically agree with what's already been said - I'd be downloading stuff that I couldn't find anywhere else, or as a taster of something that I've read about. If I like it, I'll buy the single or the album; if I don't, I won't, simple as that.

It's very similar to hearing a track on the radio and thinking "yeah, I quite like that" or "no, but maybe the next single is better". If it grabs me by the short 'n' curlies, I'll be making a trip to my local record store. Or if a friend is raving about something, I'll borrow the CD at some point, to test the whole thing out. I've lost count of the number of albums I've bought like this.

The record industry need people to hear the music, and bands want people to - this is just the 21st century way of doing it.

I generally download live MP3s of my favourite bands if they're available, you get some good free stuff from certain places.

Though if I want an album, I'll buy it or it'll be added to my mental neverending "to buy" list...

Yep, should have mentioned that. I do download lots of gigs from the Internet, but they're always by artists whose stuff I buy anyway, and I'd never do it as an alternative to their studio CDs.

Some other recommended guilt-free downloading:

www.weezer.ca has all the demos that Weezer put together for their 5th album but have now scrapped. This is a total of 30 tracks (if you just count the latest version of each) and all bar about one should fit on a single CD. The band themselves released these initially.

www.3coloursred.co.uk allows you to download all of their singles and B-sides.

I do download alot of LIVE music & am proud of it.

I buy CD's only for artists that I adore cos I want them to make the sale etc

Hmm. I tend to download a couple of tracks by a band I don't know, and if I like them, I go and buy an album. That's the best way I think, because then I can see if I actually like their music before buying a whole album. Gah, is this like my 1st serious post? Can't be having that!

nooo! lauren!!!

*must... make .... random.... thread...... powers... failing...

Don't worry. It won't happen again