on-line music, MP3, copyrights, etc.

[Lefty]

Hi gang;
Here is but one of dozens of stories published almost daily on the music industry Vs internet/fileshareing/mp3.etc.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021004/ap_on_hi_te/internet_swapping_203.

I haven't really a dog in this fight yet as I've not yet played much with MP3 files, but I know at least one VERY large member here uses MP3 exlusively, and I'm sure the future of music storage will have to be digitally friendly.

I see logic on both sides of this david and golith battle but mostly I think the music industry does have the law, as it should, on their side but little ability to inforce their copyrights if they have to try and go after only the 'end user' in these cases. On the other hand trying to blame or use ISPs to enforce such laws seems equally silly. It would be like making the phone company responsible for any criminal use of their phone network, and requiring them to stop the bad guys from using their phones in planning their crimes.

Anyway I'm just interesed in what other AudioHeads (tm) think about this subject.

Lefty

 

[THOR]

MP3's rule!!! And if they charge a reasonable fee for me to DL what I want and then do with it what I want (burn to CD etc.) then I would be happy to pay for them. Wel.... any future ones I get

 

[thoots]

Lefty,

Well, I think the one main concept to keep in mind is how the record industry has been SCREWING us, its customers, pretty much ever since the Compact Disc medium came out and took over the market in terms of unit sales. Do you remember how much you paid for LP's back in the days before CD's? I can recall "Everything in the store for five bucks" sales back in the mid-to-late 1970's, whereupon my friend and I would head down on our bikes, and fill up backpacks with a dozen or more records apiece. But, when CD's came out, it was "new technology," and the price was set at MORE THAN TRIPLE of the best prices you could get LP's for.

Now, we are in days when consumers themselves can record their own albums with CD technology for pennies, yet the record companies still continue to sell their CD's for triple the price of LP's. If that industry wants to remain a "serial customer screwer," than I have zero sympathy regarding any "lost sales" due to digital file-swapping. I'd feel differently about that if I had a sense that the artists themselves have been getting a bigger piece of that tripled cost we've been paying, but I really don't get any gist that the record industry is treating its artists anywhere near that well. So, I say "SCREW THEM!" -- that's what they've been doing to us for the past two decades.

Seriously, though, I don't think the MP3 format will ever beat the CD format, unless enough of the young kiddies just never get the chance to hear true "high fidelity" and thus never get to comprehend the difference between CD and MP3 sound quality. The MP3 format is a lossy compression one -- it compresses the sound by throwing out part of the sound, hopefully part of the sound that the human mind won't pay much attention to. However, I believe you can tell the difference, even with high-bitrate MP3 files. Some of the "intangibles" of sound are what get lost -- the things that create "imaging" and the absolute clarity that makes us cherish one recording as "sounding better" than another are often what you miss when you have the music in the MP3 format.

I have always used downloaded MP3 files in the same way I used FM radio in the past -- I would hear new music, and go out and buy CD's of the music I liked. However, since my "broadband cable" provider decided to give me one-third the "broadband" back when AT&T weaseled out of their contract with @Home, it has made downloading MP3 files a considerably more tedious task, and I have done very little of it since then. The end result has been that I haven't bought nearly as many CD's since I stopped downloading MP3 files, since I haven't been hearing much new music. And, ultimately, it is in this kind of concept where the record industry once again misses the whole point, to its detriment. Luckily, many artists have found in the MP3 format an avenue to sell directly to the customer, and I certainly encourage that relationship. Seems to me the world just might be a better place if the record industry just crashed and burned, and we all had to start over from scratch after a great, big reality check!

 

[THOR]

I remember when the members of the pop group TLC filed for bankruptcy and everyone was like ???? WTF how can you file for bankruptcy? You just sold like 4 million records?

Thats when I heard one of the group members say that the three of them got $1.00 of every alblum sold, not one dollar a piece, one dollar to split between the 3 of them, that's 33 cents a piece

 

[AudioLancelot]

Just pondering

I know I am going to start something here ...since we are such a congenial bunch here ...can't even make a regional jab without slighting somebody...but any of you MP3 guys ever consider stand alone CD recorders and quality tuners? The equipment used by broadcast stations are the equal if not better than our own. The signal is analog and yes I record in analog not digital...you have control of that. Those of us in Southern Ontario are lucky with the diversity in commercial and university stations. Several broadcast vinyl live. Give me a quality analog FM or even TV broadcast any day. I thank AU and AK for giving me the audio direction and knowlege for vintage quality motivating me to read and investigate further in these directions.

Explain to me the worthiness of MP3? I confess I am ignorant to MP3...maybe a Neanderthal here. Have I just fell off the rutabaga truck ( called a Swede turnip or just turnip in Canada btw..not your southern turnip..different species ) and need to be struck by lightning while riding a donkey on my way to Bethleham, PA?

I hope to improve even further on the recordings with my new vintage DBX 3BX Series III expander acquisition.

Dennis

 

[THOR]

I can get any song and I mean just about any song at any time, I have never not been able to get a requested song, we are partying (this happens every time) and someone will say hey do you have ??????? I will look and say "no but I will in two minutes" jump on Kazaa do a search and average DL is 2 mins or less and then I play their song for them, perhaps one they haven't heard since they were a kid and they are amazed and grateful. Of course they are FREE which is a big bonus, well perhaps not free I pay $50 a month for DSL mostly just so I can DL songs. The biggest bonus to me is that my playlist is about 1,800 songs long and they are mostly hits and good songs so I can just let it play and not be flipping records or jogging the disc change button on large CD player. Perhaps the biggest benefit for me is the ability to instantly find any specific song I want in my list. The MP3 player on use on my comp, also free, has an easy search feature so that you find a song by simply typing in the artist or a few words of the song title.

 

[THOR]

I forgot to say that for me these benefits outweigh the "supposed" difference in quality between MP3's and CD's. I say supposed because as far as I can tell as long as you get an MP3 that was recorded good and is at 128kbps or higher I really can't tell any difference. Now since I got amps I can tell the difference with a badly recorded MP3 and a good one but I still say that as long as it was recorded right an MP3 is a great source for music. Soon I will buy a portable player and I will have my whole collection 1,800 + songs in a device about the size of a walkman and I can plug it into my car stereo or go to a buddies house plug it into his stereo and rock on.

 

[Thatch_Ear]

I personnally think all this controversy about MP3 and the music industry is a bunch of BS. I imagine most of the music is downloaded off of sites that are used to promote the products the record companies want to sell. Singers and bands have web sites and often their whole latest release is on there ready to listen to. If someone records it and puts it into a place that MP3 guys get their tunes, well you get my drift.
IMO there ought to be a limited first release at say $10 to $12 for those that are collecters and then a large release at $5 or $6. The 1st release would pay for studio time, the artists can still get their $1 per disc and the retailer and record company can each get $2.
My $$ are too slim to spend $40 on a double SACD and get it home and find out I don't like it.
Fortunatly Best Buy marked Roger Waters' In The Flesh at $17 and I insisted they sell it to me for that. $38 plus tax my butt!

 

[jobrewer1983]

Hi gang;
Here is but one of dozens of stories published almost daily on the music industry Vs internet/fileshareing/mp3.etc.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021004/ap_on_hi_te/internet_swapping_203.

I haven't really a dog in this fight yet as I've not yet played much with MP3 files, but I know at least one VERY large member here uses MP3 exlusively, and I'm sure the future of music storage will have to be digitally friendly.

I see logic on both sides of this david and golith battle but mostly I think the music industry does have the law, as it should, on their side but little ability to inforce their copyrights if they have to try and go after only the 'end user' in these cases. On the other hand trying to blame or use ISPs to enforce such laws seems equally silly. It would be like making the phone company responsible for any criminal use of their phone network, and requiring them to stop the bad guys from using their phones in planning their crimes.

Anyway I'm just interesed in what other AudioHeads (tm) think about this subject.

Lefty

Almost 20 years now, and?

 

[Dingman]

and...
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
They were all wrong.