Music download sites
Discussion
Try Kazaa lite. No spyware & popups'n stuff. I still think WinMX is a bit better on the music side but very often you have to wait forever for a download. Look here for URLs, downloads etc.: www.zeropaid.com
agent006 said:
cue someone galloping in on their high horse carping on about how downloading is theft etc etc blah blah.
Well it is
Although the amount Micro$oft charge for Office, is enough to justify a little software piracy....
With music, if the record companies weren't so greedy, and stuff was cheaper, more people would be inclined to buy. 3.99 for a CD single (often with only remixes of the same song) is criminal.
Sparks
Edited to add : I can't help, as I don't download music. Will be using Apple's 99c download once it comes to the UK though.
>> Edited by Sparks on Thursday 24th July 08:56
While I agree it is still stealing it is somewhat different to car theft!
I buy a car, you steal it, I lose car!
I buy some music, you copy it, I still have the music.
You do not steal a car by duplicating it do you?
How money does a writer/performer and/or record company need to make a reasonable profit?
How about a system where the first 10,000 copies or so are sold at a reasonable price to meet the break even point and then discount any more production to give a 10% profit (rather than the 50% they get now).
I buy a car, you steal it, I lose car!
I buy some music, you copy it, I still have the music.
You do not steal a car by duplicating it do you?
How money does a writer/performer and/or record company need to make a reasonable profit?
How about a system where the first 10,000 copies or so are sold at a reasonable price to meet the break even point and then discount any more production to give a 10% profit (rather than the 50% they get now).
Maybe if the music companies didn't take the piss with the price and the quality of music was better, we'd all buy more CD's
As it is, I download music, and if I like it I buy the CD.
£14-16 for something that costs less than £1 to produce? I doubt the artists see as much of that as the greedy record companies.
As it is, I download music, and if I like it I buy the CD.
£14-16 for something that costs less than £1 to produce? I doubt the artists see as much of that as the greedy record companies.
The thing is though a lot of the music I download I wouldn't pay for, if I couldn't get it for free I would live without it.
And I can honestly say I have bought many CD's as a result of liking the music I have downloaded
As for software piracy, well the thing is what many companys won't tell you is that their not all that much against it and in many cases it helped make their company what it is today.
For example Macromedia Flash has always been very easy to crack, because of this many people downloaded it, learnt to use it and used flash for their websites forcing more people to get the player. Now that almost everyone has the flash player most web developers will have a (licenced at a cost of £400+) copy of flash.
If it wasn't for the fact that flash was so easy to pirate very few people would have taken the risk when no-one had the plugin needed to view flash files to pay a fortune to register and train for flash.
And I can honestly say I have bought many CD's as a result of liking the music I have downloaded
As for software piracy, well the thing is what many companys won't tell you is that their not all that much against it and in many cases it helped make their company what it is today.
For example Macromedia Flash has always been very easy to crack, because of this many people downloaded it, learnt to use it and used flash for their websites forcing more people to get the player. Now that almost everyone has the flash player most web developers will have a (licenced at a cost of £400+) copy of flash.
If it wasn't for the fact that flash was so easy to pirate very few people would have taken the risk when no-one had the plugin needed to view flash files to pay a fortune to register and train for flash.
Don't forget that while a CD itself might cost less than £1 to produce, there are other up front costs that went into it's creation.
Studio time: think a grand a day, and you're pretty much there.
Engineer time: think > £500 a day - and you'll need as many, probably more (mixing) of these than you had days in the studio.
Mastering: probably a grand
Artwork design: some money
And that < £1 per CD probably doesn't include the cost of printing the artwork.
So my band got it's studio time for free (because we know them), but with all the other costs involved, it's cost us a smidge over £4000 to make 500 CDs. If I find our stuff on Kazaa I will be mightily f**king pissed off, especially as we're selling these CDs at only a small amount over cost.
Admittedly, we're not at the record industry end of things, but it does point out that it's not the bare cost of a CD that's at stake if you rip off music, especially that of new small artists on independant labels. If they're to try and record and promote (oops, more money there) new artists they do need to be sure of covering these large up-front costs, although I'd be the first to admit that £16-£20 a CD is taking the piss - just look at US prices.
As we'd like to encourage record companies to actually try promoting some real bands with real music and so on, it might be worth not pissing them off /too/ much.
(That said: the music industry does need to take a more modern view of online music: the 99c Apple Music Store looks great for a start. Also, allowing one or two songs from an album for free download, along with reasonably priced CD singles with interesting B sides, might prove to be a good pull for album sales. IMHO.)
>> Edited by Marshy on Thursday 24th July 17:52
Studio time: think a grand a day, and you're pretty much there.
Engineer time: think > £500 a day - and you'll need as many, probably more (mixing) of these than you had days in the studio.
Mastering: probably a grand
Artwork design: some money
And that < £1 per CD probably doesn't include the cost of printing the artwork.
So my band got it's studio time for free (because we know them), but with all the other costs involved, it's cost us a smidge over £4000 to make 500 CDs. If I find our stuff on Kazaa I will be mightily f**king pissed off, especially as we're selling these CDs at only a small amount over cost.
Admittedly, we're not at the record industry end of things, but it does point out that it's not the bare cost of a CD that's at stake if you rip off music, especially that of new small artists on independant labels. If they're to try and record and promote (oops, more money there) new artists they do need to be sure of covering these large up-front costs, although I'd be the first to admit that £16-£20 a CD is taking the piss - just look at US prices.
As we'd like to encourage record companies to actually try promoting some real bands with real music and so on, it might be worth not pissing them off /too/ much.
(That said: the music industry does need to take a more modern view of online music: the 99c Apple Music Store looks great for a start. Also, allowing one or two songs from an album for free download, along with reasonably priced CD singles with interesting B sides, might prove to be a good pull for album sales. IMHO.)
>> Edited by Marshy on Thursday 24th July 17:52
Marshy said:
If I find our stuff on Kazaa I will be mightily f**king pissed off, especially as we're selling these CDs at only a small amount over cost.
>> Edited by Marshy on Thursday 24th July 17:52
My point exactly, also there are scales of economy involved, if you sell 500,000 albums, it still only cost you the same to produce it.
I would like to see low quality versions avilable on the internet, if you like it, you can buy the CD. I currently get my CD's from places like www.cd-wow.com for £8, I consider this a fair price and buy 4-5 CD's a month. If they sold them for that price in HMV and Virgin, you'd see CD sales go through the roof.
The stuff you get off the internet is usually low quality anyway. (And MP3's are too low quality to play in my car or at home and enjoy anyway)
I didnt want to turn this thread into another morals argument!
Oh well, here is my 2p's worth:
I do download music but it has not affected what I buy. I still buy a lot of CD's and I often download a song on a spur of the moment descision and if I like it I'll buy the album or a compliation with it on. Since I started using audiogalaxy years ago my music tastes are so much more diverse.
I dont download software because I dont want to run a program with things I dont want in it on my PC.
Oh well, here is my 2p's worth:
I do download music but it has not affected what I buy. I still buy a lot of CD's and I often download a song on a spur of the moment descision and if I like it I'll buy the album or a compliation with it on. Since I started using audiogalaxy years ago my music tastes are so much more diverse.
I dont download software because I dont want to run a program with things I dont want in it on my PC.
Sligh detour, but in the same vein .....
If I've loaded all my CD's (not that many) onto a PC as MP3's (128kps), whats the best way to get them back onto CD's that can be played in any player, not as MP3's - only way I can think of to manufacture my own compilation CDs without having to shuffle though them physically ............
Cheers
If I've loaded all my CD's (not that many) onto a PC as MP3's (128kps), whats the best way to get them back onto CD's that can be played in any player, not as MP3's - only way I can think of to manufacture my own compilation CDs without having to shuffle though them physically ............
Cheers
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