Downloading Music
I'm not really sure what to talk about for my first blog but since this weeks lecture is on music I thought I'd start there. I'm a frequent user of WinMX but lately I've been having a lot of trouble gettting many songs to start downloading. I've been using it for a while and usually don't have a problem, but with the more popular songs many just won't download and it takes heaps of attempts.
A friend of mine suggested that they could be putting up songs with anti-piracy software on them, so they won't download. (Is that possible?) Another friend said that because I use a wireless network that firewalls might interfere. But i can still download some other songs. I don't really know that much about it all so I'm a little stuck! Can anybody recommend another good downloader? Or can anybody explain why I'm having this problem?
Also what do you guys think of downloading? I think it's okay if it's just one song you're after, like you wouldn't buy the album because you only want one song. Also some songs are really hard to find in shops, so downloading is a good option. But it's not cool to download a whole album that you could otherwise buy instore.
But I find that I miss having heaps of cds to play. I like having stacks of them in a cd rack; they're cool to collect and usually have really neat covers with lyrics and photos which you obviously don't get when you download songs. However I've recently got an MP3 player so it's better to have MP3s or songs on the computer, rather than on cd. When I do buy cds I usually rip them down onto the computer to put them on my MP3 player. But it's so annoying when you buy cds that have copyright protection on them and so even though you've paid for them you cannot rip them down to put on an MP3 player!
Personally i think downloading is okay, but burning copies of cds is really not okay, especially when you're making another copy for a friend or someone who could actually buy it.
posted by Anonymous @ 10:49 am
9 comments
9 Comments:
I think the advent of p2p file sharing has been a good thing for bands that would not normally be able to get any sort of exposure before the technology was available, but i don't know whether i support it for niche music genres like drum and bass or breaks where its hard enough already to make money in the industry without having all your tunes being downloaded for free off the net..
Lately there has been a move to combat that though with digital downloads.. you can listen to a 30second sample of the tune and then buy it through sms or credit card :)
www.breakbeat.co.uk/digital
or
http://downloads.imorecords.com/
Limewire, or Bittorrents (not used for one song but the whole cd). Both work very well and easy to find the stuff you like. Remember, its only illegal to upload, downloading still isnt a crime in most places. Im fully behind P2P networks and the sharing process being in the dance music field, i find a lot of incredibly rare tracks that i otherwise would never be able to find, some really good stuff that gets me into new artsits and such. I share music for an artist that i represent, we have about 500 of his tracks up on the internet and it has really helped get is name out of chicago and into the rest of the world. (he has done sets over europe and ausi).
spivey, what sort of dance music do you produce? what software do you use? fruityloops? reason? i would be keen to hear some of your tunes :)
http://www.biggie.co.nz/editorial/articles/142/The-Digital-Generation-of-Music.html
^^ might be up your alley spivey :)
Im actully the Colorado promoter for www.JamesLauer.com and he does pretty much everything. In terms of the songs i make, i use Sony (big surprise there right?) Acid to produce all my clip tracks, mostly drum and bass, but all kinds of stuff, after three years of classes at my Uni i have yet to produce anything of any worth, but some funny stuff. I dont really get time to make pleasure music, mostly stuff to fill criteria.
Jen - there may be others I don't know of, but the pay per download sites you can use legally from within NZ include www.amplifier.co.nz (all kiwi music) and www.digirama.co.nz . Can't vouch for how good their catalogues are because I haven't scoured them in any depth and you'd probably find my tastes in music dire in any case.
Spivey - I think you may be putting on a slightly optimistic gloss when you say that downloading copyright material from P2P networks isn't illegal in most places. Sure, there's a big legal grey area but the industry is prosecuting end users now (not just those who upload). In any case, most people who download from P2P networks leave copyright files on their hard drives open for other users to share (either deliberately or unwittingly) and can therefore be considered 'uploaders'. I'm not finger-wagging about the rights and wrongs, just saying that I don't think people should imagine they have legal immunity just because they are downloading the odd track off Limewire.
what about coketunes? i think that just launched this week:
http://www.cokefridge.co.nz
Already has 500,000+songs available for download. Having trouble to get it working at the moment, maybe someone else will have better luck.
Hay , Jen in term of copyright-protected CD . the few I have come across that does not work in normal CD-ROM. I play through my CD-writer and use the CD copying software that came with my MP3 player . Creative MediaSoures and that seem to solve the problem! maybe it a software problem , and if you use the software that come with your MP3 player it tell the CD that it is for a legitimate copy for a MP3 player compare to just ripping to upload to the net.
For interims of the not being about to download song. it might be an issue of speed and the lags between you and the other users. if you have a low speed connection and are far away from the other user the lags might be too great that the connection just does not connected. and downloading does not start. it depends on what type of connection you using if your use dial-up, this might be the case.
But then there are companies or services out there That the music and Film industry use to try and combat that increas of people using file share program to download piracy song and movies. that that log into to P2P networks and full up the list of popular songs and movies with files that a complete empty files. or just display the image "Support the Troops , not the War" after spending hours downloading a movies. Just to clog up the networks so that the average users will give-up and go and buy the CD or go see the movie in the theatre.
Hey Luke, your right, they do leaves files on the drive that can be shared, so usally you have to know how to remove yourself from a shared network and download only to avoid this problem. The way the companies are going is doing file sweeps to check for users hosting large DBs full of music, they then find thier IP, talk to thier provider and issue the court orders. They cant find you if you just download in the sense that unless you download a huge amount of files to your computer that they can prove reside there after you download them, they cant press charges. You are still legally entitled to 24 hours with copyright music files that were legally copied in a manner other than distrabution. So thus, this makes it so that as long as they dont know you are holding onto all your music, your pretty much alright. So key term, dont get caught holding, and youll enjoy using. (ive spent some time with a litigator who informed me as to this process and what is legal and not for a couple states he said holds fairly good and true throughout the US. I have no clue about the international stand point on it, sorry!)
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