Download fever

Smaller bands tend not to make that much money from CD sales (there are always exceptions, but it's generally true) so if you want to support the likes of Pendragon you're probably better going to a gig and buying a t shirt (and if you want to buy a CD, buy it directly from the band themselves). The bootlegging which hits artists is the proliferation of mass produced cheap copies, which home downloaders aren't generally involved with.

My own take on downloading is that, in the case of new or unfamiliar artists, it allows me to try before I buy - and if I like the music I always buy a legitimate copy because there's always some loss of quality with MP3 files, plus I like to have the information in the packaging.

I also have no qualms about using downloading to replace albums that I bought in another format when they were first released - especially those which weren't that great to start off with. In the case of albums like More or Obscured by Clouds I resent paying full price for a second rate 30 year old album. After all, CD reissues represent almost pure profit for the music industry (production costs are pretty minimal and there's no guarantee that any money will actually reach the artist).

Remember those warnings that home taping was killing music? This is the same idiocy repeating itself. The emergence of the CD format in the 80s gave the music industry a cash bonanza that defies belief. This current furore is really about major corporations blaming consumers for not making them even more obscenely wealthy than they already are.

Trouserpress wrote: jiggajake wrote: soulseeks better cause you can download whole cds And any downloads you do do are from specific users who you can communicate with. There's also an (ocassionally) lively progressive rock chat room where users swap recommendations and discuss albums. Oh, and the search facility's better. And other reasons that I can't think of off hand. It's just generally better - this is coming from someone who used Win MX for about a year.

You can download whole CDs with WinMX, you also download from specific users and you can communicate with them! So thats the same then,

Search fascility better? I don't know yet, but didn't like what I saw! I'll try it though!

soulseeks better cause you can download whole cds

Trouserpress wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Trouserpress wrote: sonic_assassin wrote: My fav P2P is WinMX, btw. Try Soulseek. It's about 10000% better than Win MX. Huh, WinMX is absolutely free though! ...so's Soulseek. What's yer point, Snowy?

When i tried soulseek, they wanted a monthly subscription!

Edit....ha! I've been trying the wrong soulseek, I tried ages ago, when you mentioned it, but thre's another one you pay for!!!!

Anyway WinMX is still better! Or should I ask, in what way is soulseek better?

Trouserpress wrote: sonic_assassin wrote: My fav P2P is WinMX, btw. Try Soulseek. It's about 10000% better than Win MX.

Huh, WinMX is absolutely free though!

I would say 70% of the bands i listen to, i litsen to because of downloading. And then i buy merchendise, go to concerts( if their still alive) and buy cds and dvds.

I did the math one time to figure out how much money was spent by me directly, or inderectly( i told freinds and such) on dream theater stuff. Its over $600! so they cannot complain that i have downloaded half of their catalouge, cause if i didnt do that, they would have non of that money.

Bands, well at least good bands, are making more money because of downloading, as i just previously showed you.

so donwload away!