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Permalink Reply by Jim Moulton on February 27, 2013 at 8:34am

Sorry bout that

  Jim

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Permalink Reply by Easy Ed on February 27, 2013 at 8:07am

Can't believe this forum topic continues to add new comments. Thought we beat the question to death. But I'd like to throw out some old thoughts to the newbies:

-You buy used CDs. You borrow from the library and upload them to your computer. As the only compensation the artist, composer, record label and producer get is on the first sale...why is this behavior any more or less ethical than file sharing? 

-There are so many places to get free and legal music if you just take the time to look around. Check out Noisetrade to start, and there are many  individual artist websites are also a treasure trove. Bandcamp and ReverbNation also have tons of music posted by the artists that are free for the taking (with an option to leave a tip if so desired). 

-The Spotify download should not be giving you a notice saying it contains a trojan horse. You may have attempted to do it off of a third party site. Here is the correct link: https://www.spotify.com/us/start/

-Starting in the next few weeks here in the US, folks who file share will start getting letters from their providers asking to please stop. There is a "six strike" ruling in place, that eventually will lead to them cutting the speed of your internet service if you fail to stop illegal downloading. Of course, if you do it at your local coffeehouse there will be no repercussions. But it's one step to help protect the creative properties of our artists and composers. 

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Permalink Reply by Randy S on February 27, 2013 at 3:50pm

do you know, will that be file sharing from live show sites, where artists OK such downlaods, like DimeADozen, bt-etree etc?  or other sites that are more infringement on recorded material?

 

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Permalink Reply by Frank Kocher on February 27, 2013 at 6:02pm

Well,  being a "Newbie" I wasn't saying that buying used is or isn't more ethical than file sharing. I thought the thread was about buying vs file sharing. I buy, mostly used and don't file share, and recommend buying used. That simple. Let non-newbies judge the ethics.

Sorry if that hits some sort of nerve. but I will make the point that there are hundreds, or thousands, of used record stores all over the country, operated by usually hard-working small business music lovers and record and CD collectors (several have been friends for years). When Bob Dylan or Springsteen sells a record or CD for $15, he gets his royalty. If it gets traded and resold, and a community of music enthusiasts are able to generate a cottage industry that breaks no laws by reselling it after the fact, I am all for it. It apparently bothers some people, I guess, like Apple, but I just don't see ethics getting dragged into it. To me it is unethical if Bob or Bruce never got their royalty, after Picasso sold a painting, he didn't get paid every time another art collector resold it.

BTW, thanks for the info about free sites. I have been steered to some other sites by friends, and I don't know what these sites will bear, but the ones I've looked into either for the most part aren't free. I tried a couple and ended up with a lot of spam in my Email, but no music. I have Semantec antiviral software that has alerted me twice trying to load Spotify.

Well, maybe we have beat the question to death after all. 

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Permalink Reply by Jim Moulton on February 28, 2013 at 2:27am

Frank,

     I get a lot of free CDS from music I review, not always stuff I like, depends where it comes from. I buy a lot of cheaper CD on Amazon and sometimes used too. I tape CDs sometimes , I have a nice cassette deck.  Don't think it hurts an artist if at least you buy a copy. They don't get that much percentage of the CD revenue anyway. However, putting a CD up on a filesharing site is wrong and I have been happy to see that the great majoriy of people here do not do any filesharing. BTW, Welcome to ND.

Jim

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Permalink Reply by Easy Ed on February 28, 2013 at 4:45am

@Frank: I'm just playing devil's advocate here when it comes to file sharing versus buying used, so please know it wasn't taking a personal shot toward you. The point is that in both cases, the artist gets compensated just one time. The argument against file sharing is that it can be accessed by an infinite amount of users. The argument for buying and selling used product is that it's a cottage industry that is run by nice people and music lovers, and that it doesn't really hurt the artist. To me, that line of reasoning feels like a rationalization. (For the record, I don't file share and everything I listen to either is streamed through Spotify or Pandora, uploaded from a CD, or downloaded from either a legal and free site or purchased through an online e-tailer. And I like used CDs too.)

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Permalink Reply by Frank Kocher on February 28, 2013 at 1:11pm

Jim, thanks for the welcome. I get a stack of free CDs every month to review for the roots newspaper here in town, a lot of good music by local artists, and occasional dross. I don't even know the websites that offer free illegal file sharing, and from hearing from Ed and you, I am not the only one that buys used CDs (and vinyl). I buy new as well, two weeks ago a five-CD "Original Album Classic" set by the jazz-rock band Spirit, because it has cleaner sound and extra tracks above what I had, and only cost $18.

Ed, I think I get where you are coming from, too, except that I get the feeling that standing up for used record and CD stores may be viewed by some on this board as somehow screwing over the artists. For one thing, these places sell new music as well, and expand the audience of the artists to new listeners, who inevitably buy not only used but new records. I discovered several artists by finding a disc at a garage sale or used store, and ended up buying up much of their catalog after falling in love with the music. That's how I got into Jeff Healey, Chris Isaak, Little Feat, and others originally. I got Robert Plant "Now and Zen" used way back, and now have nine of his CDs, including picking up ""Mighty Rearranger" and "Band of Joy" new in the past couple of years.

You are right that I am relatively new to this site and maybe there is an overall philosophy here that any time music is made or sold, the artist (and probably the music company) should keep getting paid. I guess I will just have to learn such nuances with time, but not agree with them. I do completely agree with the opposition expressed here to illegal downloading and file sharing but don't think that used music stores need a rationalization.

 

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Permalink Reply by Michael Philips on March 15, 2013 at 6:51am

I posted this on the "Free Downloads Available Online" forum, but there's not much activity there, so I'm posting these links here too.

Here's a download from NPR of 100 songs by bands playing at this year's SXSW festival. It's available through April 1 2013 :

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/01/173275533/the-mix-the-austin-100

The music is mainly indie rock but there's some other stuff as well.

Here's NPR's site for free downloads of concerts they've recorded. All styles of music - jazz, folk, rock, electronica. The stuff I've listened to is very high quality.

http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=95800307&...;...

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