iTunes Music Store alternative for us.

hehehe, Kazaa still rocks, hell, you can download a whole album in like 15 or 20 mins...sweet...

hunting down stuff on Kazaa only to find errors and incomplete tracks

Emule might be worth trying, fakes are rare, and when there is one it is marked as fake most of the time. Also you've got the ability to download cds in one big archive(zip/rar) file.
Seriously this is the only way to get music on the internet until commercial music services get a little better. Emusic can improve a lot, and itunes is just too expensive. 1$/song -> Better buy the Cd, at least you get a package and better quality for the same price...

My 2 cents,

pierugg

i also recommend emusic. wonderful service! you've got to be willing to try new stuff though. great site if you like jazz, blues, electronic, and indie music.

another site i have heard about but have never tried is weblisten (http://www.weblisten.com). i think i'll eventually try it out but i haven't got around to it yet. it has more of the mainstream stuff.

anyone used allofmp3.com (http://www.allofmp3.com)?
it cost $0.01 per megabyte and you can pick basically any bitrate and format and their system encodes it and spits it back out to you. it's a russian web site, and that made me feel it was a little shady, but apparently it is very legal and everything. anyone know if the downloads are fast and if they have good id3 tags?

Looked that way to me too Bill. But, it'd be tough to prosecute the US downloaders.

Time to take the Russian Federation to court I guess.

When is the RIAA going to realize that they need to get off the price/unit model and start focusing on a volume model (i.e. many songs for cheaper price).

Adam

Originally posted by ashawley
Looked that way to me too Bill. But, it'd be tough to prosecute the US downloaders.

Time to take the Russian Federation to court I guess.

When is the RIAA going to realize that they need to get off the price/unit model and start focusing on a volume model (i.e. many songs for cheaper price).

Adam

What it is going to take? Well, my quess is a combination of two things, first, piracy is going to have to get a lot worse than it is now. It's going to have to get so bad that the RIAA is suing people right and left and then hopefully they'll be such a backlash against them that'll they'll see that they will have to come up with a model to sell music online at a reasonable price. If this doesn't happen then the major labels will quickly go out of business.

Seriously, does anyone actually believe that piracy is causing the major labels to lose money, or are they actually losing it because they are releasing crap? All of the music I buy is from indie bands or music from Japan, which still funds the major labels, but thankfully I am an unknown blip to them.

Normally I don't support piracy, but I feel that it is the only way to convince the major labels to change their ways. Plus, does anyone even think the RIAA and the major labels even want to sell music online? No, they don't. They really think the renting of music on a monthly basis is the way to go.

So, flame me if you want to, but the RIAA is a bunch of clueless idiots.

Bill McNair

Originally posted by SouthsideIrish

Seriously, does anyone actually believe that piracy is causing the major labels to lose money, or are they actually losing it because they are releasing crap? All of the music I buy is from indie bands or music from Japan, which still funds the major labels, but thankfully I am an unknown blip to them.

Normally I don't support piracy, but I feel that it is the only way to convince the major labels to change their ways. Plus, does anyone even think the RIAA and the major labels even want to sell music online? No, they don't. They really think the renting of music on a monthly basis is the way to go.

So, flame me if you want to, but the RIAA is a bunch of clueless idiots.

Bill McNair

there it is. Someone else with the same point of view as I have. The record industry is losing money because we are all fed up with buying a new cd because of 1 single and finding out the rest of the cd is crap. I have God knows how many cds like that.

There are no bands anymore with any staying power. Most bands will hit it big on album 1, album 2 is mediocre, and by album 3 they are already hocking their "greatest hits." If the RIAA would put their money where their mouth is, why not allow us to return a cd we dont like? Most other companies do that. Dont like the merchandise?? Take if back.

And lastly, their numbers for money lost is way oveblown. 95% of the stuff I download I would NEVER buy anyway. I may download a cd from a group I have only a mild interest in, listen 2 or 3 times, and thats it. So if I wouldnt have bought the cd in the first place, how are they losing money on it?

Originally posted by VoodooDaddy
mirc.

BTW, kazza is horrible. I wont even allow that piece of garbage on my computer.

And mirc is never mentioned on any of the RIAA hit lists because its decentralized. And furthermore, they are going after the "gross violators", those sharing many, many files. I never share cause my upload, even on a cable connection, is lousy. My max upload is 15k.

unfortunately in 2001 operation buchaneer targeted piracy groups, and the feds made several busts. MiRC is one of the main mediums being watched for illegal trading of copyrighted material. Although the threat isnt much, they are idling in channels and watching users.

KaZzaa is amazing for singles, but that's it. p2p in general is garbage.

Originally posted by stasyna
unfortunately in 2001 operation buchaneer targeted piracy groups, and the feds made several busts. MiRC is one of the main mediums being watched for illegal trading of copyrighted material. Although the threat isnt much, they are idling in channels and watching users.

KaZzaa is amazing for singles, but that's it. p2p in general is garbage.

you have any link on mirc under watch?? Ive NEVER seen mirc mentioned in any p2p piracy articles, and I read new ones almost on a daily basis.

Originally posted by SouthsideIrish
Seriously, does anyone actually believe that piracy is causing the major labels to lose money, or are they actually losing it because they are releasing crap?

So true. I agree with you on this 100%.

Even the Finnish media is completely on the recording industry's leash, publishing articles with RIAA stats and calculations - nobody has the sense to do their own investigations and conclusions.

I'll download all the bling bling rap and R&B bieetch music I want. It's all use-it-and-lose-it-music, disposable crap, which I would never pay any money for. It's simply not worth it. I will however buy everything I can from Stones Throw and all the other good labels. I will pay $30 for that 10 year old hard to find Kurious CD ("Constipated Monkey") simply because I want it, even if it's available for download on Soulseek or some other P2P network.

To the major labels: Stop releasing crap, lower prices (in Europe too!), and stop complaining.