| |
 |
|
|
Hobby Forum Index » Music - Hip Hop » Long rant about downloading and stuff....
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Sarah... |
 Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:27 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Cuz I'm bored. Long, boring, and been done to death already. And
what rant is complete without some sweeing generalisations? :)
I owe almost everything I know about hip-hop to the internet. Before
I had regular access, circa 1999, my knowledge was limited to around
20 artists – 2Pac, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, etc – all the usual suspects.
Living in a small industrial town that is still to this day 98% white
– albeit overwhelmingly working class – local radio offered little
enlightenment, and I didn’t even realise that magazines entirely
devoted to hip-hop, both American and British, existed at all. So I’m
incredibly grateful for the internet, it did me a massive favour in
feeding something that I knew I was passionate about, but previously
had little opportunity to explore.
I’m not sure how I feel about the internet “these days”, though. A
lot has happened to it in, say, the last 5-6 years. I still value it
as an incredibly useful tool for the music lover – probably above all
others. There are some incredible blogs out there, and opportunities
to sample music are unprecedented – on the legal tip, I mean. Of
course illegal access to content knows no bounds, but that comes with
it’s own problems, that have probably been discussed to death.
Also, internet shopping for music is amazing. Whilst I buy a lot of
stuff in stores just because I like the act of doing so and treat it
as a hobby (though it requires taking a special trip out of town), I
still get a thrill out of buying online too. Whether it’s stocking up
my Amazon cart with bargain buys, or bidding on some eBay rarity that
I’ve been looking for for years, I get an adrenaline rush.
Then there’s out-of-print stuff (which, generally, I will download on
the sneak tip, especially if it’s unobtainable second-hand, or if the
vendor is being plain silly with prices). Albums I never thought I’d
get to hear – in some cases never knew even existed – are available at
the click of a button, and I love it.
Plus all the goodness on YouTube, etc. etc.
I love the internet and wouldn’t give it up for anything, but I do
think we’re spoilt. I feel like I’m “flogging a dead horse” going
back to the illegal downloading argument, but I really do think it’s
wrong. To me, there are two main problems with it:
Problem #1: It’s stealing. Arguments about “they have enough money
anyway”, “CD prices are too high” and “the quality has declined!”
abound, but they don’t cut it for me. CD prices are at an all-time
low. Walk into any music store right now and I bet there’s a massive
“summer sale” going on. Recent deals I’ve seen include classic albums
for £4-5, 3 CDs for £15-20, chart CDs for under £8, etc. Online
prices are often even better. I have in my collection albums that
I’ve paid literally pennies for.
So I don’t buy the “I can’t afford it” argument. If you can’t afford
it, then consider it a luxury beyond your means. I can’t afford a
Lexus, so I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll probably
never have one. The difference being that you CAN access vast
quantities of music entirely for free and legally – it’s one of very
few things in this life that are available for free. Many illegal
downloaders want to have their cake and eat it too.
And if the quality of albums has declined (a circular argument in
which artists and downloaders continually blame each other), then why
download them at all? As aforementioned, there are plenty of
opportunities to make your mind up as to whether or not something is
worth purchasing/listening to in full, without resorting to what
essentially amounts to theft. I know people who download, listen to,
burn, and re-distribute entire albums that they claim are “rubbish
anyway”. Why bother?!
I’d like to see an experiment in which illegal downloading completely
ceased for, say, two years. That’d give artists the chance to catch
up and make some new shit for us to judge – in exchange for a nominal
fee, a semi-guaranteed minimum income for each album, say. Fairtrade
for hip-hop! Lol. Seriously, though, although it’d never happen,
it’d put paid to the never-ending cycle of artists vs ‘fans’ bitching
about the supposed decline in hip-hop’s quality.
Problem #2: Albums leak so damn early! So many times I’ve been
regarded as incredibly out of date and rather quaint for actually
waiting for the store date. Sometimes as many as 3 months (even
longer?) can pass in between the leak date and the store date. That
pisses me off because there’s little dialogue between hip-hop fans
anymore, at least between those who download and those who don’t.
Take for example Nas’ latest album – heads done made their mind up two
or three weeks ago, before it was released, and now the discussion is
over. It’s “so last month”. Albums are throwaway, regardless of
quality. It’s no wonder magazines are going down the pan – wtf are
they supposed to write about, that we don’t know already?
On that note, does anyone else think there’s much less tolerance for
weak tracks on albums? The bar seems to be set might higher.
Understandable, since music is an artform that should, logically,
improve upon itself constantly. We SHOULD push our artists and call
them out when they fall seriously foul (i.e. someone like Nas). But
nowadays, one or two weak tracks can lead to your album being fucking
dogged. There’s even a new column in HHC magazine called “recent
albums re-formatted for your ipod”, in which the reader is instructed
which tracks to toss in the recycle bin, to be omitted from future
listens.
There are older, pre-internet age albums that have some really awful
tracks on them, yet the entire album package is still revered to the
point of damn-near masturbation over them.
I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered about illegal downloading (after
all, it’s not MY pocket being hurt, so what business do I have?) if
there was still decent dialogue in real life, online, and in
publications. Perhaps bootleggers could have the grace to hold onto
their swag until the store date so the rest of us could catch up, and
perhaps ‘fans’ could also be a little more forgiving. Whatever
happened to the concept of music “growing on you”, and our perceptions
of it changing over time, different life periods, etc.? Instead of
being left to rot on some CD-R lost under your car seat.
Granted, some artists DO need to wake the fuck up and step their game
up. But the problem is, quality of music doesn’t equate to number of
sales anyway, ‘cos so few downloaders actually do what they say and
eventually buy stuff they like.
That’s my rant over with  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Tim Schnetgoeke... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:15 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
On Jul 21, 12:27 pm, Sarah <madniceb... at (no spam) googlemail.com> wrote:
Quote: On that note, does anyone else think there’s much less tolerance for
weak tracks on albums? The bar seems to be set might higher.
since nobody listens to cds anymore, this affects the album format as
well. everything has become drag and drop. you don't have to get up
and push a button on your cd player to skip a track. just modify your
playlist and you're done. so, in a way, it's back to a jukebox full of
45s. i guess that albums will be less and less relevant as you can buy
individual mp3s. and those are not just the tracks that would have
been released as a 12". |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Sarah... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:36 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
On 21 Jul, 12:30, Luca <sirbumpalot-05... at (no spam) nurfuerspam.de> wrote:
Quote: Also, internet shopping for music is amazing. Whilst I buy a lot of
stuff in stores just because I like the act of doing so
Even though I want the record stores in my town to survive, shelling out
the rough equivalent of £11 / US$25 for a CD as opposed to US$10-14 when
ordering straight from ughh.com, it's a hard point to make for the shops
- especially since my budget pushes music purchases very much to the
bottom of the priorities.
There are no record stores here, so I feel no particular affinity to
any one method of purchase, other than the fact that I _enjoy_ digging
through physical products when I have the opportunity to do so. There
was one shop here about 10 years ago that bought in a bit of hip-hop.
It was pretty wack stuff - it's where I acquired my DMX collection
from - and the CDs were like £17 each, but that dried up when I bought
all the hip-hop stock and they didn't get more in. I was the only
person who ever seemed to shop there anyway!
Ultimately, especially if I'm making a large, pre-planned purchase of
many items, I buy from wherever is cheapest.
Quote:
I feel like I’m “flogging a dead horse” going
back to the illegal downloading argument, but I really do think it’s
wrong. To me, there are two main problems with it:
Problem #1: It’s stealing.
Well, technically, it's not. It's a breach of the owner's exclusive
right to sell and distribute, but it's not like I go into Nas' pocket
and take out $12. In other words, nobody has a material loss or loses
money they already made. It's more like a theoretical loss, a
non-earner, provided I would've bought the album eventually. Looking at
download numbers and going "man, this figure times $10 is what's missing
in my wallet" is just idiotic.
Yeah, I see your point. But its still a situation whereby millions of
people can theoretically 'own' a piece of music that only perhaps a
few thousand people actually bought. Though the product hasn't been
"stolen" in the traditional sense, but I'm guessing it's becoming
harder and harder to make a certain sum of money from a particular
album, which at one point would have been a sure thing. To use Nas
again, more people bought 'Nastradamus' than bought 'Hip-Hop Is
Dead'. Of course Nastradamus is a terrible album, undeserving of the
1m+ copies it sold, but that's besides the point. Nas's album sales
were once something he could solidly rely upon.
Quote:
Which takes me back to budget priorities. With the sheer quantity of
info on new and exciting music everywhere I want to know which of all
these are worth my money. So I "sample" them. Back in the day I'd spend
hours in the record shop, going through them track by track, and in the
end, somehow I'd often buy one that wasn't that good anyhow. One can't
always decide within minutes if an album stands the test of time.
So now, simply because I can, I DL them, so I can take my time.
And when payday comes, and there's something left for me to squander, I
go to my mental list of great stuff I've heard.
It's the "simply because I can" mindset that I take issue with. I
wonder if record companies and copyright enforcers _really_ started
cracking down on downloaders, how many people would still be like "cos
I can".
Quote:
Arguments about “they have enough money
anyway”, “CD prices are too high” and “the quality has declined!”
abound, but they don’t cut it for me. CD prices are at an all-time
low. Walk into any music store right now and I bet there’s a massive
“summer sale” going on.
Okay, sales are a different story, now. Sales may be good to
occasionally catch up on old stuff, but new material hardly goes to the
sale bin.
Most new CDs are less than £10. £12 is my upper in-store limit,
because I know I can get pretty much anything, old or new, for the
equivalent figure in dollars, making it much cheaper. Of course,
there's P&P charges to pay when you import from Amazon and the likes,
but it's usually fixed at around $6. That's not much, especially if
you're getting an obscure, imported CD for $20 all inclusive - often
much less. Though by no means obscure, I could import Nas' album
right now for $16, inc. P&P. That's not a lot of money, and I'm by NO
means rich. Less than £8 for an entertainment product that can
provide theoretically infinite hours of enjoyment is a pretty good
deal to me.
Quote:
So I don’t buy the “I can’t afford it” argument. If you can’t afford
it, then consider it a luxury beyond your means. I can’t afford a
Lexus, so I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll probably
never have one. The difference being that you CAN access vast
quantities of music entirely for free and legally –
Sorry, that's a silly argument.
You can't make a digital copy of a Lexus and drive it, so you're
comparing apples to oranges - or even worse.
And while I know and use lots of free and legal music sources, I don't
just keep to those. Period.
My choice is to either just forget about most music out there for the
next few years, or I try to keep up with what I may like so when the
time is ripe, I can take my first real pay and make some music shop and
me really happy. Because I haven't lived under a rock for the last
years, hence I know what I'll be buying.
When I was an undergrad, I can count on one hand how many CDs I bought
in those three years. I hated it, I felt like I was out of the loop,
but I soon caught up when I got a little money. I'm NOT trying to
sound holier than thou, but I really can do without vast quantities of
music if I can't afford it there and then. Keeping on top of a select
group of artists of whom you're an avid supporter (financially and
otherwise) is one thing - keeping copies of unbought music on your PC/
ipod/whatever for a number of years is another. If _YOU_ really are
going to buy it, then that's cool. I just wonder how many people
actually DO eventually buy music they promise they will (and still,
they keep hold of the mp3s..).
Love music though I do (and I really do), I consider it a luxury.
Quote:
And if the quality of albums has declined
I never said quality was going down. It may just be that, among a lot of
quality releases, there's also a lot of rubbish that sees the light of
day so one can't see the forest for all the trees. But that's why I take
my time to "evaluate" them. (See how I turned your argument in my favour? ;)
I’d like to see an experiment in which illegal downloading completely
ceased for, say, two years.
Underground cats trying to make a name for themselves may not actually
gain anything in such an experiment.
Underground artists who see downloading as a way of getting the
message out are a different matter. Downloading an album by an
obscure independent guy and then spreading the word can be positive,
since small-time independent artists _do_ value the handful of sales
that you might have personally drummed up through word-of-mouth.
However, these are also the cats who are most likely to simply give
away large samples of music, do cheap shows, and put together
mixtapes, etc. The legal complications that apply to "less willing"
artists (usually mainstream, but I'm guessing plenty of underground
cats, too). Downloading an album by someone like, say, Lil' Wayne is
a different matter. Primarily because 1) Turn on the radio and you'll
hear him anyway and 2) You already know what Lil' Wayne sounds like -
there's no "discovery" of a new artist for whom you can devote time
and energy into the word-of-mouth channel.
(and by 'you', I don't mean YOU specifically, Luca )
Quote:
That’d give artists the chance to catch
up and make some new shit for us to judge – in exchange for a nominal
fee, a semi-guaranteed minimum income for each album, say. Fairtrade
for hip-hop! Lol. Seriously, though, although it’d never happen,
Whenever I can, I buy an album straight from the artist, be it at a show
or off his website or something. Trying to make sure they get as much of
the money as possible.
Me too. Since it's possible to generate _reasonable_ hype for
yourself (shows, websites, etc.) and produce a studio-quality CD
album, with good quality visual artwork, etc., and charge a very
reasonable fee for your entertainment services, I've come to view
major labels as little more than massive hype machines. However, I
don't generally have the option to buy a CD from Jay-Z, Nas or Lil'
Wayne directly, so often the corporate middle-man is unavoidable. The
artists I listen to and support through sales are probably around 70%
major label and 30% independent.
Quote:
Problem #2: Albums leak so damn early!
Yeah, short attention span and a flood of albums coming out all the time
gives everyone a smaller piece of the audience's time cake, as it were.
I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered about illegal downloading (after
all, it’s not MY pocket being hurt, so what business do I have?) if
there was still decent dialogue in real life, online, and in
publications.
Dunno if an in-depth discussion of an album is still possible in today's
mags. At least if it's not already been hyped up or declared an instant
classic by someone who has the power invested in him. i.e. unless you
can put the title on the front page and know it'll make people buy the mag.
I know this guy *cough* who's sent me an album review once he'd written,
but it didn't fit into the mag he wrote it for. Apparently, magazine
budgets also decide what goes in and what's too long.
Yeah, course they do. Plus artist X's label is more likely to buy up
premium adspace if you review favourably, etc. etc.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Um Jammer NATTY... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:29 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Like all of us, I'm a bit on the fence about it as well.
Here's just one take on one aspect because I have to go to work soon:
I've been a record store junkie for damn near thirty years. I was
raised in record stores. At a good record store, when given the
option of buying the full price new CD or a cut out or promo for four
dollars cheaper... I always opt for the cheaper version. It has the
same media inside - just has a gold stamp or a cut on the cover. Why
not?
A store like Amoeba soundscans promos (you get less than half credit
through soundscan when you sell a 'used' copy.) Mom and pop stores
are supposed to keep immaculate records and send them to soundscan...
but rarely do. So... the artist gets neither money, nor sales by my
buying it. So why not just download it for even cheaper (i.e. free?)
To top it off.... especially in big chains, in big cities... the day a
new album drops the used bins are flooded with cutouts. Why? Because
Jive or Sony or Def Jam or whoever actually 'buy' copies to drive up
sales figures... and then send an intern into the chain store to sell
cartons of this new release to recoup at least some of the costs. If
the record compnies can cook the book this way (which I am sure robs
the artists of their pennies on the dollar somehow) than why should I
play fair???
i did like Kid Rock's little take on it, because I think he's not 100%
ironic.. I think he's saying "c'mon... if you can steal my music -
than go out and start a real consumer revolution!" I'm all for chain
store shoplifting in theory as well!
Here's the spot if you know not what I talk about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpCADfZD-eg |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Luca... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:30 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Sarah wrote:
Try as you may, I'm not buying the Saul-to-Paul conversion speech here. ;)
Quote: I owe almost everything I know about hip-hop to the internet.
Well, I had devoted myself to hip-hop music well before ca. 98/99, when
I first got on the net, but yeah, since then, I've learnt a whole lot
more about it, and, going by numbers alone, I've got to know a truckload
of artists that I've never read about or seen outside of blogs or
forums, and which I consider to be my favourite artists out there.
On the flipside, the time I usually spend on an average-to-good-quality
album has gone down significantly. Instead of bumping one album for half
a year, now it's more like two or three days, maybe two to three weeks.
- With exceptions, though.
Quote: Also, internet shopping for music is amazing. Whilst I buy a lot of
stuff in stores just because I like the act of doing so
Even though I want the record stores in my town to survive, shelling out
the rough equivalent of £11 / US$25 for a CD as opposed to US$10-14 when
ordering straight from ughh.com, it's a hard point to make for the shops
- especially since my budget pushes music purchases very much to the
bottom of the priorities.
Quote: I feel like I’m “flogging a dead horse” going
back to the illegal downloading argument, but I really do think it’s
wrong. To me, there are two main problems with it:
Problem #1: It’s stealing.
Well, technically, it's not. It's a breach of the owner's exclusive
right to sell and distribute, but it's not like I go into Nas' pocket
and take out $12. In other words, nobody has a material loss or loses
money they already made. It's more like a theoretical loss, a
non-earner, provided I would've bought the album eventually. Looking at
download numbers and going "man, this figure times $10 is what's missing
in my wallet" is just idiotic.
Which takes me back to budget priorities. With the sheer quantity of
info on new and exciting music everywhere I want to know which of all
these are worth my money. So I "sample" them. Back in the day I'd spend
hours in the record shop, going through them track by track, and in the
end, somehow I'd often buy one that wasn't that good anyhow. One can't
always decide within minutes if an album stands the test of time.
So now, simply because I can, I DL them, so I can take my time.
And when payday comes, and there's something left for me to squander, I
go to my mental list of great stuff I've heard.
Quote: Arguments about “they have enough money
anyway”, “CD prices are too high” and “the quality has declined!”
abound, but they don’t cut it for me. CD prices are at an all-time
low. Walk into any music store right now and I bet there’s a massive
“summer sale” going on.
Okay, sales are a different story, now. Sales may be good to
occasionally catch up on old stuff, but new material hardly goes to the
sale bin.
Quote: So I don’t buy the “I can’t afford it” argument. If you can’t afford
it, then consider it a luxury beyond your means. I can’t afford a
Lexus, so I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll probably
never have one. The difference being that you CAN access vast
quantities of music entirely for free and legally –
Sorry, that's a silly argument.
You can't make a digital copy of a Lexus and drive it, so you're
comparing apples to oranges - or even worse.
And while I know and use lots of free and legal music sources, I don't
just keep to those. Period.
My choice is to either just forget about most music out there for the
next few years, or I try to keep up with what I may like so when the
time is ripe, I can take my first real pay and make some music shop and
me really happy. Because I haven't lived under a rock for the last
years, hence I know what I'll be buying.
Quote: And if the quality of albums has declined
I never said quality was going down. It may just be that, among a lot of
quality releases, there's also a lot of rubbish that sees the light of
day so one can't see the forest for all the trees. But that's why I take
my time to "evaluate" them. (See how I turned your argument in my favour? ;)
Quote: I’d like to see an experiment in which illegal downloading completely
ceased for, say, two years.
Underground cats trying to make a name for themselves may not actually
gain anything in such an experiment.
Quote: That’d give artists the chance to catch
up and make some new shit for us to judge – in exchange for a nominal
fee, a semi-guaranteed minimum income for each album, say. Fairtrade
for hip-hop! Lol. Seriously, though, although it’d never happen,
Whenever I can, I buy an album straight from the artist, be it at a show
or off his website or something. Trying to make sure they get as much of
the money as possible.
Quote: Problem #2: Albums leak so damn early!
Yeah, short attention span and a flood of albums coming out all the time
gives everyone a smaller piece of the audience's time cake, as it were.
Quote: I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered about illegal downloading (after
all, it’s not MY pocket being hurt, so what business do I have?) if
there was still decent dialogue in real life, online, and in
publications.
Dunno if an in-depth discussion of an album is still possible in today's
mags. At least if it's not already been hyped up or declared an instant
classic by someone who has the power invested in him. i.e. unless you
can put the title on the front page and know it'll make people buy the mag.
I know this guy *cough* who's sent me an album review once he'd written,
but it didn't fit into the mag he wrote it for. Apparently, magazine
budgets also decide what goes in and what's too long.
Luca |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| mochaspresso... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:56 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
On Jul 21, 5:27 am, Sarah <madniceb... at (no spam) googlemail.com> wrote:
Quote:
I love the internet and wouldn’t give it up for anything, but I do
think we’re spoilt. I feel like I’m “flogging a dead horse” going
back to the illegal downloading argument, but I really do think it’s
wrong. To me, there are two main problems with it:
I don't know if I would say we're spoiled. I think it's just
progress. Technology has progressed to the point where CD's don't fit
into my life as easily as mp3s do.
Quote: Problem #1: It’s stealing. Arguments about “they have enough money
anyway”, “CD prices are too high” and “the quality has declined!”
abound, but they don’t cut it for me. CD prices are at an all-time
low. Walk into any music store right now and I bet there’s a massive
“summer sale” going on. Recent deals I’ve seen include classic albums
for £4-5, 3 CDs for £15-20, chart CDs for under £8, etc. Online
prices are often even better. I have in my collection albums that
I’ve paid literally pennies for.
So I don’t buy the “I can’t afford it” argument. If you can’t afford
it, then consider it a luxury beyond your means. I can’t afford a
Lexus, so I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll probably
never have one. The difference being that you CAN access vast
quantities of music entirely for free and legally – it’s one of very
few things in this life that are available for free. Many illegal
downloaders want to have their cake and eat it too.
And if the quality of albums has declined (a circular argument in
which artists and downloaders continually blame each other), then why
download them at all? As aforementioned, there are plenty of
opportunities to make your mind up as to whether or not something is
worth purchasing/listening to in full, without resorting to what
essentially amounts to theft. I know people who download, listen to,
burn, and re-distribute entire albums that they claim are “rubbish
anyway”. Why bother?!
I’d like to see an experiment in which illegal downloading completely
ceased for, say, two years. That’d give artists the chance to catch
up and make some new shit for us to judge – in exchange for a nominal
fee, a semi-guaranteed minimum income for each album, say. Fairtrade
for hip-hop! Lol. Seriously, though, although it’d never happen,
it’d put paid to the never-ending cycle of artists vs ‘fans’ bitching
about the supposed decline in hip-hop’s quality.
I think most people dl out of convenience more than any other reason.
Many people don't even use CD's on a regular basis anymore Everything
is digital now. Home stereos, car stereos all have ipod hookups.
DLing is easier because it's already in the format that you need it to
be in. Sure, converting CDs to mp3 is very easy to do and not all
that time consuming......but why do it when you don't even have to?
Storage and portability are also huge factors in the mp3 vs. cd debate
for most people.
I don't know why record companies are being so slow in embracing new
business models. People dl out of convenience....not necessarily
always due to cost. The success of Itunes proves that.
Quote: Problem #2: Albums leak so damn early! So many times I’ve been
regarded as incredibly out of date and rather quaint for actually
waiting for the store date. Sometimes as many as 3 months (even
longer?) can pass in between the leak date and the store date. That
pisses me off because there’s little dialogue between hip-hop fans
anymore, at least between those who download and those who don’t.
Take for example Nas’ latest album – heads done made their mind up two
or three weeks ago, before it was released, and now the discussion is
over. It’s “so last month”. Albums are throwaway, regardless of
quality. It’s no wonder magazines are going down the pan – wtf are
they supposed to write about, that we don’t know already?
I think people like the leaks because in many instances, the leak has
tracks that don't make it on to the album. Sometimes the tracks that
didn't make it on are better than the actual "official" album and you
have no other way to obtain those tracks other than downloading them.
Not to mention the trend of putting bonus tracks on the foreign
releases.
Quote: On that note, does anyone else think there’s much less tolerance for
weak tracks on albums? The bar seems to be set might higher.
Understandable, since music is an artform that should, logically,
improve upon itself constantly. We SHOULD push our artists and call
them out when they fall seriously foul (i.e. someone like Nas). But
nowadays, one or two weak tracks can lead to your album being fucking
dogged. There’s even a new column in HHC magazine called “recent
albums re-formatted for your ipod”, in which the reader is instructed
which tracks to toss in the recycle bin, to be omitted from future
listens.
Yes, there is less tolerance mainly because I think the Itunes
business model doesn't support the concept of purchasing an entire
album. Why pay for an entire album when there are only 5 songs that
you really like? I personally love the option of just buying the
songs that I like.
Quote: There are older, pre-internet age albums that have some really awful
tracks on them, yet the entire album package is still revered to the
point of damn-near masturbation over them.
I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered about illegal downloading (after
all, it’s not MY pocket being hurt, so what business do I have?) if
there was still decent dialogue in real life, online, and in
publications. Perhaps bootleggers could have the grace to hold onto
their swag until the store date so the rest of us could catch up, and
perhaps ‘fans’ could also be a little more forgiving. Whatever
happened to the concept of music “growing on you”, and our perceptions
of it changing over time, different life periods, etc.? Instead of
being left to rot on some CD-R lost under your car seat.
Granted, some artists DO need to wake the fuck up and step their game
up. But the problem is, quality of music doesn’t equate to number of
sales anyway, ‘cos so few downloaders actually do what they say and
eventually buy stuff they like.
That’s my rant over with |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Luca... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:47 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Um Jammer NATTY wrote:
Quote: To top it off.... especially in big chains, in big cities... the day a
new album drops the used bins are flooded with cutouts. Why? Because
Jive or Sony or Def Jam or whoever actually 'buy' copies to drive up
sales figures... and then send an intern into the chain store to sell
cartons of this new release to recoup at least some of the costs. If
the record compnies can cook the book this way (which I am sure robs
the artists of their pennies on the dollar somehow) than why should I
play fair???
Yeah, the industry's a bitch, etc. etc.
Still, I find that the smaller the artist is, the more inclined I am to
spend some money for him.
In other words, I don't spend a minute worrying about Timbaland, but if
I DL some Peanuts&Corn material from Canada (actual label name), I do
think about how I could support them a bit. So regardless of how
soundscan works, I can still look out for the artists I appreciate.
He has a point. ;)
Luca
--
"There are two things in the world
you never wanna let people see
how you make 'em: laws and sausages." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| mattmatical... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:17 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
I've come to be more selective in my CD purchases and
more appreciative of single albums.
Various developments (incl. the fact that albums are only
briefly in the public eye) have provided me with the luxury
of skipping what I don't feel like listening to. There used
to be a time when I wanted to know (and have) everything,
now I miss album after album by the key players and I'm
happy to buy them a couple of years later.
But the releases I do buy I often scrutinize to no end and
often enjoy tremendously. I'm still fascinated with "Un-
derground Kingz" for instance.
As for downloading, I have a) a traffic limit and b) am
still very attached to the CD format, so I stick to the
obscure. Last album I stole was called "Everything You
Wanted to Know About Compton... But Was to Scared
to Go There and Find Out." Last MP3 release I bought
was by this cat named Articulate, his "Slave for This
Dollar" EP. He left the price open to the customer and
I paid what was left on my PP account, 10 bucks.
Matt |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Sarah... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:19 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
On 21 Jul, 17:56, mochaspresso <mochaspre... at (no spam) hotmail.com> wrote:
Quote: I think people like the leaks because in many instances, the leak has
tracks that don't make it on to the album. Sometimes the tracks that
didn't make it on are better than the actual "official" album and you
have no other way to obtain those tracks other than downloading them.
Like what, for instance?
Quote: Not to mention the trend of putting bonus tracks on the foreign
releases.
Yeah, I hate that. I'll happily download a track that appears on a
foreign release. No way will I buy the same album twice for 3 or less
extra tracks. That said, they're usually not very good anyway, so I
tend not to bother. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| A to the L... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:39 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:27:26 -0700 (PDT), Sarah
<madniceblog at (no spam) googlemail.com> wrote:
Quote: Cuz I'm bored. Long, boring, and been done to death already. And
what rant is complete without some sweeing generalisations? :)
*snipped*
here's my take...
- There are some artists I will always support with my money. The
part-fan / part-completist in me will always cop PE & Kane albums for
example no matter how bad everyone say they are. They've earned my
respect (and money) on release day. I will ALWAYS cop a PE album on
the day it drops AND still have a little excitement about it too.
- There are other artists who are kind of similar to the above, but
who I will not buy on release day. Nas for example. Jay-Z for example.
I'm not a particularly big fan of either but the urge to stay
'complete' on their releases will always eventually push me to buy.
I'm usually not busting to hear an album though... which is the reason
why Wu-Tang's last album, The Roots' last album, and the new Nas are
still sitting here in my 'still to listen to' box with the wrapping
still on them.
In both the above scenarios I will usually avoid all leaks so that I
don't spoil my listening experience (whenever it finally takes place
:)
- For the rest of the millions of rappers out there - sorry but you're
getting your shit downloaded. If I like it then I'll usually cop it
(but not always)... I've spent a good 23 years or so buying 12s,
albums, tapes and cds for one song, or just to support and been burned
too often. Consider this payback.
SIDENOTE
By the way - that Zo and Tiggaloh 80's joint is dope. Little Brother
started on my who-gives-a-fuck list and now have made it to my PE &
Kane list. I have not been disappointed with a Little Brother release
since after The Listening.
A to the L
"Dennis! Come back with the apple pie!"
"I kissed the CD case while I clinched my fist"
http://tinyurl.com/23b4b3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contradictory Hiphop truth with a bitter and twisted attitude
http://www.altrap.com |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:38 pm
|
|