Do you download music?

[Lead_Head]

Then take a look here... do something good with your money.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3740521.stm

[elglg]

Whilst I agree with the idea of being able to purchase tracks to download legitimatly, at 75p - 99p per track it is just too expensive. With your average album having 12 tracks say thats £9 for an album @ the cheapest rate. When I can purchase the CD from CDWOW etc for less and get the packaing, artwork etc as well.
Also what format do these come in? If I am paying that much for a track then I would want it in a lossless format, just like the CD.

I suppose it is ok if you just want the odd track..

[wberg]

Well, a copy of iTunes?

If I would use any service like that I'll definatly choose iTunes.

[Lead_Head]

I basically put it up if people would like to contribute to charity as well...

[directhex]

it's heavily protected low bitrate (FM radio quality, perhaps a touch higher) Windows Media Audio, with restrictions such as not playing on a PC other than the one you bought it on, and only being "allowed" to be burnt onto three CDs. standard od2 package, same as mycokemusic, virgin, hmv & others

can be copied to almost all portable mp3 players (not to iPod), will not play without a windows pc, and all music becomes unplayable in the event of reinstalling windows.

[directhex]

If I would use any service like that I'll definatly choose iTunes.

why?

[elglg]

it's heavily protected low bitrate (FM radio quality, perhaps a touch higher) Windows Media Audio, with restrictions such as not playing on a PC other than the one you bought it on, and only being "allowed" to be burnt onto three CDs. standard od2 package, same as mycokemusic, virgin, hmv & others

can be copied to almost all portable mp3 players (not to iPod), will not play without a windows pc, and all music becomes unplayable in the event of reinstalling windows.

Really
And people pay that much for these types of services

[directhex]

Really
And people pay that much for these types of services

at the moment.

the IFPI have deemed $1 a song to be too cheap, and that the best way to eliminate music piracy is to increase prices to $2.50, and force you to get an extra track you don't want at the same time to add value.

napster in the uk is about 75% more expensive than in the usa, for reference, and most of the od2 services ape priced similarly. all the european services will be charged at similar rates.

limited numbers of people are a little more accommodating with their customers - for example, Warp Records (aphex twin & other wirdo stuff) charge 99p a track by card or 1.50 a track via SMS, where the files are completely unencrypted MP3s written using what are considered the best settings physically possible from the format (LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard)

[elglg]

Guess I'll be sticking to buying CD's then.
Which, I guess is what the industry wants....

[Moonshade]

Hm, when this came to me, that you could download music etc (2 ½ or something) My first thought was that I could download stuff that I was too afraid of buying cos I didn't know if I'd like it. And it's not funny buying a cd and then discover that you only liked one of the songs. So I thought "good" now I can do that and I like it I'll buy it I promised myself..

Well, I can't say it turned out just as I wanted though ops:..I've ended up with a thousands of songs and I've bought like..60 songs of em' :/

And now my father has forbidden me to download music ..but I'll try to do it anyway

[blockers]

I think although these ideas are a good way to get the music industry up-to-date, and give people easier access to songs that they want to listen to. While free music is still availible to download i dont think that there will be a very large market for this kind of download, and if as directhex the quality is low, and you cant move them about very easily i dont think that it will take off and move people more downloading free music to downloading songs at street value, even if some of the money does go to a good cause.

Will

[Jimmy Little]

it's a tough one, but things like kaaza have been flooded with fakes now and you have a job to get what you want... i don't have the internet at home and things like kaaza are blocked here at the school i work at, so not a prob for me

[Rythmic]

While I wish Oxfam good luck in this, I personnally won't buy anything from them.

I personnally don't understand why the music industry:

1) needs to charge this much a track - buying a CD is cheaper, and they don't need to pay for the CD, packaging.
2) feels the need to give us less rights than if we bought the CD. My CD doesn't self destruct if I play it in 4 different places...

I also question where on Earth the rest of the money is going - including the cost of servers and bandwidth, costs shouldn't be over 5p - and I'll bet the artist isn't getting the other 94p....

If they really cared about sales - they need to start offering a service thats better than the illegal alternative - rather than one thats far, far worse. I want a store that sells as close to all music available, is easy to use, doesn't take away "fair use" and reasonably cheap - instead we have ones that sell a miniscule amount, with restricted rights, low quality and more expensive than buying physical media.

I'll stick to buying CDs and sticking the change in the collection box on the counter.

[TomWilko]

It does seem like a cracking idea however i buy all or 95% of my music on CD. When i'm out of this student world i will be the kind of person who donates a nominal sum each year to a charity about Christmas time. Thats just my thing and would prefer to do that instead.

[directhex]

you can buy cds? where?

most of the big labels stopped selling cds a couple of years ago - now you can buy 8cm plastic discs that are designed not to work in any "unauthorised" devices such as cars, discmen & cars, and do not follow the red book CDDA standard. a number of albums have been released of late that i'd buy on cd, but cd versions don't exist - just corrupt audio disc, which i won't be buying.

first one to explain how pushing their customers away helps the music industry wins a cookie

[Twigman]

yeah exactly...
downloading for free is the only way, because at least that means I know that the CDR I have just burnt will work in my car, and if I take it to my mates it will work at his house too.
Im really bored with the music business being idiots.