February 17, 2005

• I download iTunes' free samples. Otherwise I get new stuff from musicblogs, or actually purchase CDs. Some kind monkey sent me the Garden State soundtrack (names omitted to protect the innocent) and that's led me to The Shins, who conveniently are doing music store appearances and concerts in NZ this week. So I still fork out a fair bit on my music. Generally when I steal music, it leads to me buying the album - unless it's crap, obviously.
• Ah, Tracy, you would be the first post. I mean't to put the bulk of this inside but I got acarried away and pressed play... iTunes free samples are a little like free porn? No? No. You are female and married... I love allofmp3.com becasue I can get relatively free music. All the classic albums that I bought about 20 years ago. BUt I still feel like I should buy them again. Until I see baby-faced Bono on the "Live Aid" DVD and then I think... fuck, the man can SING!
• It's not stealing when they still have possesion of it. I'm not trying to snark, I just sincerely believe that it's an important distinction that needs to be made. It helps give them ammo when someone uses words that add negative and untrue connotations about themselves. I hope I"m not detracting from the conversation, nor derailling it. My torrent client broke a while back, and I haven't bothered trying to fix it or to find a new method. Most of my new stuff has come directly from the website of the creator, or directly off of a CD. I think I might start using allofmp3 in the near future; I think they are underpriced, but when the options are to pay too much, or to pay too little, I have to make the latter choice.
• I rip CDs I buy in order to get music. I use RIAA Radar when browsing CDs on Amazon.com. If the CD I am interested in comes up positive, I buy a previously owned/used copy instead. Music Stack is a good place to search for used CDs, also. The RIAA can suck my ass. I also only buy previously owned/viewed movies too since the MPAA has been behaving badly.
• I mainly just listen to WOXY. I get some stuff from allofmp3 but mainly because I can get it in teh format I want at the quality I want. I buy stuff from Audio Lunchbox whenever possible because they sell mp3s and ogg files (you can actually download BOTH when you buy a song). iTunes occasionally.
• Counter-question: how many people even want their old CD's anymore? I must have 250 and they just take up space. Basically, they only exist in my life now to "prove" that I own the mp3's they've become, should that distant need ever become concrete. Otherwise, I'm happy to buy 2nd hand, rip, and pawn. Single tunes in otherwise blah albums I still get via KazaaLite. In an interesting twist, I'd bought the RHCP "By The Way" CD and tried to rip the tracks for use in my mp3 player. Well. The top two hit singles wouldn't rip. Not with any program. Great going guys. So in order to even make use of my fair use rights, I had to go onto Kazaa and download them. So I now own the CD and have the mp3's, but wouldn't if I hadn't downloaded them. Jerks.
• Rorschach: I still like to have the CDs in case of a catastrophic failure of my HDD or backup media (I don't know know what the actual lifetime of DVD+/-R media is, and I don't want to find out at the worse possible time.) I have about 19 gigs of vorbis audio and all the CDs to go with it, just under 300 cds in five storage cases. Space isn't that big of a deal as I keep the cases on the top of my bookshelves, out of the way. If I really wanted to save space I'd probably get a couple of those 200 CD wallets to put the discs in and chuck the cases, but it hasn't come to that.
• Buy and trade with family members who have, on average, better musical taste than me. And a few from music blogs and the like, which turn into purchases if I like them enough. I do, really, honestly, get-on-the-ball-RIAA, like hearing a little of something before I buy it. I'd also have iTMS if I didn't have a history of hard drive failure. I might end up with it later this year anyway. I've said for years that if anyone came up with a pay-per-song system - the way we used to buy 45s - I'd get into it, and voila. yes, I just referenced records. shut up, I'm not old. Okay, not TOO old.
• I generally use bit torrent to snatch music. . . currently over 70gbs worth. need to back up (aka buy another drive). And I'll take music anyway i can get it, but i prefer to own the cds. I like having the disc and packaging -a visual, palpable reference to what is doing magic in my ears. currently listening to arabic chillout downloaded 20 minutes ago.
• We discussed some of the legal and ethical issues of allofmp3 in this thread too. I use allofmp3 on occasion as well. I also like the veneer of legality that it puts on things. But I find that I don't really enjoy downloading music, other than the instant gratification. I still prefer buying a CD, getting to hold it in my hands and read the liner notes, etc.
• I volunteer at a local radio station, occassionally helping my girlfriend DJ (since she's the one who's legitimately allowed on-air), and other times just help them refile their stacks. Then I burn all the albums I can think of. My father uses emusic for jazz, apparently it comes out really cheap per track, and jazz albums often only have four or five tracks.
• iTunes, legal music blogs, buying CDs and ripping them. Even though I have AirTunes and can run things through my stereo, I really like having the physical CD. Call me old school, but I do.
• I like Mperia. RIAA-free music, but reasonably priced to help support the artists.
• I just gave almost all of my CDs - almost four hundred of them - to my little sister, who is 13. I'm about to turn 27, and I can't remember the last time I used a CD player to listen to music. When I buy a CD, the first place it goes is one of my Macs - and then it goes in a cabinet, where it pretty much sits untouched year-round. If you are willing to be scrupulous, then there are a lot of places you can get great music, legally, on the net. My favorite by far is eMusic - I was able to get a few dozen FAX Label albums from there, something which, were I to try acquiring the actual discs, would probably have cost several thousand dollars, seeing as FAX generally only presses 500-1000 copies of each title. (And yes, I know that a lot of them have been reissued, but that's beside my point. ;) I've tried very hard to stay away from pirating music, but I have an insatiable appetite for new music - I simply can't afford to pay for everything. Not to mention a lot of what I want is either heinously expensive or out of print. That being said, if it's something I find I genuinely love and can get ahold of for $40 or less, it's overwhelmingly likely I'll pay up.
• I buy CD's (I like the feeling that the music is real - if that makes any sense) but sometimes I'll grab a track from iTunes and burn it to a CD immediately. If I couldn't afford to legally obtain my music I'd definitely be tempted to use one of the P2P's even though I'd be concerned about getting busted. One of my roommate's sister got hauled into court during one of those RIAA pogroms and it was a total scary mess.
• These days I've been getting new music four ways. 1) Bittorrents of live, taper friendly shows (any group that allows tapers in the audience vs. a no taping policy). 2) Downloads from music blogs, dj's personal offerings, independent offerings, and remix/mashup offerings. 3) Buying the cds of bands whose performance I'm attending. 4) And (*ahem*) Ripping the stream from Radio Paradise. Using Ripcast, it slices and dices the stream with labels and tags (yum!) I do support the station, however, by sending them sizeable donations. This makes for a mix of music which is 99% non-commercial and non-mainstream. Phug'em...I don't like 99% of pop music anyways.
• I believe in paying artists, but I think this anti-filesharing crusade is ridiculous. Basically I use filesharing (gnutella client Acquisition) like the radio to preview obscure artists before I buy. Radio generally sucks and consistently plays stuff I would have known I don't like anyway, filesharing provides the same service but with a bit more accuracy. I do still buy plenty of CDs (both new and used, indie and major label), records, concert tickets etc. Thank god I live in Canada where, for the time-being I don't have to be worried about lawsuits.
• Rorschach: Hm. I have a 160 gig hard drive that I bought exclusively for holding mp3s, but most of my music-listening is still off of CDs. Car, stereo in living room, stereo in basement, stereo in bedroom, etc. CDs are portable, nothing has to be copied to listen to it in another location. The mp3 listening goes on at the compuer only. (Computer at work, computer at home ... not really laptop, though, because I can't stand the tiny speakers.) So that addresses that question. :) To address the original question: Almost all of the CDs (and DVDs) I buy are through half.com or are otherwise used, and that's where I get maybe half my music. I, uh, borrow CDs from friends often, too. Buy a lot of singles off iTunes. Back in the day of the original Napster I was a downloading fiend, but honestly, in the past couple years I've found free downloading to be more of a hassle than anything else. The programs are klunky nightmares and it takes forever to procure an entire CD. So I don't so that anymore. :) I listen to a lot of woxy too. Great, great station.
• I use soulseek to ummm....borrow music from others
• We were so excited when iTunes started up their store in Canada, so that my husband and I could both fill up our Macs with pretty cheap CDs. Well, they had no selection, so my husband bought a few while I hadn't yet. And thank god - you can't burn them. Can't make a CD out of them. Fuck that. Physical CDs are still immensely useful - for example, my laptop's in the shop right now, for the CD drive no less, so I've been using a discman. I'm never using iTunes's store again. /rant Otherwise, I buy most of my music, we try to buy used when possible, and I use mp3 blogs. No downloading, I don't bother. Though music isn't something I collect as much as, vs. books and DVDs.
• I'm not so much worried about their royalty payment system as I am with who is getting my credit card information.
• in addition to mp3 blogs, friends, and used bins, I really like Magnatune. you decide what to pay on a sliding scale, you can preview a full track off each album, and they have internet radio so you can listen to all the stuff at your leisure.
• I steal mine from Wal-mart, but you have to bring in one of those devices to remove the packaging so that the alarm does not go off.
• I have roughly 2500 CDs in my current collection. I've ripped about 80% of that to disc. For new music, I'll still buy a CD if it's worth it. (Which basically means finding a decent selection from the album online, downloading, listening, deciding if it's worth my while, then buying.) Thanks for the RIAA Radar link Nomen. That'll come in handy in my crusade to weaken The Man.
• I like to buy CDs. I just bought William Shatner's Has Been today, in fact. But I don't listen to the radio much (CBC's DNTO, if at all) and I don't buy blind. So I get most of my music from the library. I rip it to my computer and if I like it (will listen to it for more than a couple weeks), I try to buy it. If not, then I don't. I was surprised, at first, by the selection, especially the indie music.
• I steal mine from Wal-mart, but you have to bring in one of those devices to remove the packaging so that the alarm does not go off.
  posted by bernockle at 06:05PM UTC on February 17
  
  Well, I suppose if you get caught at it you won't face nearly the fines or jailtime as if you were caught sharing online.
• I dated a girl briefly who knew how to remove those things with a disposable lighter. It's a skill, I suppose.