AudioGalaxy shut down

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Leonis: Neutral perspective? Mate, I've been shafted hard core by a major record label. But I'm also being shafted hard core by a selfish, thieving online culture. Don't get me wrong here, I love the positives of mp3s, wavs etc...their convenience, sharing and discovery potential, their use in subverting coporate agenda etc. I even put some of my stuff up for people to listen to for free. It's here. I just think if people are going to take, they should give some back...

Well said, mate. Your initial post got my attention, anyway.

Originally posted by Leonis: Grojlach, I wasn't commenting on the legality issue but the fact that posters may have got in trouble with the Mods for breaking the Terms of Service (ToS). I personally have bought over 500 CDs (currently have about 350), 100's of cassettes (now about 30) and about 50 Vinyl (large round shellack disks read using a diamond needle ) I have also obtained music much in the same way as we are talking about. I'm also a musician and everyday face the debilitating prospects for artists in Australia due to the record companies, the government AND the public. What is of major concern is the 'new breed' of music listeners - the under 15s who have grown up with the internet and believe no one's Intellectual Property should be paid for. How's this? One of my own bother-in-laws has never bought a CD in his life, but has hundereds and hundereds of illegal mp3s. Not so bad? He also burns them to CD and sells them to his friends!!! All the while knowing how tough I'm doing it as a muso! I told him it's affecting me and he just shrugs. It's not that he doesn't care about me either, it's that he has no perception of the value of someone else's creation, whether it's music, film, software etc... If it's not 'solid' - if it can be turned into 0s and 1s, it should be free. This is because his culture entrenched him in these patterns before he's gotten to the point of earning money for himself and equating working for an hour with obtaining an album. Neutral perspective? Mate, I've been shafted hard core by a major record label. But I'm also being shafted hard core by a selfish, thieving online culture. Don't get me wrong here, I love the positives of mp3s, wavs etc...their convenience, sharing and discovery potential, their use in subverting coporate agenda etc. I even put some of my stuff up for people to listen to for free. It's here. I just think if people are going to take, they should give some back...

Good post Leonis, well said!

[Harkoliar]

wow, you guys have so many cd's its pratically a whole room of cd's... do you listen to all of them??

you know i was always wondering how limitless music is since there are millions & millions of songs and tunes yet there will always more to come...

[The.Relic]

Hmm, I'm a little disappointed, but I understand the reasoning. The only thing that I use Audio Galaxy for is to download soundtrack mp3's from game software that I like and also own, but I don't have the converter to process them so that I can listen to them myself. I've never used this or Napster to download music that is sold for profit, at least to my knowledge.

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by MagiK: See this is my point exactly, so instead of a few recording companies gouging the artist, we have millions of kids who haveno money to spend gouging the artist. All the guys I know at work who download music, do not bother with buying CD's or tapes. Why should they? They get it all "free". Which is why Im still trying to figure out why the laws that make sure you have to pay for the product are a bad thing.

But you're missing part of the point. I'm convinced that those who only stick to downloading mp3s to use burn them on CD's of their own (as opposed to downloading them for discovery purposes) wouldn't have spent that much money on CD's in the first place. I'm not directly worried about the 13-year old downloading his Britney Spears or Linkin Park music. Surely it's illegal, but do you honestly think he would have gone out to buy the CD under normal circumstances? I know what I did when I was 13... I didn't have any money to buy CD's, so I taped my music from the radio. And mp3s are in my opinion just advanced versions of this taped music. That they burn their own CD's with those is illegal, granted. But I just sticked to all my tapes when I was that young, didn't have the money to buy the real CD's. Those self-burnt CD's are just ennobled cassette tapes; once that person becomes substantial enough to actually be able to purchase CD's and slowly develop a better and more independent taste, they'll start buying original CD's sooner or later.
As for others who only stick to mp3's now or in the future: I wouldn't even dare to call real music fans. They probably belong to a group I'd like to call "the ones who don't actually like music in the first place", also the category who would hardly spend any money on CD's under normal circumstances anyways. So perhaps they won't buy that one CD they normally buy every two months; big deal, a large part of the music fans is buying more CD's than ever. Yes, more.
Investigations have actually indicated that the record sales have increased since the coming Napster and AudioGalaxy. The only sales that have dropped were those of the CD-singles, IIRC. Basically because most of the music actually being released on CD-single is from the more commercial acts, who are slowly losing popularity with the upcoming of Internet, as I've tried to explain in one of my previous posts.
So strictly speaking, it's illegal. Of course it is. But any person with a little bit of sense should be able to see that there were many good things coming from it which the music Industry absolutely profited from.

[ 06-19-2002, 06:14 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by Leonis: I just think if people are going to take, they should give some back...

Granted, but that's why I "give something back" by buying the music that I downloaded I liked best on original CD's.
And just curious... Do you think that your brother or his friends would actually be purchasing all of the music they're "pirating" now if the mp3 and anything similar wouldn't have existed in the first place? Or would they just trade cassette tapes with their favourite music on it taped from the radio instead? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-19-2002, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Kakero]

doesn't matter if it's closed or not. couldn't find anime mp3 there.

[ 06-19-2002, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: Kakero ]

[Leonis]

Originally posted by Grojlach: Granted, but that's why I "give something back" by buying the music that I downloaded I liked best on original CD's. And just curious... Do you think that your brother or his friends would actually be purchasing all of the music they're "pirating" now if the mp3 and anything similar wouldn't have existed in the first place? Or would they just trade cassette tapes with their favourite music on it taped from the radio instead? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yes and no, they can afford to buy the burnt ones...?
The difference is that particularly with the broadband expansion the downloads can be the same quality - no loss - as CDs. Compare that to a taped off the radio song...
Ah the warm intrusive hiss of analouge!
I'm not worried about the buying fans - I do believe there are many, many people who will keep buying because they are wise enough to see the outcomes if they stop. But as I said, I'm worried about where the trend is heading. I know many kids who can't be arsed going to the movies anymore either, or renting/buying them - just wait a while and you have a ripped DVD ready to go, free.
I went to Uni with many people who couldn't care to write their own essays half the time. Why would you when you can download one?(Hopefully it catches up with them somewhere, but I know several who have obtained degrees with the aid of this method)
Anyway I appreciate that you buy music, and the methods you use to seek out and discover alternatives to the bland pap forcefed through a paper straw between rotting teeth...
We've also had the case of a major music chain here selling pirates - it does get frustrating at times. Ironically, that fuels the fire... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[caleb]

I wonder if the store clerk will mind me shop lifting that new candybar. After all if I like it I will buy more and if it sucks then its the giant corporations fault for pushing a inferior product

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by caleb: I wonder if the store clerk will mind me shop lifting that new candybar. After all if I like it I will buy more and if it sucks then its the giant corporations fault for pushing a inferior product

You can't compare the two. Especially not if you try to expand this example to commercial music that's stuffed in your face on radio and tv, which is basically one big advertisement sample for a certain kind of music. To find something similar in the candy example, the candy factory should be going from door to door and offer people samples of the candybar in question. Which isn't really logical.
So it's nice you made this up, it surely made me chuckle, but the comparison is faulty.

I'm in a hurry now, will respond to the other posts when I get back home. [img]smile.gif[/img]