Has P2P Influenced Your Music Tastes? 115
Whatistehmatrix asks: "About 5 years ago, when I first found out about KaZaA, it was somewhat 'underground' and had less than 1 million people. I soon discovered there was an unbelievable amount of music open to me. Instead of getting the music I always heard on the radio, I always sought out the music that was previously unavailable to me [Japanese pop & rock, overseas techno, etc]. Well, fast forward to today, and I actively buy CDs from groups I fell in love with from the songs I found on P2P. I was wondering, if any of the Slashdot community used to/still uses P2P programs to try out music that isn't heard on the radio, to expand your tastes in music from different countries & cultures?"
Streams (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Streams (Score:5, Interesting)
I totally agree. However, I also found a lot of good music by reading about an artist in a magazine, or hearing about it from a friend, and going and downloading a song or two of theirs. Kazaa is basically useless for finding music now, thanks to the sabotage of the music companies, but I'd be willing to shell out 99 cents or two at iTunes to find out if I like an artist.
Of course, these days I just tend to borrow a friend's CD and rip it to my computer... which is worse than the Napster days, when I'd download one or two and buy the album afterward. So, sorry RIAA, looks like your tactics are kind of backfiring... (on me anway.)
Re:Streams (Score:2)
The thing is, this would be an opportunity for artist to make even more money by selling recordings of live performances. Authorized bootlegs, if that's not an oxymoron. I know it varies, but I don't think all recording contracts with the labels cover all live performances.
And to get back to the topic,
Re:Streams (Score:5, Interesting)
If I liked the group, I'd go buy the CD. I bought more CDs during that time than I did my whole life. Of course, after the RIAA decided to kill streams in the US with licensing fees, and then started suing customers for checking out music with p2p, I stopped buying CDs in protest. So far my silent protest has not had any impact, other than to give them more ammo against p2p because 'oh, their profits are down... must be because of p2p'.
Also, with the copy protection schemes becoming more prevalent, it looks like I will never be buying new music.
The only exception I make is for groups not tied to the RIAA. There are very few of these unfortunately.
Re:Streams (Score:2)
Re:Streams (Score:4, Interesting)
For me it wasn't even discovering new music, but new genres of music - I was never into techno until Kazzaa. I discovered some of it was really quite good (lots of it is also crap, and much of it is impossible to find outside of the 'net) and I built up a good collection before the whole thing went to crap. A lot of that stuff is indie, and isn't on any label, so I wasn't hurting the RIAA's bottom line at all.
But they just couldn't let a good thing last. Bastards.
Re:Streams (Score:1)
They have 100+ artists and Djays doing incredible stuff. I rarely find their stuff on Kazaa though.
Re:Streams (Score:3, Interesting)
What I really want is some website that lets me condense all my ratings for everything (books, movies, music, games) and spits out some nice recommendations for me. Maybe even a community site with real people doing the recommending.
I found http://ratingzo [ratingzone.com]
Re:Streams (Score:2, Interesting)
checkout AudioScrobbler.com , they even let you download their database to run own
statistical analysis.
They provide the good stuff:
- most listened track by artist
- most listened track by listener
- most listened artist by listener
- similiar arists to an artist
Although, their database is not too clean, some arists are duplicated, for example
you will find 'prodigy' and 'the prodigy' as if they were separate artists.
but then, audioscrobbler.com provides you with their database, its a project that
run
Not at all (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not at all (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not to say that I've liked all I've found. The good are far less than the bad. I'm glad I did find them though.
Dunno about peer-to-peer... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not at all (Score:3, Interesting)
All the power to you. That's fine if you like the kind of music that comes on CDs. I worked in record stores 15-20 years ago, and got really sick of most music. Now I'm discovering (and purchasing when possible) tons of music via alternative media channels -- p2p networks, blogs, podcasts, word of mouth, and st
Re:Not at all (Score:1)
thats great, but music store only has few thousand records, I have friends
that have more tracks than many music stores, now I dont want to go and say that
in particular your music store happends to be Walmart with 20 artists ranging from
Black Street Boys to Christinna Spears, but still, could you elaborate as to what
music store provides you with world music?
my own story : I try to listen to varied music, I had columbia house subscription
whos selection blows (no Jean Michelle Jarre, nor no Prodigy (atleast
Re:Not at all (Score:1)
3500 oggs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:3500 oggs (Score:3, Funny)
A few years ago I discovered
Re:3500 oggs (Score:1)
Club Music (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Club Music (Score:2, Funny)
Acctualy, a lot of music I hear in clubs...
I cry shenanigans -- nerds do not go to clubs! Nice try, DemENtoR!
Re:Club Music (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Club Music (Score:2)
I, too, tend to hear new music in clubs-- usually if I'm going to see one band I'll show up early enough/stay late enough to hear some of the others. If I like them I'll buy their CDs right there, from them. I've discovered some of my favorite bands that way.
Live shows in small clubs are also just way more fun than big concerts. The
Re:Club Music OT (Score:2)
Clubs are fun, even if the music is sometimes shitty. (In the latest L.A. Weekly, I read the
Re:Club Music OT (Score:2)
Sometimes the music is shitty (sometimes really bad) but if the promoter is any good and you
yes. (Score:5, Interesting)
Typically if I hear about a new band I do this:
1. find that band's website and see if they offer any downloads...
2. if none.. then I'll swing over to google for a quick search...
3. if none I'll jump on a P2P network and grab a file or two... listen and decide.
Then it's either off to purchase the CD or off to iTunes (typically both..as iTunes is typically lacking in my tastes). Besides I love having the original CD/Case.
Re:yes. (Score:3, Interesting)
All in all, I've spent more money BECAUSE of Napster than I would have without it. Now I don't download a whole lot; I just trade M
It's all about community (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, it has... (Score:5, Funny)
Cannot search for MUSIC on p2p (Score:5, Funny)
It might start affecting it when someone developes a search sistem where i humm a certain melody and it comes up with similiar tunes.
This is what I do to find songs... (Score:2)
or in the uk (Score:2)
Re:Cannot search for MUSIC on p2p (Score:2)
The Meldex system, designed by the New Zealand Digital Library Project, solves the problem by offering a couple of ways to find music. First, a user can record a query by playing notes on the system's virtual keyboard. Or he or she can hum the song into a computer microphone. Last, users can specify song lyrics as a text query or combine a lyrics search with a tune-based search.
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/01/25/2030207.sht m l?ti [slashdot.org]
Very much so, yes! (Score:5, Interesting)
Also (though I'll get flack for it I'm sure), the original Russian version of the Tatu disk (remember, the two Russian "lesbians" who sung "All the things she said"). Anyway, the Russian version of their album is 10x better then the English (and I don't speak a lick of Russian - pun kinda intended >=).
Course the RIAA hasn't seen any revenues from this "exploitation" (ever try to find Punjabi Hip Hop or Russian releases in Tower Records?!)
P2P: The Music Cornucopia (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:P2P: The Music Cornucopia (Score:1)
Now I don't even bother, since the RIAA has taken to vilifying even those who don't listen to their crap. I can find interesting music on Magnatune and the like. I make sure I do my research and send my money to indie artists.
Re:P2P: The Music Cornucopia (Score:1)
Listening to http://www.cbc.ca/ [www.cbc.ca], I've heard some pretty interesting music, from a Swiss yodel/alpenhorn duo that sounds remarkably techno to http://www.gjallarhorn.com/ [gjallarhorn.com], published in North America by http://www.noside.com/ [noside.com], who handle many Scandinavian acts, including Wimme and http://www.cabal.se/silence/hedningarna/index1.htm l [cabal.se], a remarkable group that pushes the boundaries of folk music.
Hedningarna's song "Min Skog" sounds like someone managed to teach Ozzy Osbourne how to sing in Suomi and operate a
Yup (Score:5, Interesting)
But more importantly, if I heard a song I liked and didn't know what it was, I could find out on the 'net and download it. But whenever I did that I would try to get other things by the artist to find out if I liked them. I bought more than a few of my CDs after finding music this way.
While the iTunes price isn't bad, it still discourages expirmatentation the way Napster and Kazaa used to let you. I think the idea of 5 or 10 cent music (as in that article that I think was posted here a day or two ago) would fix that problem for me. I think that would be about ideal without actually being free. Plus it would force the services to try to compete on a level other than price (the difference between 9 and 10 cents isn't a very good reason to switch services, so to get new people they'd have to have a better catalog, less DRM, better quality, whatever).
Re:Yup (Score:3, Interesting)
No, but music taste has diversified (Score:3, Interesting)
I like maily rock, metal, blues, jazz and other misc types. I've found that using the Internet and P2P, I've been able to hear albums which are either really hard to find or that I would never have heard before. Simply using Amazon and looking at what other people have bought, I've found really helpful. When I used Kazaa, I browsed other's shared files, and often went and bought a few albums afterwards.
I've also found that using internet radio, has been really helpful. Canadian radio stations suck because of CRTC regulations (and I can't get Satellite radio
Re:No, but music taste has diversified (Score:2)
This is the best feature of P2P services. If I like band A, and I find that those users who share Band A's songs also tend to have Band B, chances are I will like Band B too.
This is what Amazon and other try to do with their feedback based recommendation system. It works to some extent, but not as well as P2P in my experience.
Yes ... Early 80s music which was unavailable com. (Score:1)
Daft Punk (Score:1)
Absolutely YES (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a white, upper middle class suburban 37 year old male and never would have listened to rap or dance mixes had it not been for P2P. Likewise Mel Torme, who has some incredible vocal talent that I was previously unaware of.
Since the cost of the music was near zero for the friend of mine that grabbed it online, I could see if I liked it. Testing it out and seeing if I like something is a valuable thing - used to be (I hear) that record stores would let you do that. They don't do that now, I believe (though I've not been into a record store in 10 years).
So, I did make aesthetic decisions about groups based on P2P experiences, some positive and some negative.
I should mention that I'm a lot more likely to vomit down a record exec's shirt than ever purchase a CD again. But, I only really listen to the radio anyway (and at that, NPR), so they haven't lost any money on me.
One thing I'm wondering about is something my friend mentioned - that he download the stuff directly from napster and that was over 6 years ago. The statute of limitations on theft in Illinois is less than that. So, he legitimately now owns all the songs he got then. I'm not sure if he's right, but it was a funny perspective.
Yes, in fact (Score:1)
The most recent band to do that to me was The Weakerthans.
Piracy in general helped me find my musical tastes (Score:3, Interesting)
A friend at school started passing a collection of mp3s on a CD around at school. I copied em' to my HDD, and gave em' a listen.
Without that CD, I might have not been introduced to Industrial, and might not have become a solo recording artist myself. I now have purchased hundreds of CDs, and occasionally purchase music from iTunes and Napster (not iTunes so much, though - I've only purchased about 10-15 songs online).
After getting that CD, I got a taste of NIN and KMFDM - And I was thirsty for more. I asked friends online if they would recommend me other artists. Once I got a recommendation, I usually hit Morpheus or whatever P2p client I was using at the time to check em' out if I couldn't find samples legally.
Now, thanks to p2p networks, I am a music fanatic. I listen to classical, industrial, 80s/early 90s metal, blues, jazz, funk, electronic rock, and more. I also am a huge fan of indie artists.
I'm all about doing things legit, so I don't keep the music I download. In fact, I don't download anymore - I can't. All P2P traffic is blocked by my college. We can't even use BitTorrent.
Oh well, it just helps me to stay legal while boycotting the RIAA. I buy used CDs nowadays, anyway. It's cheaper, and since I just rip them to my HDD, I don't need a CD that's going to last forever.
Now, if I could just get my fans to distribute my music on p2p networks
A small note: A year ago IIRC, I was using Limewire to do genre searches. Rather effective way to find quick artists in a genre, assuming people rip their music and edit the id3 tags properly
Re:Piracy in general helped me find my musical tas (Score:2)
Assuming you're familiar with SoM, may I ask you a question? Do you know the name of the Rolling Stones tune they covered? My vinyl is in storage, so I can't check.
Re:Piracy in general helped me find my musical tas (Score:1)
Re:Piracy in general helped me find my musical tas (Score:2)
Massive Attack (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Massive Attack (Score:2)
Currently, record executives make a shitload of money because bands have no other choice to promote their music. You're not making it easier for them to sell music, but you're not making it easier for them to make money. So, they have no use for you and your buying habits.
Re:Massive Attack (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh god yes, (Score:5, Interesting)
i find audioscrobbler [audioscrobbler.com] to be too over-run by the songs everyone has on their playlist. it doesnt really help you discern genre's, which is what is so great about musicplasma. its much more directly peer to peer, but somewhat less useful. you pretty much have to find well done groups, but even well done groups rarely play the music in the group.
Mood + genre awareness has a long ways to go.
-Myren
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:1)
Music Plasma is ok if you run a graphical browser, and only search for uberly popular
stuff.
I just tried looking for:
Via Gra - newest russian pop band, no hits on Music Plasma, although the group
is signed with Sony Music, and is very popular in both Russia and Japan (Via Gra is so
popular in Japan that they learned few of their songs in Japanese to appease the fans)
info on the band : http://dime32.dizinc.com/~russmus/bands-viagra.htm [dizinc.com]
DAAU - Belgain experimental Symphonic music... Again, Music Plasma f
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:2)
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:2)
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:1)
it looked like someone had stomped on the case and left it there for dead. worked fine, and was a wonderful introduction. put it in a new jewel case and was like new. i've been a fan ever since.
whats more illegal? finding cd's or most p2p?
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:2)
*trash
Re:Oh god yes, (Score:1)
Besides Kyuss, those are some of my favorites.
How to select a good band (Score:4, Insightful)
Kinda I guess (Score:2)
P2P hasn't really changed my listening habbits as much as given me a way to avoid things that I don't like. I hate buying a CD and find out it's crap. P2P guarantees that I get my money's worth. Unfortunately the RIAA has benefited from this new endevor as well.
Yep (Score:4, Insightful)
I had never really purchased that much music before. But here's the funny part: between 1999-2002 when I was really into Napster/Kazaa and other P2P networks I actually bought more music than ever before. Why? Because the stuff I really like to listen to I have to have in a CD. A downloaded MP3 just doesn't cut it for me in most cases. So I went out and bought the whole CD for those one or two songs I wanted. In some cases I found even better stuff, and in others the rest of the CD was crap, as is mostly the case. But them's the dregs.
I'm not going to try and make the point that music sharing promotes CD sales, because I don't think it's true regardless of my personal experience, but there's definitely something to say about a worldwide, diverse network of people who share their music. Back in the day you woudl find the most incredible stuff on Napster. Today (on the other networks) it's difficult to find anything beyond the top 40 crap, which is ironic considering that's precisely what the *AA people are trying to get off the networks.
Napster name acquired by RIAA (Score:1)
The name (trademark?) Napster was acquired by Roxio in 2002 and now sells only RIAA-approved top 40 crap in DRM'd MS-Windows-only formats. Which is why it's difficult to find anything beyond the top 40 crap. Unlike the pre-RIAA Napster, the new service also has many technically imposed limits one how you can use the files you have paid for a
For me, it was more eurodance music genres... (Score:2)
Euromusic/Jpop/Jrock for teh win (Score:1)
my friend du0 just drove cross country a while back, looking for a good trance station, and
Re:Euromusic/Jpop/Jrock for teh win (Score:2)
Yeah, this too! I don't like listening to radio even online for music. I like to listen and skip whatever songs I listen to. With P2P, I can nuke the sucky ones. I only like 5% of the songs I hear. And yes, I am that picky.
No P2P here (Score:1)
Re:No P2P here (Score:2)
Sept 95.
They're gone. Gone from the land of nothingness and everythingness.
Finding out good and different (Score:1)
I will not give much credit to any p2p, especially since such networks like emule
or torrent dont allow you to find other files that a given user has, but I will
say that generally Internet did help me grown my taste and appreciation to world
music.
1) online friends, after many years on irc and icq and other chat networks you
get to know lots of people from various places around the world. They often send me
lists of whats popular in their country. I recently heard of Via Gra, a russian pop
band (which i
YES YES YES! (Score:2, Informative)
Without a doubt.
Countless times I've read of a band that sounds interesting and I get it off eMule or BitTorren. If it's interesting, I'll buy it or download it from a pay-service. (I just bought a bunch of Boris [.ja sludge/doom/rock from emusic.com in fact])
That all said, I'm sure the majority don't buy what they really enjoy but P2P has without a doubt expanded my musical horizons and helped my buying decisions.
P2P: zero impact on me (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't listen to commercial radio, either. No explanation for that should be needed, beyond the fact that the music is soullessly pre-programmed and the non-music parts (commercials, jock patter, etc.) are apparently aimed at people with half my IQ. {shrug}
I get introduced to new music these days by listening to community radio [wyce.org]. Real people, playing music they like, without regard for genre. I used to think I had eclectic taste in music, but it turns out everything I was listening to was just another kind of rock. Now I listen to and enjoy everything from jazz to folk to world beat to blues to a whole geology of rock and even a little country. And all over that new-fangled wireless broadcasting network invented by Marconi.
If you live in a city, there's probably a small, probably-struggling community broadcaster in your area. If you care about music and open access, try tossing some cash their way. And instead of illegally "sharing" music you like to a broadband-only audience via P2P, why not take a few hours a week to legally share it over the airwaves where anyone in your community with a radio can hear it?
Patronize your local college radio station (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Patronize your local college radio station (Score:2)
Re:Patronize your local college radio station (Score:1)
Re:Patronize your local college radio station (Score:2)
Re:Patronize your local college radio station (Score:2)
Pretty much because they have to. Even if a a station is better known by their name, eg "Minnesota Public Radio" or "MPR" here in MN, by law they are required to identify themselves by their call letters, "KNOW," every half hour. So the ID ends up sounding like "this is K-N-O-W, Minnesota Public Radio, broadcasting from..."
Taste the same. Artists New (Score:2)
However, I HAVE discovered a LOT of new artists that I hadn't heard of before.
I've also been able to "try out" a lot of artists that were a "maybe" thing.
Yes, but we've lost something... (Score:3, Insightful)
-
"All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted" (Name that album
Re:Yes, but we've lost something... (Score:1)
Album: Permanent Waves
Thenk yew, veddy mooch...
Re:Yes, but we've lost something... (Score:1)
Now, to illustrate my point, did you not, when you read that lyric, think of the OTHER Songs on that album? Did you recall the album art? Did you think back to when that album came out, and your life at the time? I do. They P2P'ers won't. Again, their loss.
Offtopic note: You realize that Very is to Veddy as Gary is to Geddy, as in Gary Lee...
--
"Just think of what my life might be... in a world like I have seen."
Rush
0x840
P2P and music (Score:1)
It Certainly Has (Score:2)
When I went into college, all I listened to was metal (Corrosion of Conformity, Prong, Pantera, White Zombie) and the sort of crap you heard on the radio all the time.
These days, based largely on P2P access (and more recently, iTunes), not only do I buy more music, but I listen to a lot of lesser-known bands. My tastes range everywhere from Ryoskopp, Jem
Sharingthegroove.org, gone but not forgotten (Score:1)
Ironically enough... (Score:1)
Midwest (Score:2)
I live in a small town in the midwest. Let's just say the music we get from our local radio stations and television is quite a bit less than diverse. Sure, we have MTV and VH1, but corporate crap music isn't too appealing.
I started listening to online radio stations. I started at Launch [yahoo.com]. It was awesome. I could find new music, rate what I wanted to hear, and find new and exciting bands and artists I would have never of experienced. Launch only had a select few songs and videos by each artist. I bought seve
Only partially (Score:2)
I did, however, discover the pleasant effect of browsing people's online music libraries way back in the heady pre-napster days of Hotline. Browsing various hotline servers devoted to MP3s was like going down a street with 500 record stores, some disorganized and broad, others tightly focused and tidy.
P2P and iTunes both expand my musical tastes. (Score:2)
And how! (Score:1)
Before I started using the ed2k network last April I had six gigabytes of music, mostly ripped from CDs I had bought as a teenager, of which I estimate that I listened to three gigabytes of it regularly. After using ed2k for ten months, I now have 84 gigabytes of music. I estimate that I listen to something like 20 to 30 gigabytes of it regularly, and I try to listen to at least one new artist, album, or work per week. (Since I work from home more often than not, I am fortunate to have plenty of time to fa
amazon (Score:2)
I can also confirm that we have since bought a number of CDs that we would have never known of (mostly imports from Brazil).
Sure it did (Score:2)
Netlabels (Score:2)
However, there's an increasing number of "netlabels" releasing high quality music for free. If you're interested, start by checking out archive.org [archive.org].
When I find something I like, I also write about it here [alexyoung.org].
Netlabels have definitely changed my interest in music, since they dare to release stuff that's often too progressive or unique to really sell, and in my opinion that's the beauty of the
Yep. (Score:1)
P2P enables artists to "grow on you" (Score:3, Insightful)
The Radio System (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Hell yes (Score:2)
Also thanks to P2P, I spend more money on CDs than I otherwise would have done: about $400 more, actually.
Re: (Score:1)
Not P2P but the original mp3.com was life-changing (Score:1)
Several changes (Score:2)
It's all a question of risk (Score:1)
most of my music collection is "try before you buy (Score:1)
enough to say I have discovered bands and artists that would never get played on commercial radio and love them.
that said, radio has its place... and so do P2P apps and music downloads... if used well, they Recording Industry Associations could actually make MORE profit... but you cannot teach an old dog new tricks...
Time for a new upbeat view on the world of music rather than the current oppressive regime!