Where Are The Legal MP3s? 28
kwhite asks: "Unlike many of the /. community I have not made the jump to Naptser, Gnutella, etc. due to the belief that I think it is wrong. I was just curious to know of what 'legal' websites there are out there that give away MP3's or some other kind of compressed music format. The only good site I have found so far is downloadsdirect.com. This site has a lot of free downloads, and others that allow you to pay by song. Just curious as to know whether anyone else has found any other good sites out there?" There is, of course, the ever popular MP3.Com but are there other sites out there that legally distribute MP3s? Do others feel as I do that the RIAA should have answered this question a long time ago? (Especially considering the fuss they've made about Napster.)
Re:My thoughts exactly ... (Score:1)
People could submit links to their own work (MP3, streaming audio, whatever) and it'll be peer-reviewed, modded up or down depending on quality.
The Amazon bit comes in when you tell the system you like something, and it recommends other music you might like. Or it spots that you often have the same opinion as a particular reviewer, and show you his/her comments on other music.
And before someone says 'Amazon already does that' I'm talking about new, 'truly independant' music that doesn't get airplay, record deals, etc. There's a lot of great bands out there who stick their stuff on MP3.com or wherever, and never get heard because people get sick of trashing 90% of the stuff they download because it's terrible.
It's OK for you Americans with your free local calls, and high speed connections, but if I download 'free' music, I don't want to have to pay BT for the priviledge!
Of course there's no reason why this sort of system can't be extended to books, movies, cheese, wine, lego...
Keeper of the Wedding Shenanigans Home Page
You've made the first steps... (Score:1)
A couple of friends and I are currently working on a sideline "local vocals" website to support any local musician. Want to go to a bar? Check the gig schedule, download a sample tune(cover or original) and pick and choose. Then show up, have a brew and drop a tip in their jar. The bar makes money, the band makes money, you get a good time, and no online money handling or "song buying" is required.
This whole scene is new, immature, and completely chaotic. There will be a bunch of ideas tried and some might work. The nice thing is, that even if a lot fail, some *will* work.
Re:Brainkick Media (Score:1)
Re:My thoughts exactly ... (Score:1)
I'm 18, I have the same feelings about radio. What does that tell you?
"God is Dead"
--Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is Dead"
Re:Some information and links (Score:1)
On Napster (Score:1)
Now if just one person does that just once, Napster should have the complete right to stay up an running.
Betalounge... (Score:1)
Betalounge [betalounge.com] has some good electronic music... and I think emusic [emusic.com] has some free, legal MP3's as well.
--
Radio model (Score:1)
Both stream live dj's 12 hours out of the day, and both (and this is my favorite part) archive some of the dj sets for the user to pick and choose from. So I listen to the current live dj, and if she's ok, then I listen for a couple of hours, but if he sux then I go to the archive section and look for a dj/musical style I'm more into, and listen to that set.
I remember NetRadio as being a site with a wide variety of styles to choose from (~100), and they let you know who the artist/track was and linked to buying the album through them.(a decent revenue model)
I also have pirated MP3's on my computer at home, and predominantly use them for mixing my own music. Still illegal, but I don't live in the USA, so the RIAA can come find me, and I believe that digitally, copyright is a means of limiting resources artificially to create a demand. Not the kind of law that encourages real capitalism.
Anyways, enough rant.
If you're sick of the ~10 radio stations available on FM locally, look to the web at streaming audio, there's lots to choose from, and it's free and legal.
[OT] Re:Some bands give us liscene...... (Score:1)
Only bad thing is that they are very short on siteops. A couple dozen or so support a community of thousands so it's a pain to try and log on and find something, so help out if you can!
Most industrial bands do this... (Score:1)
The best bet is to go to any artist or group's homepage, most of them have samples of some sort available.
I think it's telling that many artists have embraced this sort of sampling, while the labels still balk and hold back...
--Perianwyr Stormcrow
Re:Brainkick Media (Score:1)
Some bands give us liscene...... (Score:1)
Try this out... (Score:1)
ace-mp3.com ? (Score:1)
Re:Here is one, I think. (Score:1)
They certainly did the original justice. Wonderful, wonderful, song.
Re:Some information and links (Score:1)
Re:Some information and links (Score:1)
- Total Eclipse [dms.is.nl] -- Excellent Group releasing all kinds of electronic music (searchable by style)
- rohformat [rohformat.de] -- IMHO the best minimal techno group out there. Try release #12 or #4.
- ZAAG [cjb.net] -- they say: "group specialising in noise inspired music. Zaag means 'saw' in Dutch, and i guess that kinda explains why we're called that way (ever thought about the beautiful noises a saw can create?)." Ever wondered what JPG files sound like ? Try release #7 or #17.
- SLiCE [tb303.com] -- Some nice acid techno/trance. Try "Love at first Sight" or "303 years ahead" in the XM/MOD section.
- tanith.org [tanith.org] -- Tanith is a german Techno DJ, playing several different styles (minimal techno, breakbeat, 2step). You can download some DJ sets from his homepage (including playlists).
There are tons of more groups and individuals out there, just follow the links...Re:My thoughts exactly ... (Score:1)
The german label Kanzleramt [kanzleramt.com] already does this. They use realaudio and Shockwave though (you cannot d/l, only listen online).
The Dance Music Resource Pages [juno.co.uk] offer short mp3 samples of the records they offer.
There are some sites out there... (Score:1)
"Legal" MP3 sites have some distinct benefits over pirated MP3s, too:
Ahh, MP3.com? (Score:2)
Brainkick Media (Score:2)
Many independent labels do this... (Score:2)
BUT... I was reluctant to do that for a good year after it was released. It's psychologically difficult to give away something that you've always viewed as a commodity for free, hoping that the person you're giving it to will be honest and pay for it -- especially when there's clearly a huge group of people who *don't* pay for the music they download and listen to repeatedly.
Frankly, all of the arguments that I've heard about people buying CDs based on free mp3 versions of songs they download have been based on anecdotal evidence. I have no doubt that there are some people whose behaviour is consistent with this, but whether these folks actually make up a significant portion of the music-downloading public remains to be seen.
-Ed
COJ
www.funkatron.com [funkatron.com]
Some information and links (Score:2)
You may not know that there is a big number of online labels existing, and distributing free mp3s (legal mp3s) on the net.
The existence of those labels makes it easier to find music of your taste:
There are also tons of stuff on mp3.com [mp3.com] or vitaminic [vitaminic.co.uk].
Even laurent garnier's website [laurentgarnier.com] has some mp3s which were selectionned after a remix competition...
You can get also some infos and more links on the scene news website noerror [error-404.com]
The conclusion is that you can find tons of legal mp3s on the net, (I hardly listen to anything but what I get on the net) It's just a bit harder to find and know about the artists and labels around.. but if you're interested, you will find.
Don't forget listen.com (Score:2)
Worth a look, IMHO.
Here is one, I think. (Score:2)
Leknor
My thoughts exactly ... (Score:3)
Personally, I find most new music I hear on the radio "sux". I cannot stand 98% of what is on the radio, and the repetition is rediculous. [ I know, I know, I'm getting old and those two statements prove it. It's funny, as a Gen-X'er, I think we cannot say "too loud" like our Baby Boomer parents did about our music because I think the Gen-Y stuff is too tame. ;-> ].
I have held off on getting into Napster and Gnutella just like you. Just more problems then I care to deal with. And, again, the traditional media of radio and the lack of variety (again, getting old since it all sounds the same ;-) keeps me from buying CDs as I don't like much out there. [ And I do NOT pirate, from music to software, I stay legal! The proof is in the fact that my wife makes fun of the "old" music I "still" listen too. ;-) ].
Now I would kill for a site with just "sample" MP3s and the like, designed specifically for consumption by end users. Now that I have a cable modem, this is the preferred "new" way I'd like to sample music! If anything, MP3 distribution is no different than radio distribution -- sample lower quality to sell a higher quality end product (e.g., CDs).
I really don't know why the RIAA and "signed" artists have not persued this. If anything, after sampling, I'd probably go out and buy a number of CDs again. Again, I haven't bought but ~10 new ones in the last 3 years! [and, again, I don't pirate]. The RIAA and artists have lost customers like me. It's time they deal with the new market called the Internet and reach me!
And outside of the traditional RIAA and artist relationship, I'd rather just give my money directly to the artists -- especially the ones that can't get playing time on the radio. I mean, is anyone listening? There are consumers out there like me. And I make 5x as much money as when I did when I used to buy CDs by the crate!
[ I really gotta get into MP3s. I have a Plextor 40x CD-ROM with 24x DAE and I haven't even bothered to make MP3s of my own CDs. And now that those MP3-ROM CD players are out, there's no excuse anymore! ]
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Emusic.com (Score:3)
Yay TMBG!
They are all legal (Score:5)
The law reserves to the copyright holder pretty much any type of action that makes money. You can't rip mp3's and sell them. But the kind of massive, uncompensated copying that napster and gnutella make easy is not restricted.
This applies to copyrighted software as well. You can make copies of commercial software and give them to your friends, or use them on machines at home, as long as you aren't using them to do consulting work or stuff for your employer or anything besides enthusiast/hobbiest type stuff.
The big software copyright holders had a very successful propaganda campaign to convience people otherwise. Remember all those "Just Say No to Software Piracy!" posters in school computer labs back in the late 80s and early 90s ? There were ads in magazines and even on TV as well. But Microsoft and the enforcers they funded were too smart to ever take anyone to court for giving away software; the court cases were all legitimate cases of people copying and selling, or using a copied version in a company or other commercial enterprise. ( Ok, there are a few cases in which someone running a server with commercial software on it was legally harassed just to shut it down; usually after running them out of legal fees, some secrete out-of-court settlement would be agreed upon. ) This adertising and propaganda campaign resulted in enormous numbers of people like you buying software that they didn't need to. Ponzi had nothing on these guys; immagine the amount of money involved here.
So the RIAA and MPAA are going for the same move. And thanks to dupes like you, it's working. We probably live in the age with the most unfettered access to and desimination of information ever. The fact that you can download the law in question off of the web and read it for yourself is amazing. But you didn't do it, [house.gov] you just used the internet to parrot your enemies' propaganda. Hey, I got an idea -- why don't you go tell every one to send ME ten bucks ? And when am I getting a check from you ? Cause that's what I'm charging to read this message, and you little post-pirate! Feel guilty and send me a check!
Ok, back to serious mode. When you download that thing, the fair use section is going to be very vague and loose. (It definitely includes napsterizing mp3's though.) This is why:
Congress wanted to give the copyright holders the ability to profit from their work beyound the first sale. So they gave them the right to be the only one's to sell it. But they said that you had to really sell it, you couldn't license it for a particular purpose. (Of course that is exactly what the RIAA and friends want to do -- they'll sell you a copy for each position of the volume knob, or make you pay each time you play it, if they can.) The reasons for that, from Congress's point of view, are probably well thought out and pretty clever. The whole copyright structure is pretty much self-administering, in that the remedies for breaking the rules are usually enforced by the copyright holder in a suit, so we don't need to have the BATF of copyrights soaking up the budget, and copyrights which aren't worth anything are not enforced. If we start allowing use-based control, then we get away from that lean, efficient self-administering system, because we have to support a lot of monitoring of people, a lot more legal actions, etc. Remember, Congress is allowed to give away our rights to copy things only for the "advancement of the Arts and Sciences", and a use-based control system would probably retard things as much as it encouraged people to make more music or whatever.
So that's why you have the fair use exemption. So why didn't Congress spell it out and take away all this uncertainty ? Well, if you think about it, it is pretty hard to do. If you make an itemized list of fair use activities, then the big copyright businesses will invent some medium or method of distribution so that you pay for something, and then have to pay again to use it. If you make an itemized list of things a copyright holder can charge for, some new technology will present a new medium which can't benefit from the copyright system (and the copyright system is a very beneficial setup, over all), and this new medium will languish until congress notices it and adds it to the list. Obviously, it is better to use the gray words "fair use", simply saying that you can use what you buy, and let the courts sort out the details as they arise. And then you get some dinosaur-brain like Kaplan, but hey, no system is perfect.
So stop worrying about legal mp3s. I don't think you could find someone charging for mp3's, other than the legitimate artist or publisher, if you had to to save your Mom's life. I have other good news also. That guy named Lars who said you have to come over to his house and clean his toilet ? You only have to do that if you want to be his serf. The same goes for taking out Jack Valenti's garbage tonight. But if you just feel less morally anguished by being a slave, go ahead.