Whats your thoughts on file sharing

spacey

Since we've had the digital music revolution file sharing via places like this DL manager www.bitlord.com and http://torrentz.eu/search?f=flac seem to be the way 80% of music is downloaded or accessed by much of public. whats your opinion, is it unethical or is this just the 'beta' version of our future.?? 

Alan

How about both?

I think it will be hard to stop what is clearly an entrenched habit for people, maybe impossible. Perhaps file sharing will one day become legitimised, likely that will mean it will be controlled and charged for..

The thing it it is still illegal, so I'll abide by that until it changes.

spacey

I personally cant see how anyone can stop it. in the old day pirate copies were there issue but now with the WWW and server sizes, the machine has grown to be an unstopable force.

uglymusic

I tend to agree, but I don't use such services. 

I hope that what will happen is the music 'industry' will collapse into lots of music 'forges', if you like. In other words, the mass market crap becomes untenable, but we'll buy our music direct from the artist or small specialist labels, as I try to do at the moment.

I think this is a fantastically exciting time for music, as it stops being under control of the major record companies because of restrictions in supply related to high cost the nature of the sales channel, and the makers of music can produce for artistic reasons rather than balance sheet ones.

Alan

I hope a beneficial side-effect will be better mastering, which is problem at the moment - we are told - because of record-company execs meddling.

I agree with the right.....gentleman above!

spacey

Me too, Its also become a place where artist such as Adele and Kate Nash actually put their own albums on there to get publicity and generate interest. Many artists are starting to actively promote file sharing.

I know a few bands and artists who have been well and truely ripped off by the big labels such as BMG and made nothing but pocket money for the first 2-5 years.

mattlynch

i do a bit but i never save tracks , i only do it to see if its worth me investing my hard earned cash in the vinyl, same reason i used spotify(although i have stopped using that as it kept freezing up and i aint paying for something that wouldnt work properly)

a few friends do it far too much, a good friend has several terabytes of music files and none paid for!! i asked him ,"do you have enough time left in your life to actually listen to it all" ?  he said, probably not but its free
!
X_X

sq225917

I seldom download anything and if I do it's solely as a precursor to buying a hard copy format. I have no music tracks at all that i don't own the physical version of. I don't like giving money to record company wankers, but currently it's the only way most musicians get paid.

Alan

Surely 'proper' downloads are an exception though, especially direct ones like 2L?

mattlynch

Surely 'proper' downloads are an exception though, especially direct ones like 2L?

hi Alan                                                                                                                                                                 
yeah i am all for people buying music in any format or making temp use of free downloads , i do find it rather distasteful when people just plain steal music ,if a friend gives you an lp or a cd they lose that hard copy piece of music , if they copied it to there computer but dont share it, that i would say is fine, but with file sharing as mentioned in the OP if you offer it out and 1'000+people DL it  with no intention of ever buying it  i think that's taking the piss a bit, back in the day of taping the copy would do until you got an original
copy, digital has changed that,,, good or bad?
 the friend i mentioned has stolen over £100,000 worth of material , imagine if you or i just stole that from a bank
,or even walked into a record shop and took 100 grands worth of vinyl.
at the end of the day its all up to others to make their choices, if the hard drive police ever want to search my hard drive they are welcome to do so , dont think my friend feels the same though,
all the best ,
 matt

Alan

I do agree, stealing in unacceptable in all situations imo, even those of real need, though it becomes more understandable then.

I suppose I was really driving at the need for hard copy, though tbh I am more comfortable with having boxes of CDs in the loft.

I have downloaded direct from the artists as well as from authorized downloads through record companies, and I make sure I back up several times due to the lack of hard copy. Having said that I won't share those file either.

I do feel that if we 'audiophile nerds' are going to get our way at all (and have nice relatively intact mixes without excessive compression - in lossless format of course) we are increasingly going to find our niche interests catered for via download after the mainstream demise of CD. Putting out an unmolested master/remaster (however it is to be marketed) in an alternative format is something that won't challenge record execs too much.

mattlynch

i have recently noticed that more of the new releases on vinyl have been coming with digital download codes,that download form the artist or record company,, tindersticks 'falling down a mountain' for instance, also James Blake self titled lp (watch your speakers killer bass! )which actually allowed it to be downloaded 5 times up to 24 hours after the code was entered, volcano choir 'unmap' , they are of highish quality too and something i for one appreciate as it lets me have a digital copy of the album on my phone .i think its a very exiting time and the download is the future .and really do hope that the record companies and artists do realise that quality is important to a lot of us "audiophile nerds" or "sonically challenged" as a work mate puts it!,
 recording quality, perhaps it would be best if i leave that moan for another thread,

Alan

Start it! We all need to vent!

bhobba

You would think it would reduce the music companies profits wouldn't you?  Interestingly the exact opposite is true - by making people more aware of music, while they download tons of stuff, the stuff they really like they go out and buy and profits have actually increased.  But they still cry foul when really they need to embrace it.  IMHO the future is services like Napster where for a small fee each month and you have access to virtually anything.

Thanks

Bill

spacey

Just like a pre installed Cloud service!

mattlynch

Just like a pre installed Cloud service!

sounds like the scottish weather ,

spacey

LOL. Northumberland isn't much better