arstechnica.com— Amazon announced this morning that it plans to launch a music store later this year that will sell unprotected MP3 files from thousands of record labels.
May 16, 2007View in Crawl 4
it's not stealing if they don't lose anything. creating a copy of music that you wouldn't otherwise buy doesn't hurt the content producers. why is it so hard for some people to understand this?the more people that download music and share their music, the more people will be exposed to the music. it may hurt pop artists like britney spears and other artists that make money off of radio singles, but it helps indie artists get their music out there and find new fans. with the advent of P2P file sharing and the increase in music "piracy," the market distribution of music sales is slowly shifting away from major labels and pop artists to indie labels/artists because it's easier for people to discover music that suites their own taste rather than having their music purchasing preferences dictated by only what they've heard on the radio.as long as you still support musicians in other ways, it's perfectly fine to "pirate" music. in fact, if you want to support a band you like, share their music with as many people as you can and help increase their fan base. the more fans they have, the more people will go to their shows, the more money they can ask for playing each show, and the more leverage they will have when negotiating record deals. buy albums that you truly enjoy, but there's nothing wrong or immoral about downloading music for free.lastly, the best way to support an artist you like is to attend their shows and buy merch there. they make the most off of these sales rather than the label taking in most of the profit. this also encourages bands to tour more often.
There isn't any protection. That's the point. The labels are starting to realize that their paranoia is affecting sales. There will always be pirates, but now the labels are coming to terms with the fact that making things hard for their paying customers isn't good business. Apple has shown through iTunes that people are willing to pay for content even if it's available for free elsewhere through illegal channels. I imagine the labels are also hoping to hurt iTunes power by having all music available in the same format from multiple vendors. If a vendor captures the triple combo of player/store/software with user friendly syncing as Apple has done then that might indeed happen, but nobody's managed to do it yet. At any rate, by offering higher quality files in a DRM free package, the labels finally get Apple to implement variable pricing of sorts.
@TakfamPut on a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones. You will be able to tell the difference between 320bit and ADD (Analog to Digital to Digital conversion). So yes, I have that right to bitch. I prefer wax over digital, but for portability sake give me a high quality 320bit VBR any day of the week. My listening room uses Bowers & Wilkins 800 series. I'll let you figure out the rest.
syafthegeekMay 16, 2007
Finally free from DRM but Pandora has blocked me from listening. Pity me.
smackheroMay 16, 2007
it's not stealing if they don't lose anything. creating a copy of music that you wouldn't otherwise buy doesn't hurt the content producers. why is it so hard for some people to understand this?the more people that download music and share their music, the more people will be exposed to the music. it may hurt pop artists like britney spears and other artists that make money off of radio singles, but it helps indie artists get their music out there and find new fans. with the advent of P2P file sharing and the increase in music "piracy," the market distribution of music sales is slowly shifting away from major labels and pop artists to indie labels/artists because it's easier for people to discover music that suites their own taste rather than having their music purchasing preferences dictated by only what they've heard on the radio.as long as you still support musicians in other ways, it's perfectly fine to "pirate" music. in fact, if you want to support a band you like, share their music with as many people as you can and help increase their fan base. the more fans they have, the more people will go to their shows, the more money they can ask for playing each show, and the more leverage they will have when negotiating record deals. buy albums that you truly enjoy, but there's nothing wrong or immoral about downloading music for free.lastly, the best way to support an artist you like is to attend their shows and buy merch there. they make the most off of these sales rather than the label taking in most of the profit. this also encourages bands to tour more often.
unitedkronosMay 16, 2007
You have 100 friends?
crankymcguyMay 16, 2007
There isn't any protection. That's the point. The labels are starting to realize that their paranoia is affecting sales. There will always be pirates, but now the labels are coming to terms with the fact that making things hard for their paying customers isn't good business. Apple has shown through iTunes that people are willing to pay for content even if it's available for free elsewhere through illegal channels. I imagine the labels are also hoping to hurt iTunes power by having all music available in the same format from multiple vendors. If a vendor captures the triple combo of player/store/software with user friendly syncing as Apple has done then that might indeed happen, but nobody's managed to do it yet. At any rate, by offering higher quality files in a DRM free package, the labels finally get Apple to implement variable pricing of sorts.
iadiggs10May 17, 2007
OK, good first step but now I want everything I get off a CD, including the uncompressed file format and cover art! Then we won't need CDs anymore.
spr0k3tMay 17, 2007
@TakfamPut on a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones. You will be able to tell the difference between 320bit and ADD (Analog to Digital to Digital conversion). So yes, I have that right to bitch. I prefer wax over digital, but for portability sake give me a high quality 320bit VBR any day of the week. My listening room uses Bowers & Wilkins 800 series. I'll let you figure out the rest.
cryptokiJul 2, 2007
Seattle Rocks!
cryptokiJul 3, 2007
enough said... amazon.com is a fine company... end of story.
dasuberdogDec 24, 2007
Somebody has mentioned allofmp3... It will be closed soon, if not already.<a class="user" href="http://www.buyzillion.com/">http://www.buyzillion.com/</a>
jp12380May 9, 2008
I would use it to show my support for DMR free music.
aenoneMar 19, 2009
yep, see DMR free MP3 on my site <a class="user" href="http://www.shophola.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.shophola.com</a>search for price $0