Music Blogs

when i dont have to pay export prices coz i dont want that top 40 crap, i'll stop downloading, music i like i pay form but i aint gonna pay 15 quid to find out its a pile of crap

Technically, downloading your music from a cd to a computer and uploading it to your ipod is STILL downloading illegally, as you haven't bought a license for that medium.

You see, It doesn't matter whether you own the cd or someone else bought it and posted it as sharewear, a license has not been issued.

Just as if you bought a record in the old days and then made a compilation tape with those songs on. Remember those old record sleeves that used to say 'home tape is killing music!'?

The point is nobody really knows whats illegal and what isn't.

The only non-illegal way to do it is to buy the album again from itunes (or similar)

Oh dear, how tired I get with people who see free downloading as somehow 'revolutionary' and also who go on about 'lining the pockets of the corporate music industry'. As a freelance label manager for independent musicians I am so tired of this justification particularly when it refers to small independent producers of music who need the publics support. It may not cost much for a label to upload albums onto itunes but what about the costs of the artists and small labels that have gone to the trouble of actually recording the music that everyone feels no compunction to rip off. I have seen so much suffering because people don't want to pay for music. I have seen people give up because they cannot afford to continue making music, I have seen people have nervous breakdowns, I have seen marriages break up all because musicians cannot make a living. Many musicians I know have ended up with depression and sadly I know of one suicide directly linked to financial worries brought on by the 'changes' in the music industry. I have no interest in defending musicians who succeed at a corporate level but none of us should be stealing from independent and self representing musicians. It is literally taking the shirt of their back and food from their mouthes and cannot be condoned by anyone who posses a fair mind. Also on an ecological level downloads are so much kinder for the environment so we should all respect them by actually paying our way particularly with smaller and upcoming artists.

We used to record a song off the radio by tape. The Radio stations realised this after a while so started adding crap during the song to put people off, but they still continued.

I think the industry (that fat *astards) and zealots can go to hell. I hope you pay for your music before you even think of whistling or humming that tune too, heavin forbid, more people may hear it and then not buy CDs, a shame.

If groups still made decent ALBUMS and not just the odd good song here and there, I would buy more music.

I acknowledge that it's stealing and I certainly wouldn't steal anything from a shop, but I think you're a mug for paying when it's so easy to get away with.

Make the laws tougher and make it harder to do and I will stop.

I wonder - are the people dishing out the "scum" tag to guys like me the same people that use sites to catch up on their favourite TV shows? If you're going to be holier than thou, it's a hard line to tow...and as a student with no money, I can't justify splashing out £50 for the new '24', for example.

Most of the music I download I probably wouldn't have paid for if it wasn't free...

if you can get it free why pay

music is free. charging money for it is absurd. long live the music pirates!

oh by the way, i am a semi-professional musician and i make my main money from music by playing live shows - how it's always been and how it should be.

proper music from hard-working musicians (not semi-literate primadonnas in recording studios snorting cocaine and throwing tantrums because people only listen to their music when it's free...)

you expect people to actually *pay* for that tripe you call music???

i download free stuff and to be honest most albums i would not buy it from the shop as they aint that good, but if i like one i will be the album, try before you buy

I'm totally against illegal downloading, when my friends do it I tell them off!

I've seen how some bands struggle to pay for shows and the general cost of living.
Pursuing this carrer is already hard enough without having your source of income stolen from you

Downloading .. bah humbug!! If I HAD to I would pay, only trouble is once you've paid for your CD it is your property to do whatever you want (within reason).. and lending it to a few million internet buddies isn't a huge loss on the gazillionaires that find evermore reasons to make us feel guilty about it! .. long live illegal Napster, your successors ain't worth a farthing

Funny that poeple can pay atleast 100 pounds for a flipping ipod or gogear or walkman but they cant be bothered to pay for there music?!

I think the music industry should concentrate on the music rather than the money... it should be free!

Is it ok to download Amy Winehouses album free? cos if i pay for it i am breaking the law, cos i am aiding and abetting a drug habit!!!!!

so mch easier to get a zen micro or sumit, just drag n drop mp3s in folder, so u dont have to use stupid i tunes.

MP3's have made music so pervasive it replaces radio airplay for artist exposure, and people now share with friends for recommendations. It's impossible to change that

W/o downloads, people can still trade hard drives. Many more artists are exposed and can now earn professionally as live players. It's for the greater good.

Music corporates are the losers. But real music theft is what they did when they introduced the CD - at half the cost to make - and doubled the price w/o passing profits on to retailers.

Music corporates are not in the music business, they are in the HIT business. They want one song that everyone will play forever, not more artists playing to smaller audiences. Digital music has changed that business model, and it is the artists who are benefitting - just check ticket prices lately!!

I transfer all of my CD's into Ogg format so I can use my computer as a jukebox, but I will search for the odd song that I cannot find elsewhere and download it...

Music prices are still too high for one or two songs you like on an album, and the pay sites give you this DRM crap so you are limited to where you can play your music, and that stops me from paying...

Most music today is all the same stuff regurgitated over and over, what happened to the decent (and original) music...

It's really simple. If Cd's were cheap enough I would buy them. I used to download DVD's but at a tenner a go from the supermarket when they are first launched I buy then. I go to the cinema to watch the big films which I take the kids to. this is worth it somethimes but not for the "crappy" films. I save my monet for the biggies Indie, etc.
£10 a cd is unjust. I might only listen once as it's crap and then what? I have downloaded many over the last x years (since it first started) and have only bought 1 cd/dvd since (Jean Michel Jarre for the DVD extras with the surround sound etc). Make them £4 a go and the market will be gone for illegal downloads. You cannot stop it so why spend millions trying - live in the now and drop the prices

i dont download music, But technology is resonsible for more polution on the earth than cars!! if the daft twits who invent technology create things people are going to use them / it . surely this lays the blaim on others and Not the consumer???

sorry but if its illegal then why dont the police stop it? there not doin anything

Even if I were to pay for music on my IPod how much music would I be able to download until the rate would go up again? The cost of owning an IPod is expensive enough then to pay for music would be another rip-off. The music artists get paid enough money, they dont need extra recognition. Dont forget we the consumer puts them in the position they are in, inorder to command rates.