The RIAA Armageddon has begun

Epiphany No 2: One of the first things that struck me about Napster was how damn impure (read: eclectic) people’s tastes were. While browsing another user’s files, I was stunned to find John Cage MP3s alphabetically snuggled up next to, say, Mariah Carey files in the same directory. Everyone has guilty pleasures; however, never before had they been so exposed – and celebrated – so publicly.

dude go fuck yourself

you're offending a lot of people by dismissing Cage as a "guilty pleasure"

I dunno, I often dance along in secret to the etc...

Keep in mind: when a friend burned a Bob Marley album for another in early '99 I had no idea what "burned" meant or how he got this technology.

I kind of hope the Marley album in question was Burnin'.

I saved up for my first CD player in 1993 (first CD album bought: Now! 23) but carried on buying tapes alongside for the next few years as they usually worked out cheaper. Carried on listening to copied tapes for even longer - I had a big shelf of these while I was at university (through to 2002), ended up buying most of them on CD when I had enough money.

Last tape I bought was probably Pussy Galore's Right Now! in around 1988 cos I couldn't find it anywhere on vinyl. Hated buying pre-recorded tapes and think I only ever bought about 5 of them up until that point. Didn't buy a CD until Bob Mould's Workbook came out in 1989. Again, I couldn't find it on vinyl anywhere. Didn't have a CD player, I had to tape it on my dad's stereo. Somehow my purchases of new vinyl really slid off in the 90s and I totally switched over to CD. I can't really remember what the last new vinyl I bought was... Tortoise or Jim O'Rourke or some bullshit.

when was the last time anyone actually bought a dismemberment plan or cracker cd in a store? 2001? since then there have probably been 20 million illegal dismemberment plan downloads and at least 7600 cracker downloads. you would feel like such a dork if you paid for a cracker song on itunes, wouldn't you?

i will never get over the fact that someone named Johnny Hickman was in a band called Cracker. hated that guy.

i remember him mugging pretty atrociously on 120 Minutes, circa 1996.

ugh yeah i was reminded of that yesterday via facebook. i can't believe you can't watch the skinheads bowling video on youtube. my only use for david lowery. you can watch a reunited CVB perform the song in some weird park in front of four people in 2008 but you can't watch the video.

wonder how rich travis would be if everyone that downloaded 'emergency and i' had actually bought a copy

1979/1980, first album: a TV-advertised comp called "Goofy Gold" that I convinced my parents to buy me, with a bonus side of haunted house sounds. (http://www.madmusic.com/album_details.aspx?AlbumID=7227)

1983, first album with my own money: "Thriller," bought at the local supermarket

Lots of taping off the radio in between, both on cassette and also my dad's giant 8-track reel-to-reel player.

First 45: Don't remember when, but it may have been J. Geils' "Freeze Frame/Flamethrower."

1986, first cassette: "Raising Hell," bought at the local department store.

Copied things from friends like crazy at this point. I had a cassette with Eddie Murphy's first comedy album on one side, and Zeppelin on the other. Had another fave with "Invisible Touch" on one side, and something incongruous on the other.

1987 first CD: "Momentary Lapse of Reason," gifted.

Thousands of LPs, cassettes and CDs later, I'm still struggling to divest myself, knowing that they are virtually worthless.

Loved the Napster era, when finding anything was a fun struggle. And I do remember, in search of Bjork or Aaliyah or "Kid A" or whatever, coming across folders with all three of those things, but also, you know, Limp Bizkit or whatever, and thinking, huh. But then I realized there were people who hoarded MP3s.

"Loved the Napster era, when finding anything was a fun struggle."

yay, fun. struggle.

i'll never forget those wild and wonderful days of soulseek. it was like living in a gold mining town in 1840. oh the times we had searching for gorillaz b-sides...kids today just can't understand how hard we struggled for our music.

It took a lot of time and effort, dude. It wasn't like now, where you could find anything in a second. Which may in turn have cut down on the amount of downloading people did. If I wanted, I dunno, Gorillaz b-sides (hypothetically), it was search them out via Napster or literally never hear them short of shelling out for several import CD singles, if that was even possible.

But then, I've always been a collector, and especially back then viewed the stuff I could find online strictly as last-recourse supplement.

Also, I went to Albania once, back in ... 1998, maybe? 1997? I was wearing a promotional Napster t-shirt one day, and I had so many people come up to me and spontaneously praise Napster, talking about how much of a music desert it was there otherwise, with literally no distribution. I took a tour of a I guess college radio station, and they were so elated to finally have access to stuff to play.

The moral of 100% of "ALL MUSIC IS FREE, MAN" and "YOU NEED TO PAY THE ARTIST EVERY TIME, BRUH" arguments is "I'm a sanctimonious asshole"

Like the ethical/practical reality exists somewhere in the gray area between purchasing and stealing, but that's not gonna get HUFFPO FRONT PAEG

ethicz

Epiphany No 5: I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost my object fetish. But then again, I was never the type of collector who bought records for their cool covers: the music had to be great

mild irony to me that the guy copping the stance that codes as young/"getting it" is espousing this position, which strikes me as very conservative - why should the music take this position not just of primary focus (which is fine) but of exclusionary focus - this "sophisticated people aren't drawn in by cover art" is kinda grade-school snob

Gorillaz b-sides (hypothetically), it was search them out via Napster or literally never hear them short of shelling out for several import CD singles, if that was even possible.

I remember how for a couple months or so, right before Napster got shut down, there was a huge "block list" of unsearchable names so you had to figure out the "alternate spellings", for example Gorillaz was either Gorillas or Gorilaz, They Might Be Giants was They Must Be Giants or They Might B Giants (and half the songs weren't even by them), and Eminem was ridiculous, it was Emanem, but then that got blocked, Imenem got blocked, I think in the end you had to search Inemin or something, anyone who says downloading mp3s is easy just doesn't understand

you would feel like such a dork if you paid for a cracker song on itunes, wouldn't you?

I bought "Eurotrash Girl" on iTunes after the poll two weeks ago!

you must look like a dork

you would feel like such a dork if you paid for an uncle kracker song on itunes

Anyway didn't buy much music pre-1991 and then basically it was all CDs with a smattering of vinyl until 2010 when I lost my office/spare room to the child and the wife said "okay stop". Now I just check stuff out from the library and rip it with the very occasional download of a mixtape here or there and the even more occasional purchase. I haven't bought a non-children's book in the past year either.

hahaha this guy should hire Emily at Google

"I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website, you choose what you like; it downloads to the device of your choice and it will just work – and then when you have to jump through all these hoops [to buy legitimate content], the walls created are disincentives for people to buy," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-google-brin

Epiphany No 4: As a result, just like you, I stopped buying music. I used to be a record junkie. For years, I spent most of my free time hunting down discs in dusty corners of the world. I’ll never forget my honeymoon in Amsterdam in 1989. I had to purchase an extra suitcase so that I could bring home dozens of Dutch reissues of Stax and Atco soul LPs that were completely unavailable in New York. While I travel extensively these days, I haven’t set foot in a record store in well over a decade. Why bother, when the best record store sits on my laptop in my hotel room? A few nights ago at home, after putting the kids to bed, I was parked in front of the computer sipping bourbon. My wife asked me what I was doing. I told her I was going record shopping. As I glanced at my screen, ten ultra-rare discs I would have killed for way back when were streaming down to my living room for free.

this is overstated. i mean, i'm sure that for some genres/styles/artists/countries you can probably find all you need online, but at least a dozen times over the last two years i've really wanted/needed an album but been unable to locate it online - for free or pay. in some cases i was able to get someone abroad to purchase it for me, rip it, and transfer it online. in other cases i've still had to hit up brick music stores to try and find stuff not otherwise available. i still have a list of albums that i can't find anywhere + that i'm on the lookout for. and i'm very good at ferreting out music online. it's just not all there.

The moral of 100% of "ALL MUSIC IS FREE, MAN" and "YOU NEED TO PAY THE ARTIST EVERY TIME, BRUH" arguments is "I'm a sanctimonious asshole"

so basically your stance here is "professional musicians are sanctimonious assholes"?

Well, there are a multitude of blogs with people that rip "cool" vinyl for all to share (Why do they do this? I couldn't be bothered myself, does that make me selfish or something?)

(caveat: Usually I d/l records I already own (other times, hard to find stuff) but it takes time to record and convert them for my MP3 player etc.)

Then again, the last LP I recorded at home for 'devices' was a Morecambe and Wise LP.

xpost:

so basically your stance here is "professional musicians are sanctimonious assholes"?

Usually, this is the default..

"so basically your stance here is "professional musicians are sanctimonious assholes"?"

And NPR interns too dontchyaforget.

"people who want to get paid for their creations are sanctimonious assholes"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i_BqwzbBjqw/TeciERENjRI/AAAAAAAABuw/j2LJ41x8CTk/s400/PIdearecord.jpg

"I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website, you choose what you like; it downloads to the device of your choice and it will just work – and then when you have to jump through all these hoops [to buy legitimate content], the walls created are disincentives for people to buy," he said.

I'm sure I mentioned this before but I think in 2005 I bought a copy-protected CD that wouldn't play on my car stereo, got a refund, and downloaded and burned a copy that did work - from that moment on, it was like the world changed forever

copy-protected CDs are over, aren't they?

+1 to Whiney's "Steal all you can" / "Buy all you can afford" tweet

Gah, I can think of so many similar work-related stories. I contact a publicist, asking them nicely to send a record I'm assigned to review. They say yes and:

1) The album never arrives
2) The album arrives in unplayable form
3) The album arrives in unportable form
4) The album arrives is horrible streamable form.
5) They say they'll send me a copy after it streets

And all this time the album has already leaked and is proliferating. I've had publicists flat out tell me their hands are tied, and suggest I download!

xxp they are, and even some of the more restrictive mp3 download stuff is going away (Amazon is really good with this). but again it just emphasizes the RIAA's crusade to dick over their own customers the instant they think there's any potential for short-term benefit, not surprising that nobody wants to support them anymore

dude was not talking about copy protected cds, nor was he talking about promo copies from publicists. y'all are missing the point of the quote.

Not missing, ignoring to serve up a tangential anecdote.

Yeah, it's the same concept. I bought a Gordon Lightfoot tune on iTunes and just got frustrated by how tough it was to move the thing around (this was in 2004 I think). But I think if you look somewhere around post #1000 this has been discussed at length already

I am quite certain that the vast majority of people procuring illegal copies of albums are not doing so because of bogarting publicists, so I'm really not sure what the point of the anecdote is beyond presenting a more defensible "well it's okay for ME to do it" argument

"As I glanced at my screen, ten ultra-rare discs I would have killed for way back when were streaming down to my living room for free."

but they aren't discs they are MP3s or whatever and they probably don't sound as good as the discs. who wrote this thing?

so many boomers who come in my store are so proud to tell me how they spotify and itune and earbud and all that. dads always did love new gadgetry.

A few nights ago at home, after putting the kids to bed, I was parked in front of the computer sipping bourbon. My wife asked me what I was doing. I told her I was going record shopping. As I glanced at my screen, ten ultra-rare discs I would have killed for way back when were streaming down to my living room for free.

This dude really needs to be punched in the dick if we're all being honest.

and just got frustrated by how tough it was to move the thing around

uggggggggggggh these mp3 files are so heavy!

hahaha

they aren't discs they are MP3s or whatever and they probably don't sound as good as the discs. who wrote this thing?
--scott seward

I think for most people the differences in fidelity are minor.

kenny g is the guy that runs/puts all the content on ubuweb

Minor Infidelity..