Hmm. Why Free Downloads DON'T Work

[BlueStrat]

 

This is a very important point, the key cultural issue which needs to be challenged in these years. People is practically obsessed with property.

Close, but my take is a bit different. It's not that they're obsessed with owning property, it's that they're obsessed with getting something for free and 'sticking it to the fat cats'.

 

For the past twenty five years, politicians in our culture have succeeded in driving an economic wedge between people and fueling resentment between the haves and the have-nots. Ask those who steal intellectual property why they do it and the most popular answer you'll get is something like 'the record companies are greedy corporations ripping off artists anyway, so they deserve to have their product stolen' or 'all they care about is producing crap for profit'.

 

Every side of the political spectrum has done this, and it's all to acquire and maintain power. I realize the struggle between the rich and poor has always existed, but there's something different about it now. Most of the stealing is being done my middle and upper middle class kids who are not economically disadvantaged and could easily afford to buy music and movies if they really wanted them, but they choose to spend their disposable income on other things, and steal music simply because they can and can do it almost entirely without consequence.

 

Class warfare is insidious and destructive to a society. I remember my grandparents lamenting being poor, but always looked up to wealthy people and aspired to be wealthy themselves one day. Today it's almost conventional wisdom that wealth automatically equals greed and corruption, and anyone who 'redistributes' that wealth is doing the culture a favor. Except that they aren't, as history has repeatedly shown.

[Sheraton Player]

I think the idea that we should challenge 'owning' music in a physical form is very interesting.... If in the future nobody owned records/CDs etc but accessed all their music through public libraries which they subscribed for... That would be interesting. Would I do it? If the technology advanced to make it so easy and efficient that it would be silly not to... yes I think I would. I would still hang on to the idea of albums though - as in, I'd still want to listen to a whole album from start to finish without interruptions, rather than listening to random songs. If the technology allowed that to be the norm, then yes, I can see myself doing that....

 

HOWEVER

 

I wouldn't want to have to start up my PC every time I wanted to listen to music, and that's what holds me back from things like this.

I want my music library to be easy to access with just a quick press of a button.... be it a collection of CDs, records, all on an MP3 player, whatever... I don't want to have to start up one machine and load up a programme in it before I can actually select the music I want to listen to.

[luaipsas]

Great info! Really informative. It is helpful for me.

Yaaa... I am here to share with you. Great info!!!

[BlueStrat]

Great info! Really informative. It is helpful for me. Yaaa... I am here to share with you. Great info!!!

 

Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Li Shenron]

HOWEVER I wouldn't want to have to start up my PC every time I wanted to listen to music, and that's what holds me back from things like this. I want my music library to be easy to access with just a quick press of a button.... be it a collection of CDs, records, all on an MP3 player, whatever... I don't want to have to start up one machine and load up a programme in it before I can actually select the music I want to listen to.

 

That is subjective however...

 

My CD collection is split up in two houses, plus I have a good bunch of CDs in my car by rotation. If I want a CD in my stereo, it's not always there, and it takes a while for me to pick it up and change from one to another, not to mention if I want random play from a long playlist instead of full albums (that's how I listen about half of the time). I used to backup a small chunk of my CD collection in mp3 format in my hard drive, but it took me quite some time for the job and eats up drive space. With Spotify, as long as I am at the PC, everything is available within ~5 seconds. I actually use Spotify for both listening to something new and for listening to my own albums! At home our PCs are often on all the time while we're there. This is not a problem.

 

I don't understand however why people complain that it's not the ultimate solution. So far, nothing manages to be the ultimate solution... but why bother? Nobody says that you have to use only Spotify, only Rhapsody, or only CDs... However for me, since I had Spotify, it's been the only way I listen music from my PC, which I have freed from the mp3 backup because I don't need it anymore. I still play my CDs in my car and kitchen stereo, and keep a Gb or two of those mp3 files in my mobile instead (to listen to when doing sports or traveling by bus/train/plane) but in all these situations I wish Spotify would be accessible too (unfortunately my mobile doesn't support Spotify Mobile), because if it was it would certainly be easier.

 

A final note... there are two options: if you don't feel like spending 120e/year, you can use the free version with banners and audio commercials (requires an invitation, but it may possibly be totally open later, and it actually was for a while until they started to have load problems). I don't see why people are outraged by these systems: they are exactly the same systems used by television! You either pay a channel subscription or you eat up the commercials. If you can suffer spots on the TV and the FM radio, why can't you suffer spots on a program which is practically the same as a radio but on-demand? I actually wish there was the same system on TV, instead of having to watch what the TV has chosen for me.

[Poker99]

If I want a CD in my stereo, it's not always there, and it takes a while for me to pick it up and change from one to another

 

haha some of you guys really need more time on their hands. Its crazy to live like this.

[richardmac]

That is subjective however... My CD collection is split up in two houses, plus I have a good bunch of CDs in my car by rotation. If I want a CD in my stereo, it's not always there, and it takes a while for me to pick it up and change from one to another, not to mention if I want random play from a long playlist instead of full albums (that's how I listen about half of the time). I used to backup a small chunk of my CD collection in mp3 format in my hard drive, but it took me quite some time for the job and eats up drive space. With Spotify, as long as I am at the PC, everything is available within ~5 seconds. I actually use Spotify for both listening to something new and for listening to my own albums! At home our PCs are often on all the time while we're there. This is not a problem. I don't understand however why people complain that it's not the ultimate solution. So far, nothing manages to be the ultimate solution... but why bother? Nobody says that you have to use only Spotify, only Rhapsody, or only CDs... However for me, since I had Spotify, it's been the only way I listen music from my PC, which I have freed from the mp3 backup because I don't need it anymore. I still play my CDs in my car and kitchen stereo, and keep a Gb or two of those mp3 files in my mobile instead (to listen to when doing sports or traveling by bus/train/plane) but in all these situations I wish Spotify would be accessible too (unfortunately my mobile doesn't support Spotify Mobile), because if it was it would certainly be easier. A final note... there are two options: if you don't feel like spending 120e/year, you can use the free version with banners and audio commercials (requires an invitation, but it may possibly be totally open later, and it actually was for a while until they started to have load problems). I don't see why people are outraged by these systems: they are exactly the same systems used by television! You either pay a channel subscription or you eat up the commercials. If you can suffer spots on the TV and the FM radio, why can't you suffer spots on a program which is practically the same as a radio but on-demand? I actually wish there was the same system on TV, instead of having to watch what the TV has chosen for me.

 

Spotify has a serious chance of total failure in the USA because the amount of money the artists actually make is dismal. Ads and subscriptions have both been tried here in the states before and neither have ever worked. Spotify has pushed back their US release date - I believe it is because they're trying to get with cable providers to bundle the thing. That might actually work. I'd like it.