Grrf.

[the_gneech]

I don't want to pirate music; I'd be perfectly happy to pay for the tracks I want. But I want them in an unlocked, unproprietary MP3 that doesn't require me to install any extra crap on my machine.

I sure as heck ain't STREAMING anything!

Rassin' frassin' mess. PDFs can do it, why not music?

-The Gneech

Comments

[kylet.livejournal.com]

YES! THANK YOU! This is why I stick to my CDs (when THOSE don't self-install crap too, thank you, Sony).

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

My first step with any new album is to MP3 it for my jukebox. I have bought CDs for a single track or two before, and no doubt will again ... but if a track isn't worth $15+ on its own, as most of them aren't, I just do without -- a situation which doesn't serve me OR the artist.

-The Gneech

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Well, you have to find the right artists then ;-) I have gotten a few CDs that were dogs, but that's why I buy relatively few of them, I try to be positive I'll like the whole thing first.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling - in order to merely *browse* iTunes (the worst!), HMV, Napster, Virgin, etc, you have to download and install their whole suite of services. Then they never have what you want, anyway.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

That's the craziest part. It is a trivial matter for me to find bootleg MP3s of almost any song I might want -- but to actually get them legally is extremely difficult.

!sdrawkcab yletelpmoc s'tI

-The Gneech

[softpaw.livejournal.com]

Its even harder when you have none Mainstream/non pop tastes like mine.

Sure I can get the latest pop release or what have you.

But try going looking for the Australian cast of Beauty and the Beast *with Hugh Jackman as Gaston*...your SOL unless you go bootleg and even THEN its hard to find.

[kylet.livejournal.com]

That's the few times I fully endorse pirating/downloading (and that happens a good amount on pop releases too). If it's easily available, buy it. But if they don't have the good sense to put it where one can get it easily, screw that, get it any way you can.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I highly recommend the Global Electronic Music Marketplace (http://www.gemm.com) for your legal, rare and hard-to-find music needs. It's a collection of hundreds of record stores around the globe whose inventory is collected in one search engine. If they don't have the CD, single, or vinyl of what you want, it doesn't exist.

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thankee, I'll have to browse that. But technically, radio-only promo singles shouldn't be sold *anywhere*, but I try to get them anyway :::koffEbay::: ^ ^;;

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Actually, Ebay disallows the selling of promos and shuts down any of those auctions it finds.

Most GEMM stores are in Europe, UK, and Australia, so the rules are different. There's plenty of promos for sale on GEMM. ^.^

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Emphasis on auctions it "finds" ^ ^;;

Well, that's still pretty good. May be hard to find US mixes, but we'll see ^.^

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll check it out. :)

-TG

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

I would use one of the music services out there to buy and download music in MP3 format. Except that as far as I know, none of them allow you to do that very simple thing.

[(Anonymous)]

www.allofmp3.com

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

Information wants to be free, yo! *patpats* Yeah, its sad that its so hard to get what you want by buying it. At least I still have my CDs so I can transfer stuff to my iPod. Yarrr!

[raemonde.livejournal.com]

] If you don't mind the time and minor investment, iTunes and Media Player let you burn cds of purchased tracks. Once that's done, they're just dressed-up wav files again (CDA), and can be ripped (I'm not sure what the default is, but I know iTunes lets you import in mp3 format). No pesky 'protection'. The only problem is that you have to input all ID3 info yourself, because obviously there is no cddb entry for your new cd. In fact, that's how I got my free songs from Burger King (in Media Player's protected format) into iTunes.

] Also, I'm told that Best Buy will let you burn custom cds in-store. Haven't seen/done it myself, but from what I understand it's pretty nice. $12/18 track cd, and it prints out the cd cover and gives you a track listing on the back.

.Rae

[wbwolf.livejournal.com]

Will not happen. The only reason that record companies are even bothering sell electronic copies of music is because they have reassurance of copy protection, which means a proprietary format of some sort. Some places, like the They Might Be Giants website, will sell MP3 copy of songs, but that is because they are more interested in making sure their music is heard, rather than bootlegging fears. The record companies are more interested in money; good ol' capitalism at work.

Everyone rags on iTunes for Windows, but frankly, iTunes and Apple's AAC is the best of the lot, since it is at least based on the open MPEG-4 format (and WinAmp 5 or higher also supports the format as well), unlike the (non-convertable) Microsoft or Sony schemes. I think that the wonkiness of iTunes for Windows is just a taste of what people in the Mac community have had to put up for years.

As for allofmp3.com, it's about as legal as a Taiwanese bootleg; it tries to use a loophole in Russian copyright law to provide pirated copies of songs.

[aeto.livejournal.com]

www.emusic.com.

Legal. MP3. Lots and lots of small labels, too.

(I've been happy with them so far.)