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The elephant in the room is that on mobile you can buy success.

It sucks that I can put in hundreds of hours of work and achieve the less payout as someone who pays a guerrilla marketing force to artificially elevate all their blatantly ripped-off titles simultaneously using samey and ridiculous "viral" reviews about "don't play this game it is satan", and gets taken down because it accidentally makes it to the top of the lists.

No, my friend, what the mobile market places don't want you to know is that they have been thoroughly and completely gamed. You can even pay bots to buy your apps (they buy many other apps too to seem legit) just to drive numbers and attract interest.

The time investment is not worth the payout. The unmet needs aren't worth meeting whether or not you "take the time to figure out what they are," the chances are that you'll fail to recoup the costs associated with the development unless you're gaming the system too. Thus I have an entire folder of products ranging from productivity apps to convenient clever simple things and even games that will not see the light of day even in mention until the current market fixes its shit. Very rarely, about once a year, do I cross something from my list of "waiting to deploy" apps because someone else captures that space with a similar idea. I have plenty of innovation to promote, but no market to do it within.

The fact that so many people actually fucking believe that flappy birds was worth anything whatsoever as a game just goes to show the market itself is ignorant and clueless. I don't want to make another Candy Crush. I have apps that revolutionize the way you work with the entire Internet. You won't see them until app stores get their shit together and stop burying quality jems beneath tons of shit like Candy Crush (bejeweled + pay to remove difficulty) and reskinned clones like Flappy Bird (which even use old NES graphics).

I bet you'd like Vaporwave music too.

This.

And the reality of the matter is that digital instruments do a good job of replicating piano, organ and other keyboard instruments. They can also do a halfway decent job with mallet-based percussion. However, it really isn't feasible to digitally replicate the sound of non-percussive instruments like brass and woodwinds, because there are simply too many different things that a real instrument player can do to change the quality of the sound. For example, when playing a brass instrument, you can:

• Vary the position and tightness of the lips and jaw to change the tone to be brighter or more mellow
• Start and stop notes with anything from crisp tonguing all the way down to "lip tonguing", resulting in radically different attacks and cutoffs
• Lip slur between notes instead of tonguing
• Vary the volume of a single note arbitrarily while you're playing it
• Vary the pitch while you're playing it
• Sing while you play a note (multiphonics)

And so on. There's simply no feasible way for software to simulate all those different variables without modeling the entire instrument, and even if you did that, you'd have to have a much more complex input controller than keyboards or wind controllers or any other MIDI input device that currently exists. By the time you've learned to play something as complex as that, you'll probably find that it's easier to learn to play the actual instrument. :-)

You haven't used the virtual instruments made by Sample Modeling then. I have. They're well worth the money.

Breath-based vibrato. Volume (and timbre) that tracks breath in real time. Pitch bends that alter timbre. Asymmetric (easy to bend down, hard to bend up) pitch bends if you desire. Attacks are based on three factors: initial velocity, breath data (or aftertouch) following note-on, and the space following the preceding note. It actually does quite a nice job -- it takes a bit of adjustment to know that sometimes you have to play EXTREMELY legato to get the effect you want, where it would come out as mush on a real instrument if you tried to do that, but that's just a matter of altering technique. Also, they'll do flutter tongue and growl. Singing through the horn is best done outside the synthesis software, since it's an acoustic interaction between two pitches. The only real problem is latency, but on any reasonably fast setup this can be kept under 22 milliseconds.

While it's true you can't easily control ALL parameters at once, it's highly unusual that you need growl, flutter-tongue, and multiphonics all within the span of an interval so short you can't step on a pedal to choose between them. For studio work, hand-editing said parameters after main recording is dead simple (I don't even attempt to do my pitch bends in real time for recordings, though obviously I do live). Brighter/darker is a matter of changing equalization or changing sample sets on the fly (which can be done with a single keystroke or MIDI command in any DAW I can think of). While emulating instruments accurately is a rather different skill set from actually playing them, it's quite a doable one. It does help if you know how they work, but it doesn't mean you have to be particularly good at them. For example I can play trumpet and horn, but low brass is completely beyond my abilities. That doesn't stop me from accurately emulating their actual response. If I do a rip across an octave, the notes in between are going to represent actual partials for at least one valid valve/slide position for the starting and ending notes, because at a fundamental level, all brass instruments behave the same. If you play one, you grasp them all.

You don't have to take my word for it. You can decide

This.

And the reality of the matter is that digital instruments do a good job of replicating piano, organ and other keyboard instruments. They can also do a halfway decent job with mallet-based percussion. However, it really isn't feasible to digitally replicate the sound of non-percussive instruments like brass and woodwinds, because there are simply too many different things that a real instrument player can do to change the quality of the sound. For example, when playing a brass instrument, you can:

• Vary the position and tightness of the lips and jaw to change the tone to be brighter or more mellow
• Start and stop notes with anything from crisp tonguing all the way down to "lip tonguing", resulting in radically different attacks and cutoffs
• Lip slur between notes instead of tonguing
• Vary the volume of a single note arbitrarily while you're playing it
• Vary the pitch while you're playing it
• Sing while you play a note (multiphonics)

And so on. There's simply no feasible way for software to simulate all those different variables without modeling the entire instrument, and even if you did that, you'd have to have a much more complex input controller than keyboards or wind controllers or any other MIDI input device that currently exists. By the time you've learned to play something as complex as that, you'll probably find that it's easier to learn to play the actual instrument. :-)

You haven't used the virtual instruments made by Sample Modeling then. I have. They're well worth the money.

Breath-based vibrato. Volume (and timbre) that tracks breath in real time. Pitch bends that alter timbre. Asymmetric (easy to bend down, hard to bend up) pitch bends if you desire. Attacks are based on three factors: initial velocity, breath data (or aftertouch) following note-on, and the space following the preceding note. It actually does quite a nice job -- it takes a bit of adjustment to know that sometimes you have to play EXTREMELY legato to get the effect you want, where it would come out as mush on a real instrument if you tried to do that, but that's just a matter of altering technique. Also, they'll do flutter tongue and growl. Singing through the horn is best done outside the synthesis software, since it's an acoustic interaction between two pitches. The only real problem is latency, but on any reasonably fast setup this can be kept under 22 milliseconds.

While it's true you can't easily control ALL parameters at once, it's highly unusual that you need growl, flutter-tongue, and multiphonics all within the span of an interval so short you can't step on a pedal to choose between them. For studio work, hand-editing said parameters after main recording is dead simple (I don't even attempt to do my pitch bends in real time for recordings, though obviously I do live). Brighter/darker is a matter of changing equalization or changing sample sets on the fly (which can be done with a single keystroke or MIDI command in any DAW I can think of). While emulating instruments accurately is a rather different skill set from actually playing them, it's quite a doable one. It does help if you know how they work, but it doesn't mean you have to be particularly good at them. For example I can play trumpet and horn, but low brass is completely beyond my abilities. That doesn't stop me from accurately emulating their actual response. If I do a rip across an octave, the notes in between are going to represent actual partials for at least one valid valve/slide position for the starting and ending notes, because at a fundamental level, all brass instruments behave the same. If you play one, you grasp them all.

You don't have to take my word for it. You can decide

This.

And the reality of the matter is that digital instruments do a good job of replicating piano, organ and other keyboard instruments. They can also do a halfway decent job with mallet-based percussion. However, it really isn't feasible to digitally replicate the sound of non-percussive instruments like brass and woodwinds, because there are simply too many different things that a real instrument player can do to change the quality of the sound. For example, when playing a brass instrument, you can:

• Vary the position and tightness of the lips and jaw to change the tone to be brighter or more mellow
• Start and stop notes with anything from crisp tonguing all the way down to "lip tonguing", resulting in radically different attacks and cutoffs
• Lip slur between notes instead of tonguing
• Vary the volume of a single note arbitrarily while you're playing it
• Vary the pitch while you're playing it
• Sing while you play a note (multiphonics)

And so on. There's simply no feasible way for software to simulate all those different variables without modeling the entire instrument, and even if you did that, you'd have to have a much more complex input controller than keyboards or wind controllers or any other MIDI input device that currently exists. By the time you've learned to play something as complex as that, you'll probably find that it's easier to learn to play the actual instrument. :-)

You haven't used the virtual instruments made by Sample Modeling then. I have. They're well worth the money.

Breath-based vibrato. Volume (and timbre) that tracks breath in real time. Pitch bends that alter timbre. Asymmetric (easy to bend down, hard to bend up) pitch bends if you desire. Attacks are based on three factors: initial velocity, breath data (or aftertouch) following note-on, and the space following the preceding note. It actually does quite a nice job -- it takes a bit of adjustment to know that sometimes you have to play EXTREMELY legato to get the effect you want, where it would come out as mush on a real instrument if you tried to do that, but that's just a matter of altering technique. Also, they'll do flutter tongue and growl. Singing through the horn is best done outside the synthesis software, since it's an acoustic interaction between two pitches. The only real problem is latency, but on any reasonably fast setup this can be kept under 22 milliseconds.

While it's true you can't easily control ALL parameters at once, it's highly unusual that you need growl, flutter-tongue, and multiphonics all within the span of an interval so short you can't step on a pedal to choose between them. For studio work, hand-editing said parameters after main recording is dead simple (I don't even attempt to do my pitch bends in real time for recordings, though obviously I do live). Brighter/darker is a matter of changing equalization or changing sample sets on the fly (which can be done with a single keystroke or MIDI command in any DAW I can think of). While emulating instruments accurately is a rather different skill set from actually playing them, it's quite a doable one. It does help if you know how they work, but it doesn't mean you have to be particularly good at them. For example I can play trumpet and horn, but low brass is completely beyond my abilities. That doesn't stop me from accurately emulating their actual response. If I do a rip across an octave, the notes in between are going to represent actual partials for at least one valid valve/slide position for the starting and ending notes, because at a fundamental level, all brass instruments behave the same. If you play one, you grasp them all.

You don't have to take my word for it. You can decide

allofmp3 used to sell flac. times were good back then. now, to get flac, you mostly have to rip yourself (or have someone do it, but again, you don't have control over the quality and there's a lot that can go wrong when someone careless does the rip/encode/tag).

There's a lot of talented indie artists on bandcamp.com, which allows artists to sell songs and albums, and enables multiple digital format downloads for purchasers, including FLAC. [I have no affiliation with them, other than having some music on there. I just like the service.]

That reminds me of some lyrics: they say the world was created in seven days / thats a weak story, get it? a week story? .

If she likes music, maybe write songs together and put them on bandcamp.

I assume you're asking this question because there's nothing online that she really likes. I've dated girls like this. Dull in her interests, but good kisser. Someone earlier mentioned Travian, and I also think the FunOrb games are good (especially Arcanists).

In all honesty, you should just talk on Skype or w/e and plan your next meetup. I assume that you can afford meeting up at least few times a year. Talk once a week, maybe play a game or two during the week, and be planning your next fun adventure. You 2 don't have to meet up at each other's place; you can meet at some other exotic place.

We'll find out just how far we have evolved from chimps (hint: not very much).

When people start eating each other, how many proudly will abstain?

Not me! Mmmm... human flesh, the other, other white meat!

(..and no, that's not a reference to skin color, before some race baiter has a field day.)

We'll find out just how far we have evolved from chimps (hint: not very much).

When people start eating each other, how many proudly will abstain?

You mean like Bandcamp? - Jasen.

The soundtrack was released over two years ago. You can pick it up for $4 now. Most of the tracks it features are only heard in-game if you collect records (which drop from creepers when they're killed by skeletons) and play them in a jukebox.

http://bandcamp.com/tag/progressive

that is all

I own way too many CDs personally, and stopped buying music until discovering Bandcamp and easy lossless downloads rekindled my desire to find new stuff

Yes, I've commented on bandcamp many times on Slashdot and have been using it for years now. Actually when this article came up I was listening to an album released on 06 February 2013 by a relatively unknown artist half a continent away. They're asking $7 for a 6 track album which I find to be a little pricey but the music is good. I think I'll listen to it a few more times before I decide if I want to buy it. That's something you'll never find the RIAA doing and although I'd found bands that did it on their sites and a few independent labels do it but Bandcamp centralizes it. I've seen independent labels just dump their whole catalog on Bandcamp so it must do something for sales (Boston's Top Shelf Records just did it and I've been enamored with Slingshot Dakota who I had never heard of before).

I think Bandcamp is close to how an ideal music market should operate. Their selection algorithms and rating listings needs serious work but everyone can play and you select your quality when you download.

Think of it as http://bandcamp.com/, hold the band.

Yeah, cause no site has ever let you download a mp3/flac version of a CD when you buy the physical disc before. http://www.bandcamp.com

Or maybe he just likes the service. There are only so many solutions out there. I hadn't heard of bandcamp until more recently when I found some of Zircon's stuff there, but they're got some decent artists.

Oddly enough the first and only place I've heard of this artist is bandcamp and I think she's helped it grow. She seems to be demanding Pandora put in all the nice things that Bandcamp has.

Bandcamp is not a radio streaming station but you can stream a lot of albums freely on it. Bandcamp seems to solve a lot of these problems with it's pricing clearly stated. I don't use it as a musician but I make a lot of music purchases there and this is how things work. If you want to get an album for free, the band has the option of asking at least for your e-mail address and zip code. That way they can geographically target you or let you know they have a new album on Bandcamp. On top of that I think the sites has a huge stats dashboard for artists -- even including the referral URLs from which your listeners are landing on your page (so if you have it hooked up to your band's page, you can differentiate that from someone who found it via pitchfork or something).

I've had really good experiences with bandcamp but their 'discover' methodologies still leave a lot to be desired and I hope that someday they just turn it into a station that has a great front end that will allow you to see and purchase whatever is playing.

Of course, there's a lot of terrible music on bandcamp but I sort of enjoy the idea that it's open to all (as opposed to, say, Magnatune). There are famous artists that I already loved on Bandcamp and total nobodies I've come to adore.

Oddly enough the first and only place I've heard of this artist is bandcamp and I think she's helped it grow. She seems to be demanding Pandora put in all the nice things that Bandcamp has.

Bandcamp is not a radio streaming station but you can stream a lot of albums freely on it. Bandcamp seems to solve a lot of these problems with it's pricing clearly stated. I don't use it as a musician but I make a lot of music purchases there and this is how things work. If you want to get an album for free, the band has the option of asking at least for your e-mail address and zip code. That way they can geographically target you or let you know they have a new album on Bandcamp. On top of that I think the sites has a huge stats dashboard for artists -- even including the referral URLs from which your listeners are landing on your page (so if you have it hooked up to your band's page, you can differentiate that from someone who found it via pitchfork or something).

I've had really good experiences with bandcamp but their 'discover' methodologies still leave a lot to be desired and I hope that someday they just turn it into a station that has a great front end that will allow you to see and purchase whatever is playing.

Of course, there's a lot of terrible music on bandcamp but I sort of enjoy the idea that it's open to all (as opposed to, say, Magnatune). There are famous artists that I already loved on Bandcamp and total nobodies I've come to adore.

Oddly enough the first and only place I've heard of this artist is bandcamp and I think she's helped it grow. She seems to be demanding Pandora put in all the nice things that Bandcamp has.

Bandcamp is not a radio streaming station but you can stream a lot of albums freely on it. Bandcamp seems to solve a lot of these problems with it's pricing clearly stated. I don't use it as a musician but I make a lot of music purchases there and this is how things work. If you want to get an album for free, the band has the option of asking at least for your e-mail address and zip code. That way they can geographically target you or let you know they have a new album on Bandcamp. On top of that I think the sites has a huge stats dashboard for artists -- even including the referral URLs from which your listeners are landing on your page (so if you have it hooked up to your band's page, you can differentiate that from someone who found it via pitchfork or something).

I've had really good experiences with bandcamp but their 'discover' methodologies still leave a lot to be desired and I hope that someday they just turn it into a station that has a great front end that will allow you to see and purchase whatever is playing.

Of course, there's a lot of terrible music on bandcamp but I sort of enjoy the idea that it's open to all (as opposed to, say, Magnatune). There are famous artists that I already loved on Bandcamp and total nobodies I've come to adore.

Oddly enough the first and only place I've heard of this artist is bandcamp and I think she's helped it grow. She seems to be demanding Pandora put in all the nice things that Bandcamp has.

Bandcamp is not a radio streaming station but you can stream a lot of albums freely on it. Bandcamp seems to solve a lot of these problems with it's pricing clearly stated. I don't use it as a musician but I make a lot of music purchases there and this is how things work. If you want to get an album for free, the band has the option of asking at least for your e-mail address and zip code. That way they can geographically target you or let you know they have a new album on Bandcamp. On top of that I think the sites has a huge stats dashboard for artists -- even including the referral URLs from which your listeners are landing on your page (so if you have it hooked up to your band's page, you can differentiate that from someone who found it via pitchfork or something).

I've had really good experiences with bandcamp but their 'discover' methodologies still leave a lot to be desired and I hope that someday they just turn it into a station that has a great front end that will allow you to see and purchase whatever is playing.

Of course, there's a lot of terrible music on bandcamp but I sort of enjoy the idea that it's open to all (as opposed to, say, Magnatune). There are famous artists that I already loved on Bandcamp and total nobodies I've come to adore.

Another is http://bandcamp.com/

Is it possible to set up an alternative RIAA? Trade group monopoly must be broken.

Well, I'm not in the business but used to gig. After seeing people that should have some minor record deal being signed to littler labels like Afternoon Records or Asthmatic Kitty, it's my opinion that the best replacement for the RIAA is no replacement at all. The RIAA is restricting their member labels and being destructive "in the interests of their members" ... sometimes this is helpful but in the instance of online radio, it's quite the opposite. Meanwhile a lot of the smaller labels affiliated with the RIAA suffer while the top executives make millions. The way I see it, by setting up an alternative RIAA, you'll inevitably fall prey to that sort of bullshit. Like the best capitalistic systems, the music industry would be healthier if the labels competed with each other and actually desired exposure (which they do) like online radio and no single entity was acting as a self-appointed policeman to how that system worked. Then and only then would you see.

Here's an example, I just purchased Headlight's latest album on vinyl and minutes later I had downloaded the MP3s. I can list tons of non-RIAA labels that do this and you can go on Bandcamp and see a third party system doing this for labels and selfpublished artists (for example, here's the album I just bought). Now, from the RIAA point of view this is super bad. I just got TWO copies of an album for one price and on top of that you can stream that album right there for free, possibly forever. Oh my god, copyright violations! Now, if you were the RIAA or a replacement for the RIAA you would find yourself in the position of making a decision about this sort of sales tactic. And that's bad whether you weigh in one way or another. Fine, let Metallica or whoever else I don't care about put up a picture of their album and ask for $20 from their fans for it before even hearing it. They can do what they want. But you'll find that if you throw your lot in with RIAA, you won't be able to upload live videos of your own concerts to YouTube, you might have ads on your music videos and you'll be restricted by this umbrella. Furthermore, no matter how forgiving you are of your fan's misdeeds, the RIAA is not. And I think a replacement is a bad thing.

Frankly put the advent of the internet and digital distribution means that artists shouldn't have to depend on the RIAA or an RIAA replacement. They should exist in hundreds of different labels acting, innovating and competing on their own terms (diversity is a good thing).

Right now it feels like an exacerbated Pareto Law inside the music industry and it doesn't have to be that way. Your attention, your ears, your money and your support should be spread around and free of restricted influence by some massive entity.

Right now, there's music out there that you like that somebody somewhere is making. But if they're not on a label that's part of the RIAA, you're most likely never going to hear it. That's why internet radio stations are so important to upending the RIAA, self-published groups from Portland can be heard by Brooklynites and vice versa. That's why I think the RIAA is trying to impose arcane radio royalty fees.

How interesting really is this? Not very.Bandcamp already does this. Spotify already does this.

Whataboutery, and irrelevance.

This is a story about a Filelocker service that has been deemed to be a haven for piracy launching a legitmate service directly in collaberation with the artists themselves. Unlike BandCamp and Spotify what its success would tell you is that many Artists aren't having a problem getting into bed with a so called haven for piracy. And a good number of them may even be choosing it in preference to working with all those 'legitimate' labels.

I would find that very interesting indeed.

And, if megaupload was any indication, both services will be much better than megabox.

Hmm, you could be right. Which streaming music service was MegaUpload worse than?

How interesting that Kim Dotcom has his assets seized and his business killed just a couple of months after announcing a new service called MegaBox that would have competed directly and legally with record labels.

The bad news for those guys is that it's still good to go. I wonder if it will be successful.

http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-artists-rejoice-megabox-is-not-dead-120621/

How interesting really is this? Not very. Bandcamp already does this. Spotify already does this. And, if megaupload was any indication, both services will be much better than megabox.

I may sound like a salesman but seriously, grab this just for the (choice of FLAC or mp3) soundtrack of Sword & Sworcery - it is really that good.. And the game is not bad either - looking forward to the others which are new to me....

Many people might ask what the alternatives are to e.g. iTunes.
One is http://bandcamp.com/ with a clear policy on how they charge and in what way explained right here

And placing your music online (even for free) is pretty simple. Or as they like to say themselves: So Easy Even Your Drummer Could...Well, Perhaps Not That Easy

That site does exactly what you say. Cutting out the middle man.

Many people might ask what the alternatives are to e.g. iTunes.
One is http://bandcamp.com/ with a clear policy on how they charge and in what way explained right here

And placing your music online (even for free) is pretty simple. Or as they like to say themselves: So Easy Even Your Drummer Could...Well, Perhaps Not That Easy

That site does exactly what you say. Cutting out the middle man.

Many people might ask what the alternatives are to e.g. iTunes.
One is http://bandcamp.com/ with a clear policy on how they charge and in what way explained right here

And placing your music online (even for free) is pretty simple. Or as they like to say themselves: So Easy Even Your Drummer Could...Well, Perhaps Not That Easy

That site does exactly what you say. Cutting out the middle man.

your example is the music industries reactionary response to itunes and the rest of the online music migration? There are lots of services that are not just more of the same from the big music companies where the artist gets a fair share like http://bandcamp.com/

Yeah, my first thought was that I'd find it hard to find ethical music suppliers in the UK - specifically the ones run by the labels.

I guess the only places I'll by buying from now will be Magnatune and Bandcamp

You mean like this one http://www.baen.com/library/ ?

That seems to be some sort of mix. First book that caught my attention I can't even buy let alone read online ... The possible free books appear to be a very small subset and the books that are listed as "Baen Books" are closer to what I'm talking about but the selection is small and the topic is very narrow (sci-fi fantasy?).

Thanks for demonstrating goodwill in this exact situation to counter the OP's "seriously?" comment.

There's only ever been a few cases I've found out of hundreds where music has been discontinued on Bandcamp and the one instance I know of is a French band Malajube ... even bands like fun. that "graduate" to big labels keep their first releases up on Bandcamp.

... there goes Winter Wrap-Up. Cross that holiday off the list...

Eeyup. If you enjoy dance music, you're gonna want Track 3 to help you recover from yesterday's earworm attack. :)

Check out Bandcamp. iTunes or Amazon aren't the do all and end all of online music stores.

http://bandcamp.com/ does about the same.

Bandcamp limits your free downloads and Megaupload wanted to pay artists for them with adversiting. I don't think that's why they got shutdown but it is a different business model.

http://bandcamp.com/ does about the same.

If you still want to listen to music, go to http://bandcamp.com/
It is clearly explained how much goes to the music makers and some music is either cheap or free. Well, a lot of it is and you can even often name your own price.

If you make music, this is the site you should go to to put it online.

Only downside is that they use Paypal.

If you still want to listen to music, go to http://bandcamp.com/
It is clearly explained how much goes to the music makers and some music is either cheap or free. Well, a lot of it is and you can even often name your own price.

If you make music, this is the site you should go to to put it online.

Only downside is that they use Paypal.

While probably not the most amazing stuff out there, up here in Canada, my (asperger) son has found a venue for expressing himself thanks to easy access to music producing software, and actually has a chance at being heard thanks to free distribution sites like soundcloud and bandcamp.

I don't hold a lot of hope of the CRTC protecting his cultural expression. An open and free net is probably the only way he'll be heard.

Luckily we do not need to stop to music or stop buying music. There are alternatives http://bandcamp.com/ is one of them where you can easily see the percentage that goes to the band.

Bandcamp is that service. It's the only digital music service that I've actually used because all the other ones lack some of the features you mentioned.

If you still want to buy music but not from the MAFIAA: http://bandcamp.com/
You can clearly read how much goes to the site and how much to the band.

No pirating, still voting with your wallet.

The site is also very easy for musicians (most of the time not the most tech savy people) to set up a site and distribute their music to the world.

Out of interest, what FLACs can you buy commercially and where?

Off the top of my head:

Boomkat
Bleep
Bandcamp

They don't have everything as FLACs, but there's loads and loads of stuff (minus the Big 4 mainstream pap) for sale in FLAC (or WAV or ALAC) format.

np: Soap & Skin - Spiracle (Lovetune For Vacuum)

http://bandcamp.com/tags I don't know how big the catalogue is, but I'd guess tens of thousands by now. And, bonus, you're not supporting the RIAA. There are loads of shops that will sell you lossless. Here's another very good one: http://bleep.com/

I'm currently on a bit of a "get legit" roll when it comes to my media. All my software is acquired legally via the net so that's OK, it's just stuff like movies and music that I still require an optical drive for. Why?

1. I like my music in FLAC format. There are very few digital music stores which sell in this format. My favourite by far is http://bandcamp.com/ but they don't have much mainstream/big-artist stuff.

2. Even if I didn't have a preference for FLAC, there aren't any legal digital music stores around which service my needs with at least a high-bitrate MP3. I don't want to use iTunes because I don't want to deal with AAC (I can convert them but I don't want a dependency on iTunes anyway). Amazon still hasn't, for whatever reason, opened an MP3 store here in Australia yet despite promising to open up to the world many years ago.

3. You can forget about any legit digital movie stores selling non-DRMed stuff either.

So what do I do? I buy music CDs and rip them to FLAC. I buy DVDs and use HandBrake to convert them, or just play them directly with VLC. Both of these cases require an optical drive, and until such a time occurs that physical sales of media are completely abolished, I will continue to do this. UNLESS... a suitable online store apears in my area which sells non-DRMed music AND video of what I want, in my preferred format. At this rate that's going to take a very long time (if ever), so I do what I can to stave off piracy.

For musicians there is bandcamp.com. Great selection of music and the pricing is clearly explained. 15% or 10% if you make more then 5.000USD a year.

Bands can even give away for free, if they so like. Also easy to embed the music on whatever site. So if you have fans with websites, they can spread the music as well.

Check it out if you make music or if you like music. Although the site is directed towards the music people, finding new music to listen to or download is possible as well.

I also download TV shows, but will never buy them. However if I would be unable to download them, I would still not buy them.

I also realize that shows shown in one place are not suddenly public domain and I have no special rights to see them. Just like I do not have a special right when somebody printed only 100 books or only painted one painting.

So even if I might be a pirate, they do not lose any money on me. I stopped buying before downloading was possible for me (or copying in any other way). The moment I stop downloading, it won't increase their sales.

And even for those that would start buying, the increase will be limited. Money can be spend only once. If I spend it on music, I perhaps would not be able to buy a car.

Oh: Some advertisement for RIAA free music: http://bandcamp.com/ Clearly stating how much they take and where the rest of the money goes to. 15% or 10% and the rest goes to the band. Band makes their own price and can even give away albums or singles.
Download in m3, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis.

Just wrote down the URL so I could check out your music after work. I've also gone it alone and recently put my first album up at bandcamp also. Haven't checked the style of your music yet, so it could be a completely different style and of no interest to you, but I figured I'd put it out there in case you (or anyone else reading) might want to check it out anyway.

I suppose we'll eventually see a package deal with movies, TV, and music all for one monthly price. I doubt we'll ever see lossless included in that, but we can dream ;).

It's not a subscription service, but FLAC has been gaining more and more speed online.

Topspin handles a lot of big names (I see Beastie Boys, The Doors, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, and Paul McCartney on their front page. Lots more deeper in.) as well as a ton of awesome indie bands (The Whigs are great, check them out!).

Bandcamp focuses on indie bands. I've recently bought albums from Young Beautiful in a Hurry, Beast Make Bomb, and Andrew Figueroa Chiang and the Blazing Rays of the Sun through them. You can usually stream entire albums (not just previews) for free as much as you want before you buy, so it makes for a really nice experience.

Both usually have MP3, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, and sometimes even audiophile quality 24bit/96kHz FLAC (if bands provide).

I suppose we'll eventually see a package deal with movies, TV, and music all for one monthly price. I doubt we'll ever see lossless included in that, but we can dream ;).

It's not a subscription service, but FLAC has been gaining more and more speed online.

Topspin handles a lot of big names (I see Beastie Boys, The Doors, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, and Paul McCartney on their front page. Lots more deeper in.) as well as a ton of awesome indie bands (The Whigs are great, check them out!).

Bandcamp focuses on indie bands. I've recently bought albums from Young Beautiful in a Hurry, Beast Make Bomb, and Andrew Figueroa Chiang and the Blazing Rays of the Sun through them. You can usually stream entire albums (not just previews) for free as much as you want before you buy, so it makes for a really nice experience.

Both usually have MP3, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, and sometimes even audiophile quality 24bit/96kHz FLAC (if bands provide).

I suppose we'll eventually see a package deal with movies, TV, and music all for one monthly price. I doubt we'll ever see lossless included in that, but we can dream ;).

It's not a subscription service, but FLAC has been gaining more and more speed online.

Topspin handles a lot of big names (I see Beastie Boys, The Doors, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, and Paul McCartney on their front page. Lots more deeper in.) as well as a ton of awesome indie bands (The Whigs are great, check them out!).

Bandcamp focuses on indie bands. I've recently bought albums from Young Beautiful in a Hurry, Beast Make Bomb, and Andrew Figueroa Chiang and the Blazing Rays of the Sun through them. You can usually stream entire albums (not just previews) for free as much as you want before you buy, so it makes for a really nice experience.

Both usually have MP3, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, and sometimes even audiophile quality 24bit/96kHz FLAC (if bands provide).