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This is totally flamebait. As another poster pointed out, you're wrong about the master-to-vinyl vs. master-to-cd process. But that's not why I'm replying...

I buy a lot of vinyl. Not because I think it sounds better, just because I like it better. Here's why:

• Most of the bands I like press vinyl. The records don't usually cost more than the CDs to buy, even though they're more expensive to make. I don't listen to a lot of really super-weird bands or anything. A lot of independent labels (Merge, Matador, Killrockstars, Constellation, etc.) press vinyl for their artists. and even some major labels are getting into it.
• You get a bigger, nicer version of the cover art.
• It looks better on the shelf in my front room than a bunch of CDs (seriously, it does)
• Frequently, the record will come with a slip of paper with a link and a download code to grab reasonable-quality MP3s from the label's website (again, see Matador). If that's not the case, I can always download the MP3s from a more dubious source. Either way, I can burn them onto a CD if I need to (roadtrips, mix CDs, etc.) and I've still got that sexy piece of wax sitting in my living room.
• A lot of bands will release vinyl-only albums or include "bonus" tracks on the vinyl pressings of their LPs.
• Very rarely, a band or label will commission an "audiophile" re-master of an album on heavy vinyl. The most recent example of this is the new White Stripes album, Icky Thump. The retail CD & LP are mastered terribly--they clip constantly as a result of over-zealous compression. (Remember? That's the part you got wrong in your post...) But discerning listeners can seek out the Steve Hoffman re-master. That's right: it came out last week and it's already been re-mastered. And you can only buy it on vinyl. How's that for a counter-example?
• This is kind of a fluff reason, but it just feels better to buy vinyl. And since I started collecting the stuff, I've received no less than half a dozen hand-written notes from record labels I've bought from, thanking me for supporting their businesses. So apparently, it feels better to sell the stuff too :P

As far as the sound goes... my LPs sound every bit as good as your CDs. Yeah, my turntable is an ornery pig sometimes, but it's usually just a loose cable or something. So, are CDs obsolete? I think so. Especially in the retail world. Every now and then, an album comes out that I want that isn't available on vinyl--in that case, I usually cave and buy the CD. Like I said, though, it's becoming more and more common to find every new release I'm interested in on wax.

PS: Between the time I started typing this and the time I pressed preview, your post got moderated down by 2. BONUS!!

Matador Records is one of the biggest labels in non-RIAA music (Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Belle and Sebastien, Brightblack Morning Light and Cat Power are all popular indie bands on Matador)

Merge Records is pretty huge in terms of independent rock music. They have bands like Spoon (they're pretty popular, even in the mainstream--they were on a car commercial), The Arcade Fire (they were on the cover of rolling stone), Destroyer, and The Magnetic Fields.

For electronic music, Warp Records is pretty awesome.

Fat Cat is a pretty good one. They put out records by Animal Collective (touted by the New York Times) and Sigur Ros.

No need to participate in mainstream culture...

You can get some Cat Power here.

Or more accurately, guitar player in a local band selling CDs on the web and online stores like iTunes. And of course not for money, but certainly for the potential of "making it" (and thus making money). But given how long we've been at it such a reality is looking increasingly unrealistic. Though we did make some decent $ a couple of years ago when we were touring.

Like most indie bands of our ilk and time period we just wanted to be as "famous" as Pavement and as long-lived as Superchunk.

Nor is Fairplay really anything "new" -- it's basically the same thing as every other online music store, and follows published RIAA specs for DRM systems.

Yes, just like all those other large-scale online music stores we had before the iTMS. Wait, what?

Most people here think "Apple==Good; RIAA==Bad", but for this one, you guys are going to have to get over the cognitive dissonance.

You may or may not have noticed this, but in the grandparent post I made no attempt to make a value judgement of whether what Apple is doing is good or bad. I was just trying to say, it certainly isn't unambiguously bad, and trying to convince the general public that Apple is in a "bad guy" role is, more than likely, going to be an extremely uphill battle.

As for myself, I can see where your viewpoint is coming from, but I don't particularly share it. I would like to hope that Apple's goal is just to sell music, period, and the DRM is there because Apple recognizes that high levels of DRM are a demand made by the supply part of the economic section they've dropped themselves into. Does Apple themselves actively want the DRM? Hell, maybe. I don't know. However, I can plainly see by the technical decisions they have made that they at least recognize that the demand part of the iTMS's economic sector-- you know, the customers-- demands as little DRM as possible. The fact they are at least willing to recognize this means that this is, for the moment, good enough for me. In other words, I consider DRM evil, but I am totally neutral on the specific case of Apple's connection to DRM.

That said, in this case, I do consider the RIAA==evil and Apple==good. I consider my reasons for this reasonable.

The reason I consider the RIAA evil is not just because of the DRM, but because they're an oligopoly, becuase they have a deathgrip on the commercial expression an art that is important to me, and becuase they are using that deathgrip to limit the range and depth of expression within that art.

The primary reason I consider Apple good in this case is because the iTMS carries non-riaa record labels. To me, this means that the iTMS is an exposing force for independent musical artists. To me, this means that the iTMS is a positive thing. I would consider that positive thing to be significant enough it overcomes whatever extent to which the iTMS promotes the use of DRM technologies.

This is just my opinion.

Student C: I'm going to buy that album they put out last year.

Student D: Ooh! I'll throw in a couple bucks if you let me rip a copy!

Seriously, though, it's the big labels that are being hurt more any way. Independent labels have been showing much larger profits, and their artists get a better cut of the profits anyway!

eMusic had this. For about the price of two cd's a month, it was all you could eat. One of my friends was a subscriber, and with his downstream 'all you could eat' was quite a lot.

Now, there wasn't a lot of great stuff... but if you're not getting charged by the disc, there's no harm in experimenting ( and show me another online music service that features Arab on Radar and is associated with Matador Records, the New Pornographers label ).

Sadly, last month they changed the terms of service - at least for some users ( including my Friend ). Unlimited downloads are a thing of the past, and you get about two albums a month for the same price as before. At that rate, you might as well buy A list stuff from the record store.

Perhaps they were only targeting high usage users - there's nothing about the change on the frontpage ( no surprises there... ), but the free lunch appears to be over.

Sturgeon's Law /prov./ "Ninety percent of everything is crap". Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, "Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud."

If everyone started downloading legal music instead, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs from indie bands, and seeing their shows, instead of enriching the major labels every time you buy a Britney or New Kids CD. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads are not copyright violations because the artists give you permission to download them.

Probably the best known site for downloading MP3s is of course MP3.com . See especially their genre index . Click the link. You will be quite astounded at how many genres there are.

Unfortunately the website usability of MP3.com is atrocious, and their streaming audio seems to be buggy - I can't get it to work in either Explorer or Mozilla. To get an MP3 file to download to your hard drive, you have to register, which I'm sure will result in merciless spamming. May I suggest registering with a throwaway email address from spamgourmet ?

The Open Directory Project has Bands and Artists and Styles indices. Not all the artists offer downloads, but the site says they list 48,000 artists and I imagine many of them offer downloads.

There are better sites for hosting MP3s than MP3.com. Some of them allow you to buy the band's CD from the same page as the MP3 download. Among them are The Internet Underground Music Archives, CDBaby, Epitonic.com, Lulu, SoundClick, Matador Records and insound .

Monotonik provides BitTorrents with zip files containing 60 to 100 MP3s apiece available here.

If you prefer the higher quality, patent-free Ogg Vorbis files you can find several download sites here . Ogg Vorbis players are available for many platforms - WinAmp will play them on Windows, and I understand iTunes on Mac OS X supports Ogg now. There are open source Linux ogg players and encoders, even an open source fixed-point decoders for embedded applications where the CPU doesn't have floating point hardware.

There are also peer-to-peer applications for distributing legal music. See Furthur Network and konspire[2b] .

Unfortunately, musicians are often not very good website designers, so poor usability is a significant obstacle to getting music directly from artists' websites. If you're a musician, and you'd like to know how you can improve your website so more people will download your music, please read my article If Indie Musicians Wanted Their Music Heard....

Finally, there is the problem of finding the music that's actually worth listening to. The labels do serve the (somewhat) legitimate purpose of picking out the good from the bad. But we can do that ourselves with legal downloads by using collaborative filtering, for example by downloading our music with iRATE, which you'll find at

If Apple can get a lot of the independent labels aboard, the indies will be in direct competition with the majors. It would also give Apple a bargaining chip when it comes time to renegotiate it's contract with the majors.

We can only hope.

Right now the money is peanuts. But hey, it's better than not getting paid at all by having your files shared for free on Kazaa, right?

It's a drag that Apple chose to focus their huge publicity blast on artists that so desperately need promotion (Eminen?) but we're definitely interested in being involved and I hope it won't be long until you see Matador music up there as well.

"music nowadays completely SUCKS!!" is your opinion which you definitely have the right to say.

i must say though, that i find the statement wrong and seems to come from someone that fell out of the loop and doesn't "understand" the kids and their music. i am by no means a youngster and i can't say that i have watched mtv or listened to clear channel radio in years. there are many great artists out there and taking the DIY route that make compelling and innovative music. many can be found on such independent labels as:
matador records
desoto records
thrill jockey records
kill rock stars
dischord records

just to name a few, there are many many others. some places to buy independent music and distributors of:
parasol records
southern records
insound

That's a pretty lame excuse. I understand your hatred of the RIAA, but record labels do pay for the packaging and distribution costs to get them into record stores. If you don't want to support the RIAA, you would be better off buying records from artists on independent labels who treat their artists fairly. You'll get the added bonus of finding artists you think are worth paying for, too. Labels such as Matador, Up, Drag City, K, and many more. You can find a lot of indie label music reviewed at Pitchfork Media. You can listen to a fair amount of indie label stuff at KCRW's online streams.

Of course, if you really just have to support the artist directly, go get out of the house and see them perform live and buy their cd from them personally. Don't just complain, be proactive.

A boycott wouldn't do much because almost no one would bother with it. Instead, try having a day or a week of protests - picketing outside theaters, chain record stores (Best Buy, Tower, Virgin, HMV, et al). That would be great because it's actually somewhat realistic and unlike simply not buying things, it sends a clear a direct message to the companies that people are pissed off at them, while it also educates consumers who don't know any better.

Of course you could always try buying indie music as well, though some have major label distributors, you can always find others.

check them out:
matador
dischord
touch and go
mint
southern
merge
alternative tentacles

or, for the fast route, hit the google listing of record labels:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Record_ Labels/

Oh please..
Die Toten Hosen are nothing more than a mediocre stadium rock band these days. I mean, playing the major entertainment shows or being part of annoying comedy shows is *not* was punk rock is about.

Furthermore, they don't have any relevant message or attitude *at all*, except maybe "get drunk".
And they are *so* stuck in their past it`s not even funny. Still wearing the 70's punk rock uniform leaves a lot to be desired.
Just take a look at their audience:
There's everybody: From 15 year old Brittney-Fans to 40 year old accountants who think they are on the edge.

Anyway, I don't want to rant any further, but I think punk like it was 25 years ago is dead indeed - it's the spirit that counts, and you can still find punk rock spirit in a lot of bands, for example on Matador Records.
It's about doing what you want and believe in, about creativity, originality and intellect (note that these 3 criteria do not apply to Die Toten Hosen at all), not about playing the same 3 chords over and over agin.

If you don't like the RIAA, don't buy their stuff. There are a lot of really great bands on independent labels because of the economics of the music biz. They know they can make just as much or more money (and retain far more creative control) by being on a small label and touring. Shopping may not be quite as convenient because their music is often not carried by the big chain stores. It's worth the extra effort though because, unlike most of what the major labels put out, these bands don't suck.

Some great bands on indie labels include:
Sarge
All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors
Sarah Shannon (ex-singer from Velocity Girl)
The Dismemberment Plan
Future Loop Foundation
Helium
The Poster Children
Anna Waronker (former singer for That Dog)
Rainer Maria
Glade
The Jeyds

Some online places to shop for indie music include:
Insound.com
Parasol Records
Restless Records (Golden Palominos, They Might Be Giants, Flaming Lips, etc.)
Matador Records (Helium, Pizzicato Five, Bettie Serveert, etc.)
FuturePopShop.com

Why not go to Smells Like Records (Sonic Youth Label) or Matador and download free MP3 samples. Then buy the reasonably priced CDs (~$10).

The record companies are about revenue not music. We can make them irrelevant.

>Matador's entire catalog is posted

Sorry dude, it isn't.

I just search for Jega, and their albums aren't there. Just one measly song...

However, surprisingly, Boards of Canada is there.

Maybe I just picked the unlucky "group"?

Astralwerks figured this out a long time ago . Matador seems to have figured it out a little more recently.

I really wish there were some sorts of vague estimates on the level of record sales that can be attributed directly to the "here are some URLs where you can download full realaudio tracks and/or music videos from albums we just released" mailing list that Astralwerks has been running for .. hm.. i don't remember how long exactly, but it's at *least* five or six years now... even if the number reached for that estimate was totally baseless, it would be really fun if the number started showing up in news articles about "mp3 is ruining record companies profits!" or "software piracy, which is no more prevalent than it was in 1983, is ruining software companies profits!" or whatever, as a little side note "Astralwerks records estimates that their yearly profits are x percent higher as a result of the fact they give some amount approaching half of everything they publish away for free.."

Yeah, I've always heard flexible phonograph records referred to as "Flexi-Disks." I received one in the past year with a copy of Magnet Magazine, when Matador was promoting Steven Malkmus' solo album. If I remember correctly it was about 6"x6" and played at 45 rpm. It quickly wore out (from abuse, rather than repeat listening) and the sound quality was far from great. Good swag for record geeks, tho. Magnet also distributes bi-monthly music samplers to its subscribers.

Vinyl is still an affordable medium for independent bands to put out music on. If you take a look at any of the larger independent labels in existence (like Dischord, Alternative Tentacles, Victory or Matador) you can see that they still produce a tremendous number of vinyl records.

This is done for a few reasons:

It's a less substantial investment than CDs (if the band just doesn't sell, it's less money lost by the label than if they gone ahead and released a full-length CD with them).

Consumers are more willing to spend $3 on a seven inch record of a band they've never heard of than $12 for a full-length CD.

A seven inch with four songs by a band just starting out will most likely have four of their better songs, whereas they might have to struggle to produce an entire CD of music, and write a lot of crappy songs.

and of course:

Damn it, they just sound better.