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I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

I know you're just trolling, but I can't resist a coherent response.

(you can forget all the second rate ramblin' noise that 'independent artists' make in daddy's basement)

I'm sorry if your quest for independent music has not yielded the results you hoped for. Here are some of the mp3.com artists and songs that I enjoy. You might find them tolerable.

• Red Delicious
• Soma Sonic
• The Annie Hawkins Band
• Fisher
• Girl Next Door
• Mistake Theory
• Tom Aragon
• Mother Funk Conspiracy
• 790 Robot Head
• Greta Gaines, "Firefly"
• Moke, "Down"
• Plunky & Oneness, "Don't Be Afraid of Freedom"
• Wolf Hoffmann, "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
• Maktub, "Lies" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Purple Planet, "Little Push"
• Sedona, "Filling Up the Holes"
• The Hill, "Loungecat Called Sin"
• Clyde's Ride, "The Time is Now" (but it doesn't seem to be linked from their page any more...)
• Pyjama Charm, "Interstellar Pizza Girl"
• Fiercen, "Control"
• Blue By Nature, "Cadillac Blues"
• Bradley N. Litwin, "'Tain't Nobody's Business"

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist s/34/303_infinity.html
--

Kosmic Free Music Foundation is group of artists. Their music can be downloaded from WWW-site of KFMF and MP3.com and you can buy their CDs and CD-ROMs. And of cause, you can copy their music to all your friends. I am sure, they have nothing to do with RIAA.


Here is relevant URLs:

http://www.kosmic.org/

http://www.kosmic.org/music.php3

http://www.mp3.com/kosmic

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/126/kosmic_art.htm l

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/67/kosmic_free_mus ic_foundati.html

Kosmic Free Music Foundation is group of artists. Their music can be downloaded from WWW-site of KFMF and MP3.com and you can buy their CDs and CD-ROMs. And of cause, you can copy their music to all your friends. I am sure, they have nothing to do with RIAA.


Here is relevant URLs:

http://www.kosmic.org/

http://www.kosmic.org/music.php3

http://www.mp3.com/kosmic

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/126/kosmic_art.htm l

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/67/kosmic_free_mus ic_foundati.html

First, a word of support... yes, there are good bands on mp3.com believe it or not. :-)= Generally a good way of finding them is to find a channel dedicated to a genre you like and listen to it. A couple of artists I've discovered on mp3.com that I really like are Lizette& and Ian Gibson.

BUT: I don't recommend buying CDs through mp3.com. Why? Sound quality. The audio on mp3.com CDs are 128kbps mp3s and have noticable mp3 artifacts. If you see an mp3.com CD that you want to buy, I recommend contacting the artist directly and asking them if you can get a real 44.1/16 CD from their original audio files.

I also recommend telling mp3.com that you're doing this, so maybe they'll change their policy and allow artists to upload 44.1/16 files for the CDs in addition to the mp3s that can be downloaded.

[TMB]

First, a word of support... yes, there are good bands on mp3.com believe it or not. :-)= Generally a good way of finding them is to find a channel dedicated to a genre you like and listen to it. A couple of artists I've discovered on mp3.com that I really like are Lizette& and Ian Gibson.

BUT: I don't recommend buying CDs through mp3.com. Why? Sound quality. The audio on mp3.com CDs are 128kbps mp3s and have noticable mp3 artifacts. If you see an mp3.com CD that you want to buy, I recommend contacting the artist directly and asking them if you can get a real 44.1/16 CD from their original audio files.

I also recommend telling mp3.com that you're doing this, so maybe they'll change their policy and allow artists to upload 44.1/16 files for the CDs in addition to the mp3s that can be downloaded.

[TMB]

My friend Joey has not set up where you can buy his music yet...but for the artists that do have pay for play, or cd's available, I definately DO buy the music I like.

The equation is very simple for me: if I like an artist, I want him/her to continue making more music. The incentive/reward is to pay them for what I have already listened to, and enjoy.

And, as a quick plug of MY fav mp3.com artist, Magic Firesheep.

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

S.O.U.- minimal drum 'n' bass from Sense, who is a passionate defender of real dnb (been talking to this cat by email, which is why he's the first one I think of)

Rally! cool Britpop trio from Glasgow who just rock like crazy- I particularly liked 'Shoot You Down'. Alec from Rally says that on the original master tapes you can hear the drummer smash his hand on the ride cymbal and yell 'fuck!' :) The whole track rages on the brink of punkish anarchy and ultraviolence, I loved it :)

Corruptdata- weird techno from Vegas. Geek tie-in: these guys are fanatics over 'Pulse' soundcards! When I first heard them they had only a few tunes on the page, some of 'em not for download, but the cold techie feel of their stuff appealed to me- sort of 'Mr Data on slightly too much CPU supply voltage' music :) I am proud to say that I'm the guy who talked them into putting more stuff up for download (at mp3.com, that earns you more listens- more $) and damn, look at 'em now :) you can get _hours_ of corruptdata off that page for free, and help them out too by doing it.

Bassic. This guy's perhaps the #1 big mp3.com success story- that 50 grand on his page is from _listens_ alone, doesn't count CD sales. A lot of people want to be like him and a lot of people get upset at the amount of money he's earned off his music (any salaried day job would earn more tho) but the fact is he earned it fairly- his stuff is like electronic easy listening. He likes Mike Oldfield and you can hear some of that translated to synths- there's a relaxed, spacious quality about a lot of his music that makes it great to just unwind you. It's original enough to not be real derivative, and familiar enough to not be gratitiously original like, er, a lot of my stuff ;) (see 'Bone Dragon' or 'Water Dragon' for examples!). Bassic's music is very Zen and sits effortlessly in a peaceful zone of making enjoyable sounds. To top it off, Martin Lindhe ('Bassic') himself is genuinely a really nice guy. Always worth a listen :) Regular Size Monster: And now for something _completely_ different... if you ever wanted to hear genuinely innovative rap look no farther than here. Gentle Jones is capable of diving into polysyllabic polyrhythmic utterances that charm and surprise, all with a signature effortless light delivery that's perfectly timed- over a wide variety of backing music. I particularly liked 'Gentle' and 'Pinky The Kid', but there's much more- and it does fit well with the traditional rap approach, isn't just a tangent from it. Gentle is well respected among mp3.com rappers for his brilliance and the skill of his delivery, and he's tried hard to get people who would normally refuse to listen to any rap to check his stuff out- often with very positive results. He's very worth hearing.

Preacher- OK, Rolling Stone called this 'guilty pleasures' :) What that means is that this guy got himself a guitar, turned it up to about 12, and ever since then he's just been loving it :) as another competitive lil' guitar player I think I can cut this guy if we got in a guitar duel (I offer my 'Alleycat' or 'Horse' or especially 'Coyote' as arguments in this) but I dunno if I could enjoy wailing on the guitar half as much as Preacher. He's not always on time, bends not always in tune, but by God you do _feel_ the sheer guitarization of it all- unlike a lot of guitar players this guy is more than happy to go straight over the top without even thinking about it, all in a blues-rock classic style, but grungier and hairier and stinkier :) To top it off he gets a great fluid tone that rips and snorts. I realise some slashdotters will think this is garbage, but I don't care- Preacher's cool :)

Kaden. Can we say 'completely different' again? This guy, working at the moment in dark ambient, is relentlessly intellectual, rigorous, deadly competent, ruthlessly critical of both others and himself without fear or favor. Very professional work- he's been working in the music business for many, many years- this is adult music. mp3.com is not just a bunch of kids...

Roger McGuinn: Yes, this is the leader of the Byrds! He's not on mp3.com as a cynical ploy- he's playing the folk songs he loves, and he spoke before Congress about how the RIAA-controlled music business didn't make him enough money to feed his family (guess you have to be _bigger_ than The Byrds and write songs that last _longer_ than 'Eight Miles High' and do covers more successful than 'Mr. Tamborine Man' o_O )- so he went to mp3.com and was delighted with how the contract was actually (gasp!) _fair_. Who could imagine? So, here's one guy who made music you listened to growing up- who is _not_ a rich fat bastard siding with the RIAA. You can listen to his folk songs and help him feed his family, which is more than the RIAA ever did for him- and help further convince him how much better the new way of doing things is. He's definitely on our side...

Chris J/The Room Full Of Windows: um, modesty prevents... ;) well, this is the dude who just gave a lot of props to other mp3.com artists above :)

Go to mp3.com and listen to "Carrot Juice is Murder".

Perhaps a better analogy, that the largely republican congress would see is that of guns. One could argue that guns are used primarily to kill people, and therefore should be illegal, however there are legitimate legal uses for them, and hence they are not illegal. (That, and the whole 2nd amendment thing).

Honestly, the argument that a compiler could compile a virus or telnet could be used for hacking into a system is a pretty weak argument, as these programs are far more often used for legal purposes, but Napster is rarely used for anything but sharing copywrighed music. Saying that a compiler is wrong because it could be used to create viruses is like saying that a car is wrong because it can be used for killing people. That's neither the purpose nor the common use.

Frankly, I'd like to see napster win, but not because it's an innocent system that was used once to transfer a few illegal mp3's, but that's not the point, honest (wink, wink). I want napster to win because it has legitimate uses, and claiming the whole system is wrong because 90% of its use is illegal is like assuming that the other 10% of people are guitly, without proof. It is the responsibility of the United States to go after those who are breaking the law, not to profile lawbreakers and make the whole thing illegal. We've tried that with the Japanese during WWII, we've done that in the cities with blacks and hispanics, but it's not right.

Illegal trading of mp3's is wrong, but not *all* trading is mp3's is wrong. Go ahead and imprison the 19 year old college sophomore who has an illegal mp3 collection shared over his dorm, but don't destroy a system that allows for free distribution of great unheard of artists like Kate Rears or the other thousands of artists wanting exposure.

-Alison

First of all, let me say I enjoy your work Baptist Death Ray. I have "Pharisee" and I listen to it on a regular basis...I really should check out the rest of what you've done.

I agree with about 50% of what you have to say, and I respect it because you are a musician, so you know what you're talking about, and you believe it. But I think on the main point you're wrong.

Perhaps I'm just a helpless idealist, but I think all information should be free, mine and yours included. Obviously, there should be some rules of ethics regarding the use of the information -- like cite, don't plagurize -- but for the most part, these already exist.

I was going to go on about how Napster and Gnutella change everything, whether you like it or not, but from your other posts, it's clear that you understand that. I also agree that these are going to be merely tools for promotion of the big bands -- because people need to hear about a song to download it. Even I, avowed pretentious indie rock and punk fan, found out about your music from my subscription to Listen.com's newsletter (before it started to totally suck, by the way). This is a problem, and it affects MP3.com et. al just as much as napster.

The solution is collaborative filtering. Even a basic form a la Amazon.com's "people who like this also like these..." would be a great improvement. If you want to make some bucks, I'd find a good domain name and set up a system like this. Make it like Listen.com, but not shitty (read: easy to use...don't seperate the artist's info into four different pages just so you can rack up the banner hits). Offer a rating service. Display the most recent, the most downloaded, and the most highly rated songs on the front page.

That can get an artist's name out. This helps a lot. By getting more listeners, you reach many deaf ears, but you may also find true fans. True fans will support their artist and buy t-shirts, CDs, posters, etc. Offer this. A service like cafepress.com could do this. Let the artist set the prices, or point to their own merchendise page. The idea is to get as many artists as possible invovled, so treat them like gods.

Fans can buy stuff and be happy. But what if they don't want to pay $15 for a t-shirt? I don't think "true" mircopayments will ever work, because they are not volentary, and hence, not ethical, but a "give this artist $1" link might work great!

I think it would rule if there was a site like this. Anyone want to help me make it? :)

/*
In that case, it is very unlikely that MP3 distribution is going to boost CD sales; they simply don't have the capacity to get disks out to everywhere they need to go. As a result, all they can do is watch their MP3s get Dloaded for free, and hope a few people are kind enough to send cash. Shareware, basically.
*/
In fact, there was a Rolling Stone article a year or two ago where they mentioned that Lotusland, at the time one of MP3.com's most downloaded artists, had their songs downloaded 70,000 times, but had sold only 93 CDs. That doesn't seem like a very good return.

My god. What does it take to convince these people that MP3 files are not illegal. The Mpeg Layer 3 format is freely usable by anyone. Just because something has an MP3 tag does NOT mean it is copyrighted material.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am utterly sick and tired of this mentality. For a while my ISP thought I was pirating music when I had a bunch of MP3 files in my html directory. I had to call them on the telephone and explain they were MP3 recordings of a friend of mine's band Neanderthal Mission, and that they were perfectly legal. Another example would be many of your IRC networks who prohibit MP3 channels, even legal ones because they "might be used for copyright infringment".

The point is that people need to WAKE up, and smell the shit they're throwing. MP3s are not always illegal. And until we can past that, we're just handing the RIAA all the power they want.

What they are saying, basically, is that the mp3's are gratis, but not libre: they want traffic to their web page, so they don't want you sharing music the artists have authorized you to download for free, and presumably therefor to share with your friends.

It is invalid to assume that by posting music to MP3.com the artists have authorized you to redistribute their music, even to your friends. The artists have placed their music on MP3.com with the assurance that only individuals will be authorized to use it for personal use. If they want to grant users broader redistribution rights they are perfectly able to do so because they fully retain the copyright on the music that they post. So while finding music on MP3.com does not by default make it legal to share that music with your friends, the artists are not forced to make sharing illegal as they are with traditional record labels - the artists retain the copyright and can authorize sharing if they so desire (witness the Kosmic Free Music Foundation. I urge you to rethink your condemnation of MP3.com because even though they do not force their artists to authorize sharing, they do not prohibit it.

They should have spinned my.mp3.com off from their other, more sensible and legitimate business. Now, when I buy something like a ShadowKeep CD from them, I'll be wondering how much of my money if going to pay for these settlements. Instead of my money going to the band and the people who made it possible for me to hear them (mp3.com), some of it is also going to Time-Warner. Lovely.

I don't think he's a programmer but when asked in an interview, "Why do you have such a strong presence on mp3.com?" he answered "Because I am willing to waste away in front of the CRT for hours each day" :) That ought to count for something! Also, his style is geek-friendly: some rap sounds like Jocks, and Gentle is drastically more articulate, polysyllabic and creative than that, with a more relaxed, flowing delivery that first drew me to his music.

Again, just last night I uploaded four tracks to mp3.com/ChrisJ as part of this collaboration- they are just down from the top of the page, the ones that credit Gentle and have (experimental) in the name and 'parental advisory' on the track ;)

To hear what Gentle normally does (and also you can hear the vocal-only tracks that I added bebop-jazzesque music to), go to mp3.com/regularsizemon ster. I'm not a hip hop listener but I ended up liking lots of the tracks...

Now all we have to do is convince Gentle to geek out on Linux and programming a bit ;)

I don't think he's a programmer but when asked in an interview, "Why do you have such a strong presence on mp3.com?" he answered "Because I am willing to waste away in front of the CRT for hours each day" :) That ought to count for something! Also, his style is geek-friendly: some rap sounds like Jocks, and Gentle is drastically more articulate, polysyllabic and creative than that, with a more relaxed, flowing delivery that first drew me to his music.

Again, just last night I uploaded four tracks to mp3.com/ChrisJ as part of this collaboration- they are just down from the top of the page, the ones that credit Gentle and have (experimental) in the name and 'parental advisory' on the track ;)

To hear what Gentle normally does (and also you can hear the vocal-only tracks that I added bebop-jazzesque music to), go to mp3.com/regularsizemon ster. I'm not a hip hop listener but I ended up liking lots of the tracks...

Now all we have to do is convince Gentle to geek out on Linux and programming a bit ;)

Let's all stop pretending that trading commercial music isn't illegal... I'm a composer and I'd hate to think that my music is being traded around like some phonic whore, but not for the monetary reasons.

If I want a certain jazz/funk album, let's say a Medeski Martin and Wood album, I'm going to buy it. One, jazz/funk albums are never on the net. Because jazz/funk is worth owning. It's not MTV, it's not fad and it's quality musicianship. If my songs are not being bought, they must not be worth anything. I buy jazz, not `backstreet babies'.

If I produce a song ie: this one of mine it's going to be good enough that someone would like to spend money to have a collection of legitimate CDs/Records/Whatever.

It's not going to be because of how big my chest is, how many Carson Daily interviews I've had or what my personal life is like. Cheap image -> cheap music -> cheap returns

I love all the effort that Metallica has put forth. I can't wait to see them give up. Who cares what protocol/application we use? It's community no matter what app you use. Do we really think that any one ~970K application is the problem when I can order a 768KBIT line into my house for ~$50/month?

How hard is it to code 970K with VB type dev software? How hard is it to stop coding like this? Is the application the problem or the expectation of total control over that 768KBIT line?

Metallica: 0 TCP/IP Packets: (2.71 * 10^331)

And what good is "Nabster/Scour/(insert 970K name here)"-tracking software going to do anyway? It's just another pointless information-collecting tool that noone has the time to deal with.
Everyone is so paranoid about information being collected about them. Why. No one even looks at the log files or anything else. So what if an encyclopedia of screen names is being produced. It'll just sit there collecting dust like an encyclopedia does.

I really don't think that MP3's are going to change the music world. I think it's going to make them wake up after all this time of producing boy-bands, girl-bands and overnight success stories.

MP3: kills one-hits dead.

I've been extremely impressed with the leap in quality of music on MP3.com. I tried it out a year or two ago and was unimpressed. Then a few weeks ago when "major label" recordings were disabled from my.mp3.com I started going through withdrawal and decided to give it another shot. In a matter of a few short days I had quickly gathered up over 3 hours of music that I really liked. By traditional means, this would have taken me several weeks and several hundred dollars in buying CDs that I only know a few songs off of (which I've been doing for years). Now if I find a CD I like on MP3.com it's usually much cheaper than normal and I can listen to it instantly rather than waiting for it to come in the mail. If the RIAA and TVT were smart they would be paying MP3.com to provide their useful my.mp3.com service because it added value to buying traditional CDs (e.g., instant listening and listening from anywhere) and would help delay the inevitable shift to a world where the current music distribution paradigm is obsolete.

Lars: "What you have to remember is, it's only bands who are fortunate enough to be at the level that we're at that have the option of maybe circumventing the record companies and the retailer."

Hi Lars! Good to hear from you. Now, look at _this_:

mp3.com/ChrisJ Go there- and just for the sake of argument, pick up "Dragons" (a pretty innovative electronic album I did- you ought to appreciate the time signatures, nothing is 4/4. Plus the sound is fully professional)

Got it? Good. Lars, I just circumvented the record companies and the retailer- all without stepping on _your_ rights one bit. How's that grab you?

I'll be more specific- hope you guys get to read this, you're clearly sharp enough to understand what I'm telling you. Lars, the mp3.com contract is an experienced musician's wet dream- try comparing it to, say, farmclub.com's contract! You continue to own your music, and in fact you own the mechanicals. You get to back out and mp3.com LOSES license rights if you do, save only what they need to sell or use any existing materials (and they print to order, so there wouldn't be much of that). Here's a big one that you'd know about and not so many other people would be hip to- the mp3.com contract is subject to revision ONLY with the consent of both parties (I see you nodding your head, you'd know about contracts that are unilaterally changeable without consent of the artist- part of the 'being fucked' you mentioned).

But that's only part of it: Lars, I have a fan running around evangelising my music (especially that "Dragons" album) like crazy. I've put up some posters, and got hit with an unexpected 'rip fee' that caused them to cost about 30$: this is chicken feed. I've sold some CDs, and lots of people have downloaded my music. The equipment is my hobby and avocation- it's like a guitar player collecting guitars.

Lars, I've already broken even, in a very real sense. How long did it take you guys to recoup your advances when you were first signed? You're one of the few acts that ever manage to do that, and it's because the record companies are still stuck in the mindset where you drag people into billion-dollar studios and put the result through billion-dollar mastering houses, or you don't even do anything. With that mindset, it's no wonder most artists don't recoup their advances.

Well- I grew up (I'm 31) at the end of the era where mastering records was the realm of big rich companies. I saw the rise of home recording (shitty though it was- woohoo for cassette 4-tracks! ;) ) and getting 1000 records pressed for 999$. And I watched as CDs were invented, initially so crappy, as digital recording became so widespread and the bloom went off the rose and people started trying to do better than the initial cruddy 'perfect sound forever' ripoff, and now it's 2000.

Let me tell you what I have at home, now. I'm still making payments on a 20-bit, 48Khz ADAT- eight-track recorder. It doesn't record on 50$ rolls of impossible-to-find reel-to-reel tape: it records on S-VHS cassettes that only run about $10 for 40 minutes of recording. I have plans for getting a CD-R burner- and borrow one when I need it badly enough. Blanks are a couple bucks absolute max. I print cheap art out on an inkjet printer- but to get serious, the local copy shop has a Color Laser Copier. Damn thing prints better than most glossy magazines, totally colorfast, and at just a dollar a copy plus a 14$ rip fee for when I bring them a disk with the CMYK separations on it, to use the copier as my own personal imagesetter...

Are you beginning to get the picture, Lars? This is all about your remark about circumventing the record companies and the retailer. The fact is, you and I are both old enough to remember when you couldn't produce anything but CRAP out of your home- xeroxed covers from paste-up artwork, having dual-cassette decks going 24/7, all that rot and the result always reeked of 'demo'.

But those days are GONE now. Yes, most musicians still don't have the expertise or resources or experience to put together a total package that rivals what the record companies (expensively) manage to put together. But dude- some of us do, and there will be more and more.

That leaves only distribution- and that's the easy part, there are a million 'e-businesses' dying to get anywhere _near_ the markup routinely charged by the music biz.

The fact is, Lars, everybody gets to circumvent the record companies and retailers now, and you don't even have to accept a loss in quality- DIY, or hire your own people who're good enough, and you're rolling. Copy shops are outputting printed paper as good or better than major label pressing houses. Project studios are kicking the asses of big mastering houses and 128-track monster studios (not hard- when the output media is only 16/44K). It didn't used to be that way as we both know, but now things are very different.

Good luck on getting free of your own record company entanglements- I own my masters, dunno if you guys own yours, and that could be a ball and chain for you. One thing that is very clear from hearing you out, is this: the record companies are _using_ you, man. They are letting you take all the heat for doing what _they_ want done, and they're not helping you, even. They should at least take responsibility for the fact that you're doing _their_ work. At least the old adage "no such thing as bad publicity" is still true! But you don't owe them any respect- I, like many people, expected that all this was driven by the record companies. Imagine my surprise to discover that, yes, they love seeing this happening, yes it's for their benefit, but they are letting a lot of people ruin you guys' reputation and they're not even SUPPORTING you? That's disgusting.

That changes things, for me. I have no gripe with you guys. My complaint is with the labels- my action is to MAKE MUSIC and put it out there without using them in the slightest way. Reading that the labels are letting you fight this whole fight on your own- it disgusts me. You're paying for the lawyers and stuff out of your own pockets? The labels are the primary beneficiaries, they've made God knows how much off you over the years, and they won't even cover the cost of a damn lawyer to protect _their_ interests? That's disgusting! You're being fucked- start making plans for what you're going to do when they no longer own your ass, that's all I can say.

Hope you like my tunes- feel free to make copies for your friends :)

Maybe I'll not bother trying the daring and death defying 'b' tag next time. I am so 1333333T!1! Wait, let me try this:

mp3.com/ChrisJ

Now, let's see if that got munged (bold _outside_ the href, and none of the tags are being bisected by the text box)

And now that I've proved I'm a fscking 1333T g33K- go listen to my g33K mUz1K *g*

mp3.com/ChrisJ

Now, when I don't do that all the fscking time and get way overexposed and become as familiar as hot grits, I usually get a nice heavy stats boost. It's not arbitrary- I have to have something to say on the Slashdot article for it to actually work. In this case, what I have to say is hey- Slashdot readers _do_ support 'open source' artists (I hate 'unsigned' as a label- sounds like you want to be signed- think of it as the equivalent in musical terms of 'microsoft-only shop', for a more clear picture of what that's about)

Maybe not lots and lots of Slashdot readers, maybe not even 200 Slashdot readers, but over 150 slashdot readers on some days do actually go looking for 'open source music', free MP3 stuff that's actually MEANT to be free. That might be a drop in the bucket but it's a heck of a lot better than nothing. I'm proud to be a slashdotter on those days- it's like taking a picture of how many slashdotters actually WILL turn away from the grossly corrupt 'traditional' music industry and start working with the actual artists, maybe helping them work out their plans for a RIAA-free future. We can't go out and make an RIAA-free future if nobody listens and understands what we're trying to do, and frankly slashdotters are some of the best-equipped people to understand this because of libre software, and because the typical slashdotter paranoia is actually totally relevant to understanding the traditional music industry o_O

As far as my own stuff- I have a weird but cool 'ambient from hell' album (Cirrus) that some of you might not have heard, and I'm working on one that's like "Dragons" only using electric bass and guitars more (making it quite the uncategorisable thing!). "Dragons" continues to get a lot of positive reviews, and I have this one terrific fan (guy who goes by the nick of Moses) who's been exhausting himself trying to get people to listen to and buy the Dragons album :) I feel bad that he has to try so hard, but I didn't ask him to do any of it so I just periodically try to cool him off saying "It's okay, I'm making music for the sake of the music- it doesn't have to be in the 'charts' (mp3.com style) for me to be happy!", and this might help.

Again, slashdotters DO support independent artists. Perhaps not constantly- other things like buying mountain dew for all night coding sessions might come first- but they do support us, I can track that sort of thing and Slashdot (when it feels like it) is always a comparatively huge surge of downloads and pageviews (which figures...) That does count as support, it is noticed, it is appreciated. :)

But you know what? Having that cassette turned me into a fan I subsequently purchased the following LP and even went back and bought the one I'd taped previously. So that band (Love Tractor in case you're curious) benefitted from my "illegal taping", despite their plea that I refrain.

Is this anecdote illustrative of anything? Personally, I think so. Music is a great promotional tool. The motivation should be on expanding distribution, not restricting it. If I were a recording industry executive, I'd be looking at shooting ahead of the rabbit rather than trying to create obstacles. I'd be embracing the technology as the viral marketing tool than it is. In the short term, I wouldn't be worried about eroding profits, taking solace in the fact that people with -56K connections aren't too enamored with spending 15-30 minutes downloading a track...assuming they know how to access it in the first place. I'd be a fool to characterize college campuses as dens of rampant MP3 trading rather than viewing them as fertile ground for cultivating future fan bases. Even so, there's a much larger population out there that is still uninitiated or unaffected by the lure of "free music online". In the meantime, I'd start building a strategy to embrace and exploit this coming wave. I'd strive to make my retail product better than the freely exchanged product; adding multimedia content, including extended liner notes, enclose coupons or promotional giveaways...the creative possibilities are numerous. Make the retail product something worth spending money on. Use the free MP3 (or whatever digital format you like) to promote the product. It's like a huge listening station where you are trying to hook listeners into wanting more and better. If the music is disposable, then it won't stand up to this model, but then that's a good example of natural selection isn't it? Might cut down on the ephemeral successes of future Milli Vanillis and Spice Girls. If the music is in demand, then you have more sales and more profit.

Oh yeah, and I wouldn't gouge my customers with unsupportable product pricing and then blame things like My.MP3.Com and Napster for flat sales.

For a change of pace, scrounge through the heaps of amateurs at MP3.Com and see what gems you can find. Building fans. Here's a small "station" of World Beat music I've created -- Outside the Box. Make your own; share with friends. MPPP may be in the tank but I think they're doing a lot of things right.

Guys, Napster is BAD for artists. It is!

Why is having a universal radio station that can broadcast any musiciam music, regardless of their marketing agreements, bad for music artists? Seriously?

I'll tell you right now, you don't pay me to make software, I don't fucking make software. The same should go for artists.

I don't understand this argument. At least from the artistic viewpoint. From the feeding my family viewpoint, I can see it, but if you are doing art to feed your family, you are either a damn good artist, or an idiot. In fact, the RIAA agrees with you. They now want to treat all artists work as "works for hire", which means that the artist will NEVER control the copyright to their work, because, like you said if "you don't pay me to make software, I don't fucking make software." Not only that, but with that attitude, I'll bet you make shit software. That's the attitude that Metallica has taken, take a hear from their new album (Which is another reason for their "outrage"..free advertising. Did they mention that they have a new video, single, and movie tie-in coming out right now?) and see if it's art or shit.

Art is different than work. It needs to be encouraged in a different way. Copyright law is there to encourage arts and sciences. If I was an music artist today and I saw the current situation (i.e. I would have to sell the rights to my work totally to get *any* compensation), I would not be encouraged.

But, that's o.k. There is hope. I'll go ahead and quote a guy off of MP3.com.

"Thank you all for your support, I am honored to have your respect, and see that I'm selling albums
all over the world. 303infinity has plans to
create so much more this year, just
remember, independent musicians now have
the internet as a marketing tool. The
possibilities are endless... infinity."


--

*hehe* I could point you towards other noise artists who literally were doing just that- cat something_or_other > /dev/snd :) personally, I think that's cool- some people have put a lot of effort into finding picture data or programs that sound neat when played as audio. That's not what binary is: binary is the performance of a shortwave radio picking up some sort of satellite, run through a homemade three-band compressor being played like an instrument :) all of the Hard Vacuum album will sound more or less like that, it's 'noise' music. If it had a beat or notes it wouldn't be noise music :) it's impossible to explain, if you like it good and if you don't then don't DL the other Hard Vacuum tracks or buy the CD :) You're gonna freak when you start listening to 'anima', that's just as different :) want a pointer to the guy on mp3.com who's doing noise music from raw computer data? That would be Monessen :)

mp3.com just got bitten by RIAA, right?

Go download some music (legally) from there and support mp3.com. I'm only just getting back in to mp3.com after not having looked at it for a while. There's some _seriously_ good music there if you dig around a bit.

Was thinking about mp3.com the other day, and, apart from the whole legally dodgy Beam-It stuff, I can see why RIAA wants to shut mp3.com down. As I said, there's a lot of really good music available for download - music that I would of previously been happy to go buy in a shop on CD. "Commercial" quality and all that. Or I can get a DAM CD for ~US$7, and the artist is still making more money than if they had a record deal with a major. And, hey, guess what? The majors aren't getting in on this new stuff.

There's already some artists who are making a decent living from mp3.com sales, etc. Look here.

The majors aren't needed any more. I would be upset if I was them.

(for a nice selection of electronic music from mp3.com, check out this link )that I have nothing to do with): http://stations .mp3s.com/stations/2/turn_on_tune_in_space_out_.ht ml)

...j

Bullshit!

Napster is a service. They are _facilitators_. They are not making a contribution as much as they are helping along interactions.

Metallica are a band. They create art. Sure, it may be crap art, sure they might not be able to make as good art as they used to, but let me tell you about a guy named Ernesto Cortazar and maybe you'll understand a little better...

Ernesto Cortazar is the king of Easy Listening on mp3.com. He dominates the charts, sometimes in genres that aren't even Easy Listening- he dominates the Classical charts in spite of many complaints that his music isn't really Classical- he has 11 CDs available on mp3.com, _all_ a humble and reasonable $5.99- he's earned over 29 thousand dollars in downloads alone, again on mp3.com.

Ernesto makes music that would make a Metallica fan puke! He's totally committed to Piano Easy Listening, love songs, the complete 'not even new age' approach lacking only the candelabra on the piano. But he _means_ it. That's what he _likes_. I am telling you from the viewpoint of a musician (one who's only made $54 off downloads and makes infinitely less 'easy listening' music, except for "Wood Dragon": mp3.com/ChrisJ) that Ernesto contributes more to the world than Napster, because Napster _facilitates_ and Ernesto _creates_.

By the same token, of _course_ Metallica contributes more to the world than Napster! You don't have to _like_ what they contribute, but saying they contribute less than Napster is damned insulting because Napster never wrote a song in its life! It's not _about_ contributing, any more than TCP/IP is about contributing. It's about _communicating_.

I could wish that, instead of trying so hard to tear Metallica down, you spent some of that effort trying to build the musicians who _do_ cooperate and share and communicate, up... yes, of course I say that as I'm a (and only one of the) token slashdot musician, and of course I would like to actually be able to buy strings more often and get more of the tools I use to create with. But frankly I would be nearly as happy to see you go out there and hype Ernesto, or Bassic who also makes plenty of money by, again, doing what _he_ genuinely enjoys, which is Mike Oldfield-influenced synthesizer music that's very pretty and peaceful, most of it. These people are doing things the right way, as am I... must the whole story be about tearing down Metallica, can't some of it be about building up us?

Excellent point.

I think the difference is intention. Parents don't raise children for the money. And, I would argue, artists don't make art for the money. They make it because creating something and sharing it is fulfilling and fun.

But entertainers *are* in it for the money, and the way our society works, you're allowed to charge money for most anything you have or do, and people have the choice of taking it on your terms or leaving it. What we're not allowed to do is take something on terms other than those set by the owner or creator. That's why copying MP3s feels like stealing.

There is a point past which an entertainer's demands can seem unreasonable and ignoring their terms seems okay. Imagine if the author of "Happy Birthday" demanded that we all send him or her $100 each every time we sung the song at a party. Few people would comply or stop singing. It seems that the recording industry has reached that line, and it turned out to be a lot closer to $0 than $100.

However, I don't think that the line of reasonability is actually $0. Just last night I was sitting around trying to figure the best way to give the Arrogant Worms $10 because I like their song The Last Saskatchewan Pirate. $10 for one song! Well, I like it a lot. I played it at my wedding. And the band seems cool, so why not.

If there had been a button on my Winamp that said Tip The Artist, I would have pressed it. If there had been a Paypal link on the Worm's home page, I would have used it. (Well, if they worked with Canadians anyway -- hurry up, PayPal!)

Entertainers need to concentrate on making it easy to send them money, so we fans can reward them for entertaining us. I think if it were easy for millions of people to reward entertainers voluntarily, many talented people could make a living off free music.

Where is the record industry's role in this? Well, they should stick to what they're good at -- promotion. Perhaps artists can hire them like agents, giving them 10% or more of the cut. That's probably a lot less than what the record companies are used to getting. Maybe they should start a band.

(And yes, I recognize that most performers are both artists and entertainers. Which is fine -- there's nothing wrong with getting paid for what you like to do. As long as what you ask is reasonable.)

Tim Mitchell
Yogurt