Slashdot Mirror
State of Online Music: RIAA's Efforts Paying Off
melquiades writes "The NYT (regreq) has a new article about online music, suggesting that the recording industry's war against P2P is paying off: pay-to-download services are rising in popularity. "Largely because of tough actions by the record companies to combat free music sites through the courts, legislation and even through techno-guerrilla tactics, there is a noticeable change of sentiment in a small segment of the downloading cognoscenti. Though their numbers are low, many are the early adapters who spot a trend first." Though the article falls into the common fallacy of equating P2P with illegal copying -- I'm one of the numerous artists who wants people to download my music for free -- it sums up the state of affairs well, particularly in this quote from online music consultant Michael Haile: "Record labels know what consumers want. We all do. They want a Napster you pay for. We all know that. But why would the labels want that at all? Making CD's is like printing money.""
I've used Emusic. I've had no problems with download speed--usually maxing out my DSL, certainly faster than any p2p networks I've used. The downloaded songs are just mp3s, so you keep them forever. Selection doesn't rival audiogalaxy, alas, but they certainly have a lot outside of the mainstream. Of course you don't need to subscribe to see what songs/artists they have available--look at www.emusic.com.
Kazaa Lite is a spyware-free Kazaa, but alas it also is a bandwidth hog. WinMX is a pretty great tool, now that it has caught up to Kazaa-style tools in terms of features, and it uses OpenNap servers as well as (I think) a semi-proprietary protocol of its own. It's also completely spyware-free.
Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
...Or go straight for the weird stuff.
Or buy CDs from artists you've never heard of.
You've just described emusic.com, but with a better selection
I know a thousand people have said it before, but that is exactly what Emusic does. Unencumbered MP3s from artists you would not necessarily buy in a store, all for 10 bucks a month.