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The New MP3.com: 3rd Time a Charm?
macdaddypunk writes "Two weeks ago, CNET unveiled Download.com Music (mistaken by some for the new MP3.com). A week ago, they told the press that the real MP3.com was open for business, yet the site itself still said "coming soon." Today, MP3.com is finally live, and off to a sputtering start. It's a combination of tech articles and a meta-search for major-label downloads. For example, with a single search you can find that 'Abbey Road' by the Beatles is not available for legal download at iTunes, Napster, or anywhere else. The tech content includes such gems as 'how to copy your old vinyl records onto CDs.' The real news is what it does NOT include: no free downloads, and no indie artist community. (As reported earlier, the former MP3.com archive of 1.7 million songs was instead resurrected by another independent music community). The new MP3.com's search results don't even include the 3,500 indie artists from Download.com Music."
For example, with a single search you can find that 'Abbey Road' by the Beatles is not available for legal download at iTunes, Napster, or anywhere else. [...] The real news is what it does NOT include: no free downloads, and no indie artist community.
This submission sounds less like a news item and more like a proactive obituary. It's "mp3.com" in name only.
Trolling is a art,
Perhaps this is more properly a subject for a JE but does anyone have any forums/websites with a list of Indie artists that aren't signed to a RIAA member (and not just the RIAA members that aren't on the board -- i.e: the big 5)?
I don't think I (or most people) can cut RIAA completely out of my life because I do like a few of the artists (though I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a DRM'ed file from any online source -- used cds rock) but it would be nice to expand the horizons and check out some indie artists in the genres that I and my family/friends like.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Why are so many hopping onto this downloaded music craze. I thought Apple Itunes, which looks like the field leader, was not making any profit at all, and was just using it as a tool to boost thier ipod sales. Does Walmart and mp3.com really think they fare much better?
really, the best route for anyone wanting to listen to music is to stick to more independent material--there's enough good stuff out there to last you several lifetimes.
that way, when you buy a song from Magnatune, Bleep, or Audiolunchbox, you WON'T be:
1.) sending your cash to the RIAA
2.) attributing to the success of a service that fronts the RIAA, supporting the operation of tyrannous record labels with your cash
3.) supporting propietary DRM
4.) locking yourself into using iTunes or an iPod as your portable player
by opting for other services that aren't iTunes/Walmart/Sony/Rhapsody/etc.., you WILL be:
1.) sending more cash to the musicians you like
2.) attributing to the success of a service that better represents and compensates the musicians you like, without restricting how you listen to your music
3.) free to listen to your music however you want, whether it be with winamp or foobar, linux or whatever OS you use, ipod or rio karma
This is only "news" if you haven't paid any attention at all to who owns MP3.com, and the "general trend" in on-line music sites to charge for downloads. Really, to say this is "no surprise" is even an overstatement. Just another music-for-sale download site. Move along...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I was depressed to see that section on mp3/digital format players was a far cry from what the 'old' mp3.com had. Instead of listing pretty much every player (portable or not), it now appears that the only players listed are the ones that have paid for the spot ! I could be mistaken, but I did not see any mention of mp3/wma home appliances (ala audiotron) nor did i see any of the lesser known brands of portables (like the nex II). So what was once a shot at getting the 'lille guy' in front of the world, is now a slick marketing engine. Sad, very sad.
Dont forget to send money to the sound engineers, the studio managers, the musicians, pre press engineer, factory workers and everyone else involved. Or do you think that Madona just grunts and craps out a pile of CDs?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I just tried loading this site with my Opera 7.23 browser and its completely out of sync.. The right side (main area) of the front page is blank and seems to have loaded at the very bottom of the page leaving a huge empty white space where there should be content.. and the left sidebar menu is improperly aligned and doesn't look as it should.. anyone else having this issue with their browser?
You'd think they would at least test their new site in more than one browser before such a massive launch.. sigh
I'll play Devil's advocate for a moment: Those artists wouldn't be where they are (playing on your radio, or downloadable on your Kazaa) without the support for the label. They certainly wouldn't have had the recording time, staff of engineers/producers/marketing folks, the distribution, the advertisements, or the promotion without those evil labels. As much as I hate it, the 50 cents that goes to the artist (which is much more than most estimates I've heard) isn't really a fleecing.
Think about it: who did the hard work? Who made it possible for them to go from "starving artist" to "pop star?" Other than writing (sometimes) and performing (some of it) the songs, the artist is not the one laboring.
Some of my favorite artists were able to survive without a label (but they never got huge). Others got huge on a label, but were wise with their money and started their own as soon as they could.
I can look forward to even more spam from these folks! Seriously, they were still heaping mounds and mounds of promotional crap when they weren't of any real use to anyone, crossing that fine line between chutzpah and bullshit many, many times.
Monster Zero is the reason we cannot live on the surface, but must live forever live underground like this.
Anything comparing a record's longevity to a CD's is priceless. Not to mention completely futile. I have records that are >60 years old. They survived carelessly laying around my grandparent's house. Compare that not to music CDs, but to CD-Rs which the article is talking about, and you have complete idiocy.
/. every once in a while about wether CDs really do sound that much worse than vinyl, which may be something you're remembering. For me, that's kind of a moot point. As a teenager, I can't come close to affording speakers that would be able to differentiate the subtlties of analog vs digital music.
Tons of articles and comments pass through
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
When I bought my car the dealership tossed me the keys for a test drive. Not being able to test drive a damn 2 dollar song is beyond reason.
[beyond reason]? Not really.
The car in question cost quite a few thousands of dollars. It makes sense to accomodate test drives, and show rooms, etc.
Do you really insist on getting a free test of anything before you spend 2 dollars on it?
For a $20,000 ITEM, hell yes.
But for a $2 item? Personally, I don't waste 5 seconds deliberating over such trivia. If I need to 'test' a $2 item before I am convinced I want to buy it, I DON'T FREAKIN NEED IT!
Meanwhile, I agree with the sentiment that what the music industry has let itself evolve into deserves to die a painful death, since technology has made them little more than unnecessary middlemen, and they should go the way of the buggywhip.
But your logic is faulty.
Ever wonder why gasoline costs so much now? Take a look at all the SUVs.
Like Napster before it, it seems MP3.com has fallen victim to the RIAA's insatiable greed. What before was a bastion to new, emerging, and often innovative bands is now pay to listen, and no indie artists.
I like to call this the Zombie Effect - websites and P2P programs are killed by a higher authority, and then resurrected under complete control of that authority. It's happened before, and unfortunately, as this example shows, it will happen again.
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
Actually, the sound engineer, the studio managers, the pre press engineer, and the factory worker have already been paid in full. It's the Artist that the music industry shackles into indentured servitude through the corrupt system of 'royalties'.
Thedse atre typoas...
Thee'se reely our knot typoes.
Yeah, I recently recieved an e-mail from garageband.com telling me I could re-post all of my garage bands songs by just clicking on a link. But, I figure, I'm better off without a label holding me back, yeah know? I need to be a free man, making music for me, not for some guy in a suit ... sitting at a computer ... clicking buttons and stuff ... any way ...
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
There's also this gem:
since a digitized sound loses all of the sonic information between its sampling points
Clearly written by someone who doesn't understand how PCM works.