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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,
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
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?
If you insist on paying for what you can get for free, cut the middle-man and just send the 50 cents directly to the artist that made the music, because thats about all they get from that 15 bucks you would spend at the store
I haven't even bothered to use iTunes or any other service that sells music online. I thought I'd play with mp3.com, since they have a pretty nice section of eletronic music. It turns out they give you an option to download the music file from various sources, in various formats, including ogg! On top of this, they tell you if the file is DRM'd or not. I might actually be a customer once the "coming soon..." is replaced with an actual link for purchasing.
The new www.mp3.com.com.com.com...
(if you don't get it, visit other C|NET sites.)
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
~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.
Just what I always wanted, a search engine that would tell me where I couldn't find what I was looking for...
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
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
Read the article about converting vinal to optical...
Notice the steps...
Step Five:
Step Seven:
Step Eight:
Step Seven:
Step Eight:
Note: Repeat steps three to eight for the other side of the LP.
Step Nine:
Wow, that's great!
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
I'm still wondering if there's a way for a band that has disbanded (heh) to put its material back on garageband.com. I'm particularly interested in a bluegrass group called Big Twang -- for details, see my mirror of their now-defunct site. They had three songs at mp3.com, but since the band was gone by December 19, 2003, I guess there's no way to get their account back.
.mp3's are safe... on my hard drive. Don't tell the lawyers!
Of course, the
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
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.
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 found it interesting that MP3.com is the third large site to relaunch recently with a CSS-based layout. Fileshack and Blogger (with Blogger being an education for all web designers) have also used CSS in their new layout.
The point? Interesting to see that MP3.com are forward thinking - in their web side anyway.
Free iPods - now in the UK!
Some people blame diminishing CD sales on unauthorized CD copying; others blame it on technological obsolescence (people buy DVD's instead of CD's now); still others say it's because poor artistic decisions by record labels result in releasing uninteresting music that people don't want to buy. I haven't yet seen a connection made with authorized, freely downloadable music, that people can listen to instead of buying proprietary CD's, just like they can run GNU/Linux instead of buying Windows, Apache instead of IIS, etc. Sure, a lot of mp3.com downloads are crap, but lots of commercial CD's are crap too.
Another really good site, by the way, is Magnatunes. They publish entire CD's under a Creative Commons license and you can download the complete CD's in mp3 format and pass around copies noncommercially. You can also pay to download in FLAC or Ogg Vorbis format, or buy commercial licenses (e.g. if you want to use one of the CD's as a movie soundtrack) through a simple web interface. There is some really excellent music there too.
Well, OK, so the site is disapointing.
One good thing that it DOES have is the musicvine. Shows the relationship between artists in a (not horrible, not great) flash interface.
This sure beats using Amazon to help me find the relationships between artists, and scouting out new sounds for my "distinct" tastes.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
I think (note that implies less than 100% certainty) that zerophase.net has what you're looking for. They're very independent and very into supporting innovative ways to (legally) share music.
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.
While it's not a forum/website with a list, it is a handy tool one can use to tell if an album is affiliated with an RIAA label or if you can buy it guilt-free: http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/
Why bother to use a name that ends up being misleading? MP3.com == downloads. Garageband has picked up the old playlists and music.download.com is growing into what MP3.com was. About the only thing it could be is a come-on for pay-per-song portals, and it'd take the peculiar thinking of a dedicated marketoid to think that'll go over.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
RIAA Members Check what the label of the artist you are listening to is and check if that label is on that list. So, if you have a choice, then try to buy cds from labels NOT in that list !
Maybe you're not aware of how major label contracts work, but the artist has to pay the costs of recording, marketing, etc., out of their royalties. The only thing the label gives them is essentially a loan, with an extremely high cost (loss of ownership of their creation, and serious doubt as to whether they'll ever get paid what they're owed). Some relevant links: Steve Albini's rant on how contracts work: http://www.negativland.com/albini.html A recent decision showing the RIAA owed $50 million in unpaid royalties to artists "they couldn't track down", like Dolly Parton: http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-05-04 -music-royalties_x.htm
And most importantly, the recent story of Marillion, who proved that you absolutely do not need a record company in this day and age:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/marillion_ comeback/
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.
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.
You can find it for download here, in your choice of format and bit rate (up to 384kbps), DRM-free, for $0.01 per MB (and, BTW, when they say MB, they mean 2^20 bytes).
As I understand it, it is a legal download, though it probably makes the record labels angry.
(How is it legal? IANAL, but my understanding is that it works like this: Under Russian law, there is apparently no difference between broadcasting over radio and "broadcasting" over the Internet. allofmp3.com pays royalties just as though they were a radio station and thereby obtains the right to "broadcast" over the net. I'm sure the RIAA is trying to figure out how to close this loophole in Russian law, but they haven't been able to do it yet. Oh, and AFAIK there is no law against importing music files from Russia, although it may be the case that you're supposed to pay some sort of import duties.)
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
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
Why even bother with any of these music services when allofmp3.com still exists and accepts paypal? Almost any music i want, in any bitrate i want, in any format i want (sometimes even lossless) With a great download manager that sorts my mp3s perfectly... all for what, .60c an album in 160kbps ogg?
Probably not legal in the US, but the russian government fully backs it, and with it accepting paypal to charge an account, I'm a happy customer.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
...how Universal was able to sell the licenses of 1.7 million songs it did not own to Trusonic, who was then able to sell them again to GarageBand.
Universal made $31 million selling the independent library, that they CHARGED musicians to post.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...
On the file sharing networks I use, it only takes one search to download Abbey Road.