Ask Slashdot: Which International Online Music Stores Are Legit?

Donate then infringe. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:14 · Score: 1

Just don't. Donate instead. If you can't infringe.

Re:Donate then infringe. by meuhlavache · 2012-11-18 20:58 · Score: 5, Informative

Or try www.jamendo.com and donate

Hard to tell by vikingpower · 2012-11-18 20:14 · Score: 4, Informative

AFAIK, the line between "legit" and "illegal" is blurry in at least two of the countries the author mentions.

--
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Re:Hard to tell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:34 · Score: 1

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=phonorecord&url=/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000602----000-.html
Re:Hard to tell by Xest · 2012-11-18 21:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

That and I think "legit" and "benefit the artist" are largely mutually exclusive most of the time.
National and international music federations like the RIAA, IFPI, etc. seem to get to decide what sites are and aren't legit, yet they're also the organisations whose sales least benefit the artist.
As someone else said, paying the artist direct where possible is the best option, but even that assumes the artist has the rights to sell directly their produce and hasn't signed over all sales rights to an organisation as described above.
Re:Hard to tell by mnooning · 2012-11-19 00:19 · Score: 1

Didn't Michael Jackson get hundreds of millions of dollars from a Japanese firm in exchange for MJ's selling rights? In that case, the Japanese firm had (and still has) every right to the money from sales of MJ's music.
Re:Hard to tell by Xest · 2012-11-19 00:25 · Score: 2

Possibly, but using probably the most succesful artist of all time as a data point doesn't really tell you much about the situation in general.
Re:Hard to tell by jonwil · 2012-11-19 00:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

Look at what happened to allofmp3.com. Followed all the laws in Russia. Paid all the required money to the Russian music licensing agency. Yet it was still targeted by the RIAA who claimed it was "illegal"
I suspect it would be quite hard to find any digital music store in some of these Asian countries that is both accessible to the USA AND would be considered acceptable/legit by the RIAA.
Re:Hard to tell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 00:48 · Score: 1

That and I think "legit" and "benefit the artist" are largely mutually exclusive most of the time.
Then artists should learn to stand up their own website.
Last few albums I've purchased have been directly from the artist themselves. Great thing is they usually offer the downloads in several different formats (MP3, FLAC, WAV, Ogg, etc.), and by purchasing from the artist via the most direct path, I can generally assume it is also the most efficient path to put money back where it belongs; in the artists pocket.
And if artists think they can't be successful standing on their own, then they're either way too greedy, or have been listening to "managers" way too long.
Re:Hard to tell by ArsenneLupin · 2012-11-19 00:55 · Score: 1

W00t, so the American MAFIAA is more powerful than the Russian Mafia. Who would have known?
Re:Hard to tell by Xest · 2012-11-19 01:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

Agreed. Many artists only have themselves to blame for being too lazy to sort their own affairs. But I'm not surprised as the artists who are too lazy to do this also happen to be the ones that believe in perpetual copyright - i.e. those who only want to spend a few days in a recording studio actually working, and then profit off it for life. The whole situation is born entirely out of the fact that these sorts of artists are simply bone idle layabouts.
It's no different to any other industry, if you want to make the real money from your skillset you do it yourself as a contractor and sort your own tax dealings etc.
The only problem is that most musicians nowadays know full well that they wouldn't make it as a "contractor" because the flip side of being a contractor is that you have to be uniquely skilled enough that someone is willing to hire you. Most modern artists simply don't have the raw talent to make it without the music industry acting as a crutch for them.
Hopefully though, given time, those artists with both the competence and the work ethic to actually do what needs to be done to self publish will become ever more prominent, pushing the layabouts dependent on the music cartels into irrelevance.
Re:Hard to tell by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 01:15 · Score: 1

paying the artist direct where possible is the best option, but even that assumes the artist has the rights to sell directly their produce and hasn't signed over all sales rights to an organisation as described above.
If artists could manage quite happily without these organisations, then why don't they just do that?

Basically, the artist want all the advantages (advances on royalties, management, advertising and marketing campaigns, and all the rest) but then whine when they have to pay for them. Well, fuck it, they can just do it all themselves if they really want to. No one's stopping them.

But, of course, the poor artists are just musicians and don't understand all that finance stuff.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:Hard to tell by wvmarle · 2012-11-19 01:55 · Score: 1

Wrong example.
Allofmp3 was selling music from all over the world, including many popular American artists whose copyrights were held by members of the RIAA.
Submitter is obviously looking for non-American music: Pakistani music from Pakistan, Chinese music from China. As long as those sites do not sell anything whose copyrights are held by the RIAA, the RIAA has nothing to say about where and to whom they sell.
The real question is: do they have the correct license under their local laws (including selling to foreign countries), and do artists benefit from those sales. Not what the RIAA thinks about those sites.
Re:Hard to tell by moeinvt · 2012-11-19 02:05 · Score: 1

?
How do you navigate to the music catalog on that site?
Re:Hard to tell by mrclisdue · 2012-11-19 02:25 · Score: 1

That, plus he's dead, so I wouldn't be overly concerned.
cheers,
Re:Hard to tell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:49 · Score: 1

The sad thing is that I see artists signing up to labels with the contracts as thick as a phone book...
Then they get little to zero promoing by the label, and now have to make some more albums, get zero revenue for it, and still owe the label hundreds of thousands.
The bands that get the promo money are the ones that have been *made*, with the songs written and produced by a MBA marketing guy with a minor in music theory, and the "band" just is there because they look good under heavy stage makeup and might be able to carry a tune for a couple of minutes onstage.
Talk to me 10-15 years ago, I would have things were different -- labels actually went out and did what they could for their signed acts. Now it is just about that "band" full of actors that gets the concert halls and such.
Think Bieber got to where he is by his own prowess? Nope, he had the looks that got him picked up due to a YouTube vid, and is docile enough to sing words written by marketers who know exactly the markets they are aiming at.
In the past, it was a two way street. Bands signed on to hand royalties over, labels promoed them. Now, labels only focus on 1-2 acts, letting the rest falter.
Labels are worthless unless you are that one band that they actually stand behind. Instead, the trick is to slap the stuff onto iTunes and offer the physical CDs oneself.
I just wish there were a site like mp3.com these days that bands could make themselves heard or noticed, with message boards and active reviewers. The closest thing was MS's Urge service (dumb name), that had decent reviews on acts.
Re:Hard to tell by Xest · 2012-11-19 04:41 · Score: 0

Yes, see my post here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3259671&cid=42025953
There are two reasons - lack of talent meaning they need the music industry to even be able to go anywhere in the business, and as you say, pure laziness.
The problem is also one of entitlement, musicians believe they are entitled to make a living doing what they want, they believe they're special, they believe that whether they have anything commercial viable or not is irrelevant, they believe they should not have to work a proper job and treat music as just a hobby, they believe they deserve payment for their hobby, no questions asked. They don't live in the real world, they'll ask 1 million people to give up an hours work to buy their album that only took them a tiny percentage of that same 1 million man hours to create. They'll argue that there's more than just recording involved in creating music and that there's learning to play too, but guess what? we all have to learn our trade and few of us get paid to do so on the job. Most IT contracts for example stipulate that it's upto you to keep your talents uptodate.
This is why I have little sympathy with the current status quo, though I will buy direct from artists who are a) talented, and b) hard working enough to set up their own direct distribution mechanism bypassing the big studios.
Re:Hard to tell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 04:50 · Score: 0

"As long as those sites do not sell anything whose copyrights are held by the RIAA, the RIAA has nothing to say about where and to whom they sell."
Of course, you're absolutely correct, but sadly, in the REAL world, if the **AA see money trading hands and they aren't getting a piece of it, they'll stick their nose in, even if it truly does not belong there. They seem to think that they're entitled to a cut of ALL music/video/movie sales, regardless of where.
Ha, ha, ha! Captcha is "embezzle".
Re:Hard to tell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:55 · Score: 0

Who cares about the RIAA? All of MP3.com was great because it was legal in Russia and that's all it had to be. If you purchase music in another country legally, you are allowed to import it into the United States for your own personal use. Being approved by the RIAA is irrelevant.
Re:Hard to tell by mnooning · 2012-11-19 09:22 · Score: 1

> doesn't really tell you much
I get the point. Jim Croce received cash when he was "small", and the record company got big bucks as Jim had hits. Jim did not get appreciably more. However, that is the chance one takes when taking a lump sum payment like that. Even in Jim C's case, IMHO I'd say the record company was taking a chance, and deserved the rewards as they came along. Jim C could have been a dud, in which case they would have lost money.
Re:Hard to tell by Tastecicles · 2012-11-19 19:58 · Score: 1

USC DOES NOT APPLY outside the Territorial United States.
The United States stops at the Western fringe of the Atlantic Ocean, and with the exception of a few SMALL islands, the Eastern fringe of the Pacific Ocean.
Believe it or not there are about 6.7 billion people who are NOT United States citizens, who do NOT live in the United States, to whom this "USC" does NOT apply.

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Operation Guillotine is in effect.

actually benefit the artists? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

None. Bottomline buy direct whenever possible. Contact the artist if you can't.

Re:actually benefit the artists? by slim · 2012-11-18 23:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

Yes. This. And it only occurred to me recently.
I'd seen a band at a festival, and decided to buy some of their stuff. I could have just gone to Amazon, and usually I would have done. But on a whim, I posted on their facebook page -- "hey, if I want some of your CDs, which online shop gives you the biggest cut of the profit?" They replied "buy it direct from us".
I ended up sending a cheque in the post to a residential address -- and the CDs arrived a few days later, and I have warm and fuzzy feelings from supporting the artist. They also had "tour exclusive" CDs which weren't available any other way.
Of course if I'd had my wits about me, I could have bought those CDs from them at the gig.
It might be harder work with World Music, but it's surely worth investigating.
Re:actually benefit the artists? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 00:26 · Score: 0

If the artist is signed to a major label then they they have to buy the CD they sell at the same (or worse) prices than the regular wholesalers. Some bands sold out so much when they got their record deal that they don't even own their own name anymore.
Re:actually benefit the artists? by wvmarle · 2012-11-19 01:58 · Score: 1

Then that band has good contracts. Or, more likely, it has no contract with any record company, as otherwise they would not be allowed to sell directly.
Besides, buying CDs at the gig doesn't necessarily mean the artist receives more for it, than if you were to buy it in a shop or by placing a mail order over the Internet.
Re:actually benefit the artists? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:05 · Score: 0

As weird as it sounds, buying directly from an artist is not always legal. They sign contracts with labels and often do not retain rights to sell their own creations by themselves.
Re:actually benefit the artists? by Whiteox · 2012-11-19 04:10 · Score: 1

It would be nice to find a site that has these totally independent artists listed - like a catalogue including a link to their merchandise?

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Re:actually benefit the artists? by slim · 2012-11-19 05:27 · Score: 1

This wasn't a totally indie artist. They're Misty's Big Adventure, and they're on the Sunday Best label. I can imagine it's a label that doesn't have arsey contracts, but it's a label that makes proper mass-produced CDs distributed to conventional record shops.
They're just allowed to buy stock of their own CDs at wholesale prices, to sell on as they wish.
Re:actually benefit the artists? by highlander76 · 2012-11-19 06:07 · Score: 1

Definitely agree with buying directly at a concert Plus I usually get them to sign the liner. The really cool bands will join me for a beer or three!
Re:actually benefit the artists? by rjnagle · 2012-11-19 08:56 · Score: 1

(I'm the original poster of the ASK SLASHDOT).
Gosh, does that mean I need to learn Urdu just to figure out where they think I ought to buy something? :) Or just to figure out which website is the official site and which is some fanboy's site for the same Pakistani popstar?
Seriously though, it can be time-consuming to go to sites for individual artists. A lot of them don't have good English translations. I tried buying something on a Russian site, and although I know a little Russian, i couldn't follow the instructions.
As a sidenote, I have noticed that a lot of musicians have abominable websites. Setting up a shopping cart for digital downloads might seem like a trivial task for a slashdot geek, but it's unrealistic to expect musicians to get it done. (I like bandcamp, which has simplified a lot of things-- but I doubt that much of the global music scene has discovered bandcamp).
Yesasia sells CDs, and it's a really slick site (I think it might be based in US though). But they don't sell digital -- only CD media...Indian sites have more digital stores, but frankly I have no idea which of them are legit.
And yes, I realize that "rewarding the artist" is a nebulous concept (especially when the artist may have signed the recording contract 30 years ago). But I think it's reasonable for it to be easy to tell which ecommerce sites are legit and which are not.
OT. I'm writing a book about music collecting for geeks. You can see my list of fave jamendo albums free for downloading here http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/special/11-incredible-musicians-you-can-download-for-free-best-of-jamendo/

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Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
Re:actually benefit the artists? by rjnagle · 2012-11-19 09:05 · Score: 1

One other thought. I'll all for liberalization and reform of copyright laws, but it seems that the pirated sites for Russian music (to take one country as an example) far outnumber the legit sites. I once tried to buy an obscure Russian electronica classic by Agata Kristi and couldn't find any site which sold it legitimately although I could find dozens which distributed it (some of which charged money, some of which did not).
Several years later, I was overjoyed to realize that the Agata Kristi album made it to Amazon.com . I guess you can draw your own conclusions.....

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Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston

All of them by gmhowell · 2012-11-18 20:22 · Score: 4, Insightful

All of them are legit for certain values of 'legit', 'international', 'music', 'benefit', and 'artist'.

In other news, we have always been at war with Eastasia.

Seriously, if you find a store that meets ALL of those criteria, anywhere, it'll be the first. I think the only way to do that is to find a copy of the music anywhere you want, then throw a buck or ten to whomever you decide is the artist. In the case of a RIAA (or local equivalent) band, there's a good chance that the actual artist is not the official artist of record.

--
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon

Re:All of them by aliquis · 2012-11-18 21:04 · Score: 1

In the case of a RIAA (or local equivalent) band, there's a good chance that the actual artist is not the official artist of record.
What?
Re:All of them by Canazza · 2012-11-18 21:10 · Score: 2

Maybe he's on about the artists who only sing the songs, as opposed to the artists who write it for them?
Most of the Boy/Girl bands out there have their songs written by professional songwriters so if you're going to throw them a buck, you have to decide which party to donate to.

--
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Re:All of them by rtfa-troll · 2012-11-18 21:28 · Score: 2

Look up session musicians. Most RIAA "artists" are chosen for their looks. Giving money to RIAA labels is (mostly) supporting the true "pirates" of the music seas. If you want to support artists, go see a band playing live. Even then, avoid major label bands who nowadays have to sign over their concert rights.

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Re:All of them by pecosdave · 2012-11-18 21:52 · Score: 2

Wear your skinny jeans, ride a fixed gear bike there, and don't forget the ironic glasses, hat, and mustache, especially if you're a woman.

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The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Re:All of them by ysth · 2012-11-18 22:00 · Score: 1

iconic glasses, perhaps?
Re:All of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

Then you have the advertisers, without which you would have never heard of the band.
And manager (shit does not just happen, someone has to make it happen, I'd guess it is rare that it is the band that does that).
And post-production team to make it sound good.
And the accountants to ensure taxes are filed in time and correctly.
And I'm sure 10s to 100s of other people that turn a band into viable business.
You could say that you only need to throw the money at the band, and let them handle all that shit.
And the band could say "throw it at the manager, we deal with the music, they handle all that shit".
Then the manager could just say "throw it at the label, they handle most of that shit more cost effectively than I".
Re:All of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:13 · Score: 0

They'll sell their ass, their cocks and balls / They'll take the check 'n' walk away / If they're lucky they'll get famous / For a week or two perhaps
Re:All of them by History's+Coming+To · 2012-11-18 23:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

The best selling songwriter in the UK is Mel C from the Spice Girls. Seriously. She writes a high percentage of all the UK produced pop songs. "Chart" music has very little to do with artists, it's more of a fashion marketing company than anything else.

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Re:All of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 23:46 · Score: 0

How does it feel, to hate oneself that much?
How does it feel, to be your own worst enemy?
How does it feel to defend the ones raping you in the ass?
Do you like it?
Re:All of them by PopeRatzo · 2012-11-19 00:28 · Score: 1

Then you have the advertisers, without which you would have never heard of the band.
Are you living in the 1970s? You think people still need "advertising" to hear about a band?
No, there really are not "10s to 100s of other people" that "turn a band into a viable business".
I suppose it might matter what you mean by "viable business". If it means "get rich enough to buy a private plane and a castle in Scotland" then yes you need 10s to 100s of people. But if you want to make a nice middle class income all you need is maybe 1 or two people besides the band (unless one of the band members can work a calculator, which is not a dead cinch, in my experience).

--
You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:All of them by AmiMoJo · 2012-11-19 00:44 · Score: 1

Maybe he's on about the artists who only sing the songs, as opposed to the artists who write it for them?
So it's a choice between sending a few bucks to the songwriters or the AutoTune(TM) machine.

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Re:All of them by pjt33 · 2012-11-19 01:13 · Score: 3, Funny

And the accountants to ensure taxes are filed in time and correctly.
Are you sure that's the major role of the accountants in big labels? I thought their role was more to ensure that there were no profits, so there's no tax to pay. And nothing left to pay the musicians either.
Re:All of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:20 · Score: 0

Then you have the advertisers, without which you would have never heard of the band.
You mean YouTube?
Re:All of them by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 01:21 · Score: 1

Then you have the advertisers, without which you would have never heard of the band.
Are you living in the 1970s? You think people still need "advertising" to hear about a band?
No, there really are not "10s to 100s of other people" that "turn a band into a viable business".
I suppose it might matter what you mean by "viable business". If it means "get rich enough to buy a private plane and a castle in Scotland" then yes you need 10s to 100s of people. But if you want to make a nice middle class income all you need is maybe 1 or two people besides the band (unless one of the band members can work a calculator, which is not a dead cinch, in my experience).
Well, fine, let them earn a nice middle class income. Who's stopping them?
br. Meanwhile, it is the artists themselves who sign up to big record companies that DO want the advertising/marketing etc and DO want to get rich enough to buy a private plane a nd a castle in Scotland. No one's forcing them.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:All of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:30 · Score: 0

and don't forget the ironic glasses
I prefer silicon-oxidic glasses. They tend to be more transparent.
Re:All of them by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 01:45 · Score: 1

The best selling songwriter in the UK is Mel C from the Spice Girls. Seriously. She writes a high percentage of all the UK produced pop songs. "Chart" music has very little to do with artists, it's more of a fashion marketing company than anything else.
I don't see what your argument is.
You may think the Spice Girls were shit. I would agree with you. But they were popular. That's what "best selling" means: a lot of people bought your stuff. If Mel C writes crappy songs for other artists that are popular, that's not her fault.
Whether it's a question of money or not, popularity has been, and always will be, orthoganal to artistic merit.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:All of them by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 02:22 · Score: 2

iconic glasses, perhaps?
No, he means ironic. Young fashion-victims often wear non-prescription-lensed glasses by expensive designers, which deliberately look like old-fashioned clunky thick plastic framed monstrosities from the 1950s. It is a way of saying "look, I am so cool and attractive that I can even wear these things on my face and still look beautiful while simultaneously paying homage to Jean Paul Sartre/Buddy Holly/whoever."

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To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:All of them by PopeRatzo · 2012-11-19 02:23 · Score: 1

Meanwhile, it is the artists themselves who sign up to big record companies that DO want the advertising/marketing etc and DO want to get rich enough to buy a private plane a nd a castle in Scotland.
Yes, of course. I'm just saying you don't need "10s to 100s of other people" to make a living as a musician or to turn one's music into a "viable business".
I have first-hand experience.

--
You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:All of them by alexander_686 · 2012-11-19 02:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

Why focus on chart music when we should be focusing on music?
If a buy a Star Wars soundtrack, should I kick my money over to John Williams or the London Symphony Orchestra?
Face it – there are a lot of people who can write music but can’t carry a tune – see Bob Dylan. And there are a lot of people who can carry a tune but can’t write.
Not everybody can be a singer, songwriter, and business manager.
Re:All of them by History's+Coming+To · 2012-11-19 05:17 · Score: 1

It was more of an aside than an argument, but if you want one it is this: It's very difficult to know who to give the money to if you want to pay directly to an artist unless they're an indie singer/songwriter. Want to send money to whoever came up with Track X? Would that be the performer? The writer? The lawyer who drafted the agreement between performer and writer? The session musicians? At the end of the day it's often a simple choice between paying a huge record company or paying a single singer/songwriter, there's not a lot of middle ground.

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Re:All of them by fa2k · 2012-11-19 06:12 · Score: 1

And post-production team to make it sound like your loudness button is stuck in the "on" position.
FTFY (only half serious though, you need some post production)
Re:All of them by Hanzie · 2012-11-19 14:42 · Score: 1

I find most irony quite transparent.

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Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-18 20:27 · Score: 1

How do I know which CD/online music stores are legit and actually benefit the artist?

Attend pub with live music. Buy CD from the back of Dave the roadie's van.

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systemd is Roko's Basilisk.

Re:Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by Rogerborg · 2012-11-18 20:53 · Score: 1

Read again: Yankee Doodle wants to bestow his many dollah on Johnny Foreigner. Pub gigs aren't the answer to that question.

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If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Re:Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 21:22 · Score: 0

For foreign artists that won't tour where you live, it is more and more common for bands to have Bandcamp stores or stell stuff directly.
Re:Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by dwywit · 2012-11-18 21:38 · Score: 1

Yes it bloody is! There are venues in Australia, you know. There's a lot of discs sold at them, too.

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They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Re:Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 21:42 · Score: 0

That depends. You know, there are also pubs outside of America.
Re:Benefit the artist? Hard to tell... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:08 · Score: 0

No it bloody isn't! Pub gigs in Aus don't really do much for a guy who doesn't live there and wants to support bands that don't play there.

Magnatune by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

Try magnatune.com

Fantastic music: Magnatune works with artists directly, not with record labels, and all their music is hand-picked. On average, they accept 3% of submissions

Perfect audio quality: you get CD quality audio WAV files, as well as super-high quality VBR MP3s, AAC, and open source friendly FLAC and OGG formats

No DRM: No copy protection (DRM), you can do what you like with your music

Listen to everything: all their albums can be listened to in their entirety before you become a member

Download everything: their monthly membership allows you to download anything from their entire catalog--no limits.

Musicians get paid: 50% of your purchase price goes directly to the musician, not to labels and their lawyers

Album art: every album includes high quality album art (in both Adobe Acrobat and 300DPI JPG formats)

Give to your friends: They encourage you to give 3 copies of any music from your membership to your friends

Artists direct: They sign contracts directly with musicians, so you can rest assured that they can legally license music to you, and no middlemen get in the way of the artist's royalties

Podcast-legal: non-commercial podcasters can use their music for free

No major labels: they have absolutely nothing to do with major labels or the RIAA

Financially support Open Source: they financially support several open source projects such as Amarok and Rhythmbox

Re:Magnatune by ColdWetDog · 2012-11-18 21:19 · Score: 2

Magnatune is worth a try. Last time I looked, they were a bit expensive unless you really liked their catalog and downloaded a bunch. The catalog is rather eclectic. But you can certainly try before you buy.

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Magnatune by olau · 2012-11-18 22:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

I bought a lifetime membership of Magnatune not long ago for $240, after having followed them since their inception. They keep adding music to the collection, so at some point it went from "I should probably support these guys out of principle" to "they have enough music that this is a cheap deal".
In addition to your points above, John Buckman is a cool dude. You can write a comment on his blog and get a reply.
Re:Magnatune by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:55 · Score: 0

I was going to suggest the same: Magnatune [http://magnatune.com/] has a largish selection of Indie and World music.
Re:Magnatune by mrt_2394871 · 2012-11-19 00:56 · Score: 1

In addition to your points above, John Buckman is a cool dude. You can write a comment on his blog and get a reply.
I emailed him when Magnatune went subscription-only (I'd bought a dozen albums prior to that), with a bit of a moan that I could no longer buy per-album. I was astonished when I got a reply from him, setting out why he'd taken Magnatune down the route he had.
As you say, cool.
Re:Magnatune by StripedCow · 2012-11-19 02:55 · Score: 1

Perfect audio quality: you get CD quality audio WAV files
But... we want full multitrack recordings, so we can remix the various tracks to our own taste.
This is a site for DIY nerds, don't expect them to just buy music and be happy.

--
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Re:Magnatune by houghi · 2012-11-19 06:31 · Score: 1

Another is http://bandcamp.com/

--
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Re:Magnatune by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 12:50 · Score: 0

Unfortunately I made a comment on their blog years ago and after they removed my comment, they took the time to revoke access to the music I had bought from their site. I'm glad your experience was better than mine and I sincerely hope they've moved beyond being that petty.
Re:Magnatune by Hanzie · 2012-11-19 14:45 · Score: 1

^^^ +1 funny

--
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.

MOST artists have their own website by Tastecicles · 2012-11-18 20:30 · Score: 5, Informative

Most artists have links to purchase or download their work on their website.

Go to the artists' website. There you'll likely as not find a link or ten to Amazon or iTunes if they have a pressed-disc contract, or to direct downloads via http/ftp or torrents or some other free method if they're that way inclined to distribute their music. It's a model that works - just go to the Stereophonics website and download an album or two - and donate what you want! They made more off a single album this way than they ever did through a Big Five label with all their other material combined!

--
Operation Guillotine is in effect.

Re:MOST artists have their own website by MurukeshM · 2012-11-19 00:06 · Score: 1

The thing is, how can you be sure it's the artist's website and not something the MAFiAA have set up for them? A while back, on facebook, a site called GiveMeFootball went about setting up pages for various popular footballers and calling them 'official'. They are 'official', in that they are official GMF pages, but have no endorsement from the players themselves. Is something like this possible for MAFiAA with domains?
Re:MOST artists have their own website by Tastecicles · 2012-11-19 08:11 · Score: 1

nothing's impossible, I would go look on the shelves in HMV or wherever, look at the inlays on the CDs - if there's a website it'll be indicated somewhere near the barcode. If not, then Google is your friend. :)

--
Operation Guillotine is in effect.

In India... by Sivaraj · 2012-11-18 20:30 · Score: 1

Most of the legal music stores online here sell hardcopy music :-(. Flipkart is the only downloadable music store that I know of. No DRM. It has somewhat decent collection. Note that majority of Indian popular music is film songs, other popular categories being devotional and classical.

Icelandic music by arikol · 2012-11-18 20:33 · Score: 4, Informative

If you want Icelandic music then http://www.icelandicmusic.com/ is the real deal. Pretty good music that can be found there, but most of it obviously in a language that will sound like Klingon to most people...

Re:Icelandic music by bikin · 2012-11-18 21:51 · Score: 5, Funny

Considering this is Slashdot, I'll bet that more people understand Klingon than Icelandic.
Re:Icelandic music by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-11-18 22:16 · Score: 1

Actually, I understand a little bit of both and they don't sound alike at all to me. Although, I get it that when they're shouting at you from a quickly decreasing distance, the difference between Vikings and Klingons becomes something of a moot point. (If that ever happens to you, a quick tip: Klingons are the swarthier ones.)

--
Ezekiel 23:20
Re:Icelandic music by xaxa · 2012-11-18 23:38 · Score: 1

If you want Icelandic music then http://www.icelandicmusic.com/ is the real deal. Pretty good music that can be found there, but most of it obviously in a language that will sound like Klingon to most people...
I wonder why they chose Silverlight for their player?
Icelandic sounds like Norwegian/Swedish to me (which I don't understand). Picking the first video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ecT5j3zaps I can even understand a few words (just like Norwegian/Swedish).
Icelandic is much closer to English than, say, Gaelic. Try understanding a single word from Runrig - Alba (relatively famous Scottish folk-rock band).
Re:Icelandic music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:46 · Score: 0

there is also http://www.gogoyoko.com/ that would meet most if not all the criteria mentioned in the original post. They got loads of Icelandic artists as well as some international ones. You can read more about them here: http://www.gogoyoko.com/about
Re:Icelandic music by arikol · 2012-11-19 02:12 · Score: 1

I forgot gogoyoko.com, they are also excellent.
Whoever modded parent down has no clue!
Re:Icelandic music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 10:32 · Score: 0

Ég tala íslensku ú ónæmar clod!

Don't bother... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:35 · Score: 1

Just download the music where you can find it, "illegally" or otherwise, and then mail a dollar per CD directly to the artist. It's WAY more than they'd get from the legitimate sites like iTunes/Amazon most of the time for one sale, specially for more indie bands.

Re:Don't bother... by michelcolman · 2012-11-18 21:52 · Score: 1

I can just imagine Madonna opening her mailbox in the morning and finding hundreds of envelopes with one dollar bills in them. That's sure to put her into a good mood for the rest of the day!
Re:Don't bother... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-11-18 22:18 · Score: 1

She could make another hit music video with all those bills and envelopes!

--
Ezekiel 23:20

Offtopic comment by etash · 2012-11-18 20:36 · Score: 0

Hi guys. Sorry to sound like a noob ( which i am in slashdot anyway ), but is there a way to contact a slashdot user via a private message or something ? I can't seem to be able to find the appropriate option/button/whatever.

Re:Offtopic comment by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:52 · Score: 0

No. Thankfully.
If the user has a journal, you will be able to post a comment there, but that's about it
Re:Offtopic comment by ColdWetDog · 2012-11-18 21:26 · Score: 1

What?. What do you think this is? Some sort of social media website?
That's crazy talk.

--
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Offtopic comment by michelcolman · 2012-11-18 21:54 · Score: 2

If you post your e-mail account's username and password as a reply to his comment, he'll be able to contact you directly.
Re:Offtopic comment by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 02:38 · Score: 1

Hi guys. Sorry to sound like a noob ( which i am in slashdot anyway ), but is there a way to contact a slashdot user via a private message or something ? I can't seem to be able to find the appropriate option/button/whatever.
The best way is to post a link to a few pics of your naked wife/girlfriend/sister with your email address neatly added at the bottom using Microsoft Paint's advanced image editing facilities. The person you're after can then email you directly. If you're really game, you could even put your phone number there.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:Offtopic comment by Hanzie · 2012-11-19 14:48 · Score: 1

Parent: +1 Sadistic

--
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.

Indian/Pakistani Music by vivtho · 2012-11-18 20:37 · Score: 3, Informative

You can download legit Indian and Pakistani music from Flyte which is a part of Flipkart (owned by Amazon)

Re:Indian/Pakistani Music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 23:46 · Score: 1

Flipkart is not owned by Amazon. It was started by ex-Amazon folks though, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipkart
Re:Indian/Pakistani Music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-24 18:18 · Score: 0

You can download legit Indian and Pakistani music from Flyte which is a part of Flipkart (owned by Amazon)
Flipkart is not owned by Amazon. However, Flyte is legit.

benefit artist? hah hah! by samjam · 2012-11-18 20:38 · Score: 4, Informative

Many "legit" stores do not benefit the artists!

Some sell the artists music without permission and do not reimburse the artists
http://torrentfreak.com/apples-itunes-sued-by-artist-for-pirating-music-110812/
http://forum.tunecore.com/post/Album-on-iTunes-without-permission-5680939

Sometimes the artists get no money because of extraordinary business practices by their music publishers or associations
http://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091203/1853507190.shtml
and for interest
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120323/18055718229/how-ascap-takes-money-successful-indie-artists-gives-it-to-giant-rock-stars.shtml

Sometimes the artists get no money because their music publishers instruct them not to register with the copyright agency of that country SO THAT the publisher can claim that the seller is not legitimate because the artists get no money.
http://www.transmissionentertainment.com/entry/russian_based_all_of_mp3coms_former_owner_may_see_jail_time_fines_and_a_mor/
http://allofmp3.ru/press/centre.shtml?s=994&d=66219728 : "Even without an agreement between ROMS and the rightsholders, it is our understanding that ROMS, in particular, has sent several letters to the major record labels inviting them to collect their royalties. Those notices have been ignored."
http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/25/former-allofmp3com-owner-faces-jail-time/

Sometimes it's a choice between
1. not paying
2. paying and the artist gets no money
3. paying and the artist gets no money and you support an abusive music industry
4. paying and the artist gets money and you support an abusive music industry

For mass music I opt for 2 where I can because I think it does least harm.
For less popular music I use CD-Baby and other self publishing sites or buy direct from the artist.

--
blog.sam.liddicott.com

THE International music store by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:39 · Score: 0

You should check out http://thepiratebay.se/ for all your sweedish rock. I hear it's pretty popular over there.

Online music buying by aurizon · 2012-11-18 20:40 · Score: 3, Interesting

Benefit the artist directly, as in you buy a song and the artist get a portion? None of the established music publishers, none on itunes - unless it is an artist submitted track - wherein he gets the $$, less the itunes bite. That is not to say the established music publishers do not pay their artists, they usually do, via various mechanisms - just not a direct slice from each download.
So find stuff listed by the artist, and buy those. In time the traditional publishers will fade away and all manner of created work, books, music, pictures, will involve direct purchase from the srtist via online purchase. There may be an online portal, like Amazon or itunes, but the artist will get the lion's share of the revenue. Now they get the mouses share - just a nibble.

Re:Online music buying by Psychotria · 2012-11-18 20:58 · Score: 1

bite? nibble? I see what you did there.
Re:Online music buying by aurizon · 2012-11-18 21:11 · Score: 1

OK, Bytes and nybbles downloaded, micropayment time

The best way to find out by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 20:42 · Score: 0

The best way to find out usually is by checking the artist's website (if they have one).
Often enough you'll find links to their own download/CD store, or one they endorse.

Otherwise, yeah. Visiting concerts and buying merchandise there would be the next best ways.

Pakistani Music by ryzvonusef · 2012-11-18 20:56 · Score: 3, Interesting

For a sample of great Pakistani music (Legally!), visit Coke Studios:

http://www.cokestudio.com.pk/

As for buying, try the website of a label. One of the biggest labels is FireRecords:

http://www.firerecords.com.pk/

I will post more links as I find them.

The problem is, most of the music in Pakistan is from Indie bands, who are in it more for the passion than money; for those you will have to scour youtube and other fansites.

--
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!

Re:Pakistani Music by ryzvonusef · 2012-11-18 21:04 · Score: 3, Informative

And before you ask, yes, Pakistan has a thriving music scene, heck, quite a significant amount of popular *indian* music is actually Pakistani singers hired to sing for Indian movies.
We have everything from soft Classical to hard metal and every other shade in that gradient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani_music
One of the funniest moment was when the VICE guide visited Karachi, and as a contrast to the ever present violence, they decide to hit the local music scene...
http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-karachi-full-length

--
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Re:Pakistani Music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 23:53 · Score: 0

Try http://songs.pk/
Re:Pakistani Music by ryzvonusef · 2012-11-18 23:58 · Score: 1

Bro we are talking *legally*, otherwise even I know a zillion fansites :D

--
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Re:Pakistani Music by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 00:24 · Score: 0

great Pakistani music
lol 'great' as in 'gouge your ears out' perhaps.
Re:Pakistani Music by ryzvonusef · 2012-11-19 01:00 · Score: 1

Nice troll AC, look at all the fucks I don't give...

--
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Re:Pakistani Music by kakaburra · 2012-11-19 01:38 · Score: 1

quite a significant amount of popular *indian* music is actually Pakistani singers hired to sing for Indian movies.
Dude, I've to tell you, a music is *composed* by composers, not by singers. So, the music is Indian if the composer is.
Re:Pakistani Music by ryzvonusef · 2012-11-19 02:49 · Score: 1

Fair enough, I think I should clarify.
It is true that popular Pakistani singers are invited by bollywood for vocals. (Most popular being Rahat Fateh Ali Khan...he ran into a bit of trouble with both the Indian and Pakistani tax depratments....) so that's Indian music with Pakistani vocals.
However, it's equally true that popular Pakistani songs are reworked for bollywood movies, composition and all, so that means atleast some music is definately Pakistani. Good Movie Producers ask the singer him/herself to rework the music (usually replacing urdu words with hindi equivalents, remixed for a faster beat, etc...) or atleast ask their permission. Bad ones steal them outright (I mean, it's not like Pakistani Singers can pursue copytight cases across the border...)
Anyways, this is not supposed to be a Indian-vs-Pakistan pissing contest; I just wanted to point out that Pakistani music has an international scope.

--
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!

Streaming by Hrshgn · 2012-11-18 21:04 · Score: 2

You could also use streaming services instead of downloading. Most of them come with a mobile client that can be used in offline mode.
They do pay their artists fractions of a cent for each song listened to.

To me, this kind of service is clearly the future. It's especially great to discover new music. If you listen to the same 100 tracks all the time, it's probably not cost-effective though.

Some sites I know:
http://www.deezer.com/ (no software necessary, can run in a browser, offline mode with chrome, apps for iPhone and Android)
http://www.spotify.com/ (never used, but they are well established in the market)

iTunes can also do something similar but I don't know their offerings.

Re:Streaming by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:09 · Score: 0

Grooveshark.com is another alternative. It is similar to spotify except that there are sometimes multiple versions of each song which you need to choose between, and you don't need a Facebook-account to sign up (though it does attempt to send requests now and then to FB-owned IP-addresses, which I have mentioned to them in a bug report).

emusic.com by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 21:33 · Score: 0

emusic.com has had a fairly large international selection for quite a while. The service is perfectly legal and can be accessed form different countries. All files are DRM free and their search function works pretty well.

Is this a joke? by Areyoukiddingme · 2012-11-18 21:35 · Score: 5, Interesting

Seriously, is this a joke? First, the list of countries is a who's who of who ignores copyright. China especially is legendary for pretending the concept doesn't even exist. Second, let's say in some fantasy world, these countries decide to honor copyright, at least of their own artists. Guess what happens? They grow a tumor known as "the Music Industry."

It's a horrifying system of lies and betrayals where a corporation demands artists sign for many many albums before they will publish the first album, then loads the bill with so much random assorted bullshit that by the end of the first album, the artist owes more to the record company than their record will earn. This cycle is repeated for each album. It includes such creative accounting as astronomical studio fees, ludicrous equipment fees, and "promotion" that never actually happens at all. Then, when the artist is played out even as catalog filler, they are dismissed, never to be heard from again. If they attempt to self-promote, they discover that the record company owns everything they ever did, may even own the name under which they did it, and will not even answer the phone if they attempt to negotiate to perform their own back catalog. Contract law is enforced with draconian measures against the artists, in favor of the record company, in an asymmetrical relationship that only misses literal slavery by a hair's breadth.

But all of that pales in the face of one monstrous truth: record companies steal more from artists than consumer copyright infringement ever has or ever will, and for one simple reason: record companies steal the proceeds of actual sales from artists. They lie about the accounting, claim with a straight face that the album has never turned a profit, and pocket every dime of the income. Actual money.

Let me repeat that, because it's something that keeps getting lost in all of Slashdot's attempts to talk about copyright. Record companies steal real money from artists. Enormous amounts of it.

What do you think pays for those asymmetrical laws, and asymmetrical enforcement? Stolen money. Boatloads of it. What do you think pays for all the propaganda Slashdot is forever at pains to fight? Stolen money. Actual stolen money. Consumer copyright infringement rarely involves money changing hands. The number of dupers who charge money for copies is microscopic. Certainly all downloading, including torrenting, does not involve money. So we all know the RIAA's claims of huge amounts of money "lost" are nothing but creative lies. What we persistently forget is the huge amounts of actual money being paid to them that the artists never see.

So I ask again, is this a joke? And if not, why do you hate those countries you named? Why would you wish upon them this cultural parasite that the US has? This parasite that is so bloated, so greedy, and so entitled that it has caused international incidents in the pursuit of its own thieving ways. The police (and citizens) of New Zealand have been humiliated and shamed for knuckling under to the demands of this "industry". I put "industry" in scare quotes because you should be scared of anything that has systematically raped culture and those who create it for nigh on a century.

The answer to your question is this: the artist. ONLY the artist. No other source is legitimate. No reseller, no record company, no middleman, no matter how altruistic they claim to be now, can be trusted. Nor should they be encouraged to develop in places that aren't already subject to this scourge. This is the Information Age. Indeed, I've heard claims that we're already in the post-Information Age. Go straight to the artists. Tolerate no middlemen. They will turn into monsters before your eyes if you give them any money at all. Keep them starved, and ignore them.

How then do you find artists, you ask? Ask your friends. Seriously. This has always worked best, and always will. A lot of the affect of music on human culture is the shared exp

Re:Is this a joke? by DNS-and-BIND · 2012-11-19 00:41 · Score: 1

It takes two to make a contract. Why would any artist agree to such a lopsided deal, unless they're total morons? I've had lopsided contracts dropped in my lap, with the other party waving a pen in my face expecting me to sign then and there. The big-city slickers expecting to take advantage of the rube. I walked away from the deal. Why are not these intelligent, creative people playing the role of the rube, when they should by all rights be on the other side of the fence looking down on the rubes?

--
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Re:Is this a joke? by TheDarkMaster · 2012-11-19 01:30 · Score: 1

Most of the "contracts" is made in the style "or you accept everything that is there or get out", where the artist does not have a chance to negotiate. A contract is only fair when the parties have equal bargaining power, otherwise it becomes invariably a legalized extortion.

--
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Re:Is this a joke? by ArsenneLupin · 2012-11-19 03:43 · Score: 1

Why would any artist agree to such a lopsided deal, unless they're total morons?
Because nobody understands legalese. And because they might be naive (or realistic) enough to have the contract explained to them by the MAFIAA lawyers who go "well, when it says here 'you have to give us all the proceeds', it doesn't really mean 'you have to give us all the proceeds', but only a tiny commission". And if the artist doesn't beleive the well meaning MAFIAA lawyer, well tough luck, no record deal, there's a huge queue of other artists just waiting to sign.
These contracts are as lopsided as any of the hundreds of contracts that each of us routeline signs in our life: banking, internet access, schools, employment, etc. Most don't even read these contracts. And those few of us who do read them end up signing them anyways. At least if they want a bank account, access the internet, send their kids to school, have a job, rent a car, be a volunteer in a non-profit, get a loan, ...
People secretely hope that most businesses will not enforce those lopsided clauses in an abuse way, and that if they do, a court will strike these clauses down as too one-sided and thus unenforceable. It often does work out ok. But unfortunately not always.
Problem is: if nobody else questions those lopsided contracts, you cannot negotiate. If legalese is so different from everyday's English, you cannot possible know what you are signing, and you have to trust an expert in the field (i.e. a lawyer) at some point.
Re:Is this a joke? by DNS-and-BIND · 2012-11-20 04:49 · Score: 1

Clicking an EULA button is far different from accepting an employment contract. And if the terms are not to your liking - walk away.

--
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Re:Is this a joke? by ArsenneLupin · 2012-11-20 04:57 · Score: 1

Clicking an EULA button is far different from accepting an employment contract. And if the terms are not to your liking - walk away.
... and have no job at all.

A Word of Caution by fearofcarpet · 2012-11-18 21:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

I stumbled across an indie artist from Uruguay on a late-night radio show and wanted to throw a couple of bucks his way. I went to his band's website and followed the link to a legitimate online retailer for indie artists in Uruguay. The next thing I knew, weird charges started showing up on my credit card--e.g., someone in France started a WoW account, someone in the Ukraine started making a bunch of in-game purchases for online games, etc. Even though it was a "legit" site linked to by the artist with the proceeds going to the artist, either it was a front for stealing credit card numbers or had terrible security. Either way it was a PITA and not at all worth the album.

--
Actually, I wrote my thesis on life experience.

Re:A Word of Caution by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:00 · Score: 0

Well, for something like that I doubt I'd use a real credit card. I'd probably pick up one of those prepaid visa/mastercard things that are essentially like a gift card that can be used like a credit card.
That way even if it is a scam or poor security, at most you should lose is the value of the prepaid card.
And after that you can make note of who not to do business with in the future.
Re:A Word of Caution by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:53 · Score: 1

Those prepaid cards (at least any I have ever owned in the US) can not be used internationally.

DOWNLOADING isn't illegal. RIAA keeping revenue is by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 21:57 · Score: 1

The acts of DOWNLOADING music are not unlawful ("illegal").

Whether the store benefits the actor DIRECTLY (i.e. he/she gets cash), INDIRECTLY (i.e. he/she may get cash/recognition), CONSEQUENTIONALLY (i.e. he/she will not get cash/ but the featuring of the works in the store will be positive to them) or will be BUTFUCKRAPED (i.e. the store gives the proceeds to RIAA / MPAA and the artists get nothing)... is not something you CAN or ARE able to determine.

Do your best to Do The Right Thing. While your question makes sense, and if I may, re-interpreting you ask "Hey I want to get some music, and I am going to spend money on it, how do I make sure it gets to the artists?' -- the real problem is the artists have signed indenture contracts so that they are slaves to these organizations and you CAN'T help them.

So Do The Right Thing. Download what you think benefits the artists. It's then up to the artists to do their part and reach across the divide and get those funds, and free themselves from their piece of shit slavemasters at the RIAA/MPAA.

E

Legal (over there) Legal (to import) by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:03 · Score: 0

I've country-hopped quite a bit. One thing that non-travellers don't always realize is that the fact that you can buy something "over there" does not mean that you can bring it back with you... Legal vendors abroad do not equal legal imports to your jurisdiction. We are more conscious of how it is true for physical goods (even though you can buy marijuana in the Netherlands, you can't bring it back with you), but we are not as conscious of how it applies to IP. With the type of local music the OP suggests, it doesn't immediately seem like content downloading would be prohibited for IP purposes (small labels, indie artists, etc.); however you never know what the US government might block for content purposes.
In practice though, it would be shrugged off by any officials, because no one would choose to follow up on the matter, so it tends not to be a matter of "legitimate sales".

None of them by ranulf · 2012-11-18 22:10 · Score: 4, Informative

While the might be legitimate in their own country, they're typically only licenced to distribute within their own territory, because other companies will have the distribution rights elsewhere. So, almost certainly, you won't actually have bought the right to use that music even though you paid money, because they didn't have the rights to sell you.

Re:None of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 03:28 · Score: 0

Parents answer is the truth. I work for a company that develops legit online music stores for other companies in several territories. We have all our licensing in order and are in great standing with the four majors and a long list of minor providers, but it comes at the cost of a bloated database that keeps track of exactly what music are allowed for sale in which countries and at what price.
Re:None of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 04:20 · Score: 1

Ain't globalisation great?
How about: Fuck you muppets, hello BitTorrent?
Re:None of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 04:29 · Score: 0

I don't know... spending a little bit of time to pick up something legally versus dealing with a judgement of a $25 million jury verdict because one's IP got was seen in a BT swarm...
I'll research a store first.
Re:None of them by Solandri · 2012-11-19 06:43 · Score: 1

That too is an anachronism which needs to die, at least for online digital sales. Territorial distribution rights made sense when each distributor wasn't physically capable of supplying your product beyond a certain area. You needed territorial distribution rights to prevent conflicts between the multitude of distributors needed to insure thorough availability.

But there is no sense of distance nor territory on the Internet. If you can sell an MP3 to the guy down the street over the Internet, you can sell and deliver it to anywhere in the world just as easily.

Legit music by xsundeep · 2012-11-18 22:23 · Score: 1

Between spotify (paid) for streaming, and eMusic.com for DRM free MP3s, I can get about 98% of the music I'm looking for.

eMusic does NOT roll over unused minutes, I read someplace they use it to cover other artist-related costs (no citation available)

They have things ranging from megastars like Oumou Sangare from Mali to the Polyphonic voices of Sardinia, and South Asian classical music to Tuvan throatsinging via Shona mbira.

I have no connection with either company, I just like them both a lot. Not as much as I like RainX, but pretty darned close.

Re:Legit music by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 03:19 · Score: 1

They have things ranging from megastars like Oumou Sangare from Mali to the Polyphonic voices of Sardinia, and South Asian classical music to Tuvan throatsinging via Shona mbira.
No no no, you should be going to Oumou Sangare's Malinese pub gigs, buying Sardinian Polyphonic action figures and starting up your own Tuvan throatsinging group with your hipster buddies down the coffee shop.

Buying music in the 21st Century is no more than propping up the remains of slavery.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Re:Legit music by crossmr · 2012-11-19 03:26 · Score: 1

I used to use Emusic for quite some time. Got quite a bit of indie music there..browsing wikipedia though looks like they sold out in 2010. I think I stopped using them late 2008 or early 2009.
Not allowing people to redownload tracks is just insulting. They were already raising prices just before I left, cutting subscription downloads by 20-30% or something like that, effectively raising the per track price.
Their prices are really high now. the top plan which gives 73 downloads a month was like $14.99 when I was using it a few years ago, now 31.99
Here in Korea, you get 40 downloads for about $5 a month.
including a fair bit of western music, I think they've got 2.5-3 million tracks on their service.
Re:Legit music by misterooga · 2012-11-19 04:37 · Score: 1

Here in Korea, you get 40 downloads for about $5 a month.
including a fair bit of western music, I think they've got 2.5-3 million tracks on their service.
So, what do you use now?
Re:Legit music by crossmr · 2012-11-19 11:29 · Score: 1

It's called Bugs
http://www.bugs.co.kr/
but it's only available in Korean, and I'm not sure how you'd pay for it outside of Korea. At least through their website. With their android app, you can charge the fee directly to your phone.
But for the most part, just use bittorrent because since I stopped using emusic, I more or less stopped downloading music. The 3 or 4 songs I want to actually download a year haven't really necessitated my trying to find another acceptable service until recently.
Re:Legit music by misterooga · 2012-11-21 00:06 · Score: 1

Thanks!
Yeah... payment system for Korea web portal from outside...is such a pain. Still not a clue. I can get those gift cards but even those need an account, which requires some sort of ID.
Re:Legit music by crossmr · 2012-11-21 00:20 · Score: 1

You need an Alien Registration Card, which is weird, because if you sign up via their android app you don't need one. If you have an android phone, try checking out their app there.
Re:Legit music by xsundeep · 2012-11-21 22:59 · Score: 1

Heh. I think you are mixing up the large label thieves with the small indie labels that are much better at actually supporting the artists. To acknowledge and support your point, I refuse to buy ANY music from the large labels- Last CD I think I purchased might have been in 1998?
And - I LOLd at your description in the first part, your turn of phrase, it was very droll.

Music is overrated by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 22:28 · Score: 0

You people take music way too seriously.

Re:Music is overrated by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 03:21 · Score: 1

Music is a terribly important thing when you're at school, I seem to remember. Over about nineteen, it's just stuff in the background while you do more interesting things.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it

Please note by Pope+Raymond+Lama · 2012-11-18 22:56 · Score: 0

There is actually very little correlation between being "legit" and benefiting the artist. The vry statement "legit and benefit the artist" imply in buying one of the bigest lies of the current system.

--
-><- no .sig is good sig.

Re:Please note by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:39 · Score: 0

There is actually very little correlation between being "legit" and benefiting the artist. The vry statement "legit and benefit the artist" imply in buying one of the bigest lies of the current system.
If there's little correlation between them, there must exist sites which fulfil both, unless there's either no "legit" source at all, or none at all benefits the artist. Because if there exist both "legit" sites and sites benefiting the artist, but no "legit" sites benefiting the artist, the two properties are maximally correlated (in that they exclude each other).

Depends on your definition of "legit" by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 23:09 · Score: 1

Do you mean "organized crime" and "content distribution and artist extortion Mafia" "legit"?
Or real-world legit?

Supporting the former, means supporting criminals who...
1. create artificial scarcity by declaring some kind of imaginary property,
2. play a protection racket scheme on everyone who doesn't obey their lies,
3. bribe and manipulate governments globally, which is treason and gets you up to 10 years in prison, to artificially keep up dead business models,
2. abuse artists and do to them, what they say we are doing
3. and destroy creativity for greed and cocaine money. (I know the cocaine [and hooker] money part from personal observation at EMI, Warner and SonyBMG, back in 2002-2005.)

Morally, I cannot ever play along with that. And I cannot ever accept spineless pieces of shit who act like that view is in some way a valid one that should be considered. Because without them, we would all be laughing at the small group of cocaine-fueled idiots and their craziness. Nobody would care because they would have no power.
But those spineless validators give them the power in the first place.
Now what social dynamic does that remind you of? (Hint: It ended in a big war and millions being dead.)

trama virtual in brazil by spectroman · 2012-11-18 23:23 · Score: 1

in brazil you have: http://tramavirtual.uol.com.br/ not all the artists but a lot of them very open minded, including some free albums and artists that you may find album at free music archives as well ( http://freemusicarchive.org/ ), yet as another example of free legit songs download...

gubemusic.com by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 23:26 · Score: 0

Check out http://www.gubemusic.com/. It's a webshop selling music in FLAC format. A bigger share than usual goes to the artists, and the site is run by an artist, Norwegian Jazz musician Bugge Wesseltoft, together with a Free Software company. The catalogue consists mostly of jazz and world music, but also contains rock, indie and other genres.

Re:gubemusic.com by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 03:23 · Score: 1

Norwegian Jazz musician
Possibly the three most deadly words I have ever read.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it

Flipkart - in India by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 00:10 · Score: 0

Flipkart [ flipkart.com ] recently launched a pretty decent music store. For Indian titles, it should do quite well.

Daaaaaamn by mpgalvin · 2012-11-19 00:45 · Score: 1

+1 Bitter musician.

Re:Daaaaaamn by Areyoukiddingme · 2012-11-19 22:46 · Score: 1

Heh. No. I can carry a tune, and I have years of formal training in two different musical instruments, but I'm no musician. I'm an engineer who hates the massive distortion the record industry has induced in copyright law.

Indian Site for independent musicians by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:09 · Score: 0

http://www.oklisten.com
This is a recently launched Site. They work with the artists directly. Their payout is 70 percent to the artist on a monthly basis.
The collection is small but good. Different genres and definitely legit.

Hipsters. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:10 · Score: 0

"What I'm listening to? You've probably never heard of it, but it's fair trade music from Chad and Iceland that is only available by mail-order direct from the artists, who live on a decommissioned Soviet military barge on patrol in the Arctic Sea. I have to send my personal cheques by pigeon and they put the CDs into buoys for my personal assistant to pick up in the North Sea currents."

jamendo.org for pure free licensed indie by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 01:13 · Score: 0

Try jamendo.org for free and indie downloads
Its under creative commons
Its huge
Its free
Its as good as mainstream

Does "want to buy" = "ONLY want downloads"? by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · 2012-11-19 01:38 · Score: 1

If by saying you "want to buy" music you really mean that ONLY downloads are acceptable, I cannot help you at all.

If you are willing to buy audio CDs, then the following are legitimate sellers for 2 of the countries in your list.
1) Chinese music can be bought at http://www.yesasia.com./ I've bought from them for years and they do not sell any bootlegged product. Period. "Chinese music" includes just about anything sold in mainland China plus Hong Kong and Taiwan. There's also http://www.amazon.cn/ but I've never bought anything from them and can't really offer any guidelines on how easy/difficult it is to use their website or what kind of selection they have. I think it has an English interface, but you'll find YesAsia much easier to deal with. YesAsia also sells books and movies for those interested in such things. I mostly buy movies from them.
2) For Brazilian music you can deal with http://www.somlivre.com.br/ who also does not sell anything bootlegged and they also sell movies and Portuguese language books.

Real Indie Music - Direct artist benefit by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 02:36 · Score: 0

If you want your music purchase to DIRECTLY benefit the artist, go over to http://www.ourstage.com.

100% indie music, $0.80 of every track purchased goes directly to the artist.

(Full Disclosure: I work there)

Store maybe legit but you most likely break US law by japa · 2012-11-19 02:52 · Score: 1

Repeating what I originally read from http://falkvinge.net/2012/10/31/the-scary-spectre-of-perpetual-ipr/.

There is a separate provision of U.S. copyright law that prohibits the importation into the United States, “without the authority of the owner of copyright,” of copies of a work “acquired outside the United States.” – Slate

The law is unambiguous:

(1) Importation.—Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501. – Importation and Exportation, US Copyright Law

The case is still open, but basically one side is arguing that what ever you own, you don't own it once you take it to USA. After that point you are just a licencee. And it the US copyright owner does not approve you buying the stuff from abroad, you are violating the licence. I recommend you read the article linked at the top to get the picture.

Re:DOWNLOADING isn't illegal. RIAA keeping revenue by tehcyder · 2012-11-19 03:16 · Score: 1

If the artist has signed a contract that means he gets nothing from the sale of his works, that just says to me he's a stupid twat who should have paid for a few hours of a decent contract lawyer's time.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it

Bad Question by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 03:21 · Score: 0

I see a bunch of bad answers. I hope mine is the WORST answer, First off nothing is simple, there may be some who are international, and so who are not.
Some stores are crap, some are great, some may even rip you off, the answer to your question is it's a crap shoot right now.
Most big labels use some kind of regions, in real life this usually plays out as US, EU, or generally by countries, Germany, US, etc.
What might be being released in the EU might not be released in the US.
Some have official Germany and US store, each has different things being marketed.
note, I use Germany as an EXAMPLE.
Try using the word "official" in your search terms, this will weed out most of the BS, but there are still exceptions like I said.

Some people suggest only the band can sell stuff. Utter horsecrap.
While it's true most bands can get you to the right place, sometimes they can't. Some bands don't even have an online presence.
Some labels do all the selling for the band, there may be legally binding agreements all the way down to the friend and even stranger level.
Some of these agreements aren't really known by the participants, some are. Hell, some people like their contracts written in human blood.
The bottom line is the whole thing is in flux. The labels, bands and everyone out there don't know what the fuck is going on with all these retarded copyright laws. It truly is a bloddy fucking mess right now.
So start with the band, then label, but when you are clueless always use "official" in your search for big labels and bands
Another strategy is to use band name and "myspace" or "facebook" in the search string. You can add "official" in there cause some bands and label's actually have a myspace page as their official web presence.
Another strategy is to use band name and "label" or "sub-label" and "official"
The thing is, even I am both in an official band and am an official label, I'm also ON a label, and I am also on a Band's label. Yet, I'm not currently selling anything, and no longer in a band. That kind of work tends to get lost for years or get's termed limited edition. Some bands may sell only limited editions, I've even seen each disc is DIFFERENT limited editions.

If you have enough money, you can probably buy most whatever you want, and take a hit by the occasional rip-off, if a site is stealing your credit card, they aren't a band or label, and I wouldn't BLAME the band or label for your own security ignorance. But sometimes bad shit happens, Fire, Flood, Explosion, Overdose, Gun Fire, Suicide, Car accident. And sometime you can get your money back and sometimes you don't ever get anything back because it's all destroyed.

Contrary to all the hype not all Record Labels are rotten pieces of shit.

The whole thing is just mis-guided right now. There are bad laws that need to be loosened up with common sense, like re-mixing, there has to be permission to do changes to copyrighted content, when your work is the love of work and there's no profit. I once asked a label if they could pin down the legal permission given to someone to say remove a digital glitch before broadcast, they have no clue. Still today, I have no clue. They seem to have no problem, but when cornered I never got a straight answer. The law is in a GREY AREA. Even though I had verbal promise, and am on "the list"

Not good enough for me anymore, especially in a country in several undeclared wars, a constitutional crisis, a collapsing monetary system, an intermittent Constitution mixed with police state and these mother fucking international copyright treaties being discussed in secret. I know nearly every big label, they are actually great people, I miss the whole thing so bad, but I can't risk losing everything over something that could be as simple as a mis-guided complaint.

Starting on Jan 1st 2012, the NDAA kicked in, add in Censorship, Take Down notices, Secrecy of Copyright negotiations, DMCA, the bankster clep

Perfect Website by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 04:10 · Score: 0

http://bandcamp.com/

This site has: "Browse 5,505,707 tracks and 678,146 albums from artists spanning 183 countries:"

All of the artists on this site get your money directly.

You are welcome.

The Pirate Bay by argoff · 2012-11-19 04:20 · Score: 1

http://thepiratebay.se/

Seems legit to me :)

Re:Store maybe legit but you most likely break US by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 04:59 · Score: 0

I think you missed this critical exception, which appears to cover the case we're discussing:
(3) Exceptions.â"This subsection does not apply toâ" ...
(B) importation or exportation, for the private use of the importer or exporter and not for distribution, by any person with respect to no more than one copy or phonorecord of any one work at any one time, or by any person arriving from outside the United States or departing from the United States with respect to copies or phonorecords forming part of such personâ(TM)s personal baggage;

Assuming the 'personal baggage' part only applies to the part of this clause after the first 'or' (which seems logical) this seems to allow you to import e.g. by post a single copy of any recording from anywhere.

Better question by lordmetroid · 2012-11-19 07:31 · Score: 1

I have a better question, which internationally online porn stores are legit?

Tips for independent artists by lurker23 · 2012-11-19 08:22 · Score: 1

Tuppence-worth:

Open Source software has made it possible for more and more artists to sell directly.

We've been running an independent mp3 store providing accompaniments for singers for several years: http://www.youraccompanist.com/

Here's what I'd advise any artist who wants to set out on their own:

- Find some one who can help you set up an open source shop

- Provide DRM free files

- Encourage sharing and reuse

- Put the user in direct contact with the user

- Be cheaper than iTunes

- Respect your customers and listen to them

YouTube SEO by tepples · 2012-11-20 06:00 · Score: 1

It costs money to advertise on YouTube. Or were you talking about the "organic" results? If so, what should a band do to make its videos easy to find?

what makes you think by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 12:26 · Score: 0

the artist benefits from a usa site?

Suggestions from Brazil by katiamp · 2012-11-20 12:33 · Score: 1

I used to be a developer but now I own a record store in São Paulo. Our store (bigpaparecords.com) won't be online until december, and we do not sell a lot of Brazilian music, anyway - we actually specialize in selling US & Europe labels to Brazilians. We sell independent local music in our physical store, though, and will probably add it to the site in the near future (around Jan/Feb 2013). That said, allow me to refer you to some very nice independent local stores and labels that sell directly to consumers: - Afro-Brazilian, new samba, jazz, experimental (Luciano Valerio): desmonta.com - MPB, Samba, Bossa, Roots (Carlinhos): disco7vinil.com.br - Experimental, rock, free jazz (Fred Finelli): submarinerecords.net - African & Brazilian (Fred Typhagne): gomagringa.com - Post-rock, experimental (Muriel): dissensorecords.com Specifically from Desmonta, I would recommend you take a look at the excellent works by Kiko DiNucci, Thiago França and Juçara Marçal, all together in Metá Metá, or in their individual releases. Thiago's "Gafieira" and Kiko's "Na Boca dos Outros" are first-class, simply delightful. I hope this helps. If you need more specific help, feel free to contact me through our site! :) Katia

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