Limewire

[fishnterrapins]

I did use limewire for a time but if you like your music its reqally not worth it ... most of the quality is truly shocking with people recording of the radio etc.

Also a lot of the stuff on there can be quite nasty, especially if using a pc, with people who find virus' funny adding them to files. Bottom line after a bad experience I don't trust it any more and don't mind paying the odd 79p per song.

 

[Dan364]

itunes is the ipod transfer program, but its just an information collection system! try running it on a none internet pc, if you can. can do good music rips though. lol apples software is as bad as their ipods. badly made and unreliable.

thats why they are so popular and are being sold to thousands.

I think that was a genralisation there.

 

[Darkstar]

How is iTunes not free? Just download from Apple's web site.

Of course, the music isn't free, but then it shouldn't be. It's someone's intellectual property and they deserve to be paid for it. I make a living by selling my intellectual property -- stuff I write for magazines and web sites -- and when people copy those things illegally, they're stealing from me. Not just taking my work, but also my potential to sell that work. I'm sure musicians feel the same way.

Cheers, Neale

While I agree to an extent...that musicians deserve to be paid for their work, I disagree when it comes to the record labels who have merrily ripped off the UK public for years as well as done their absolute best to dilute all of todays good music into utter pop crap. All the while bitching about how they are losing money to people downloading illegally because they refuse to change their business models to incorporate todays technology. Useless to**ers!

The sooner we can bypass the record companies the better.

 

[Squid]

I have a work interest in this area, and this conversation comes up often and is a bizarre one really. The illegal download of music has driven the market for digital content services such as these. The clever people in the industry are the people that set up earlier sites to charge for it. Many people (seen on this thread), including myself don't mind paying for music or other digitall content, it often comes down to availability. If most of the content owners stopped sitting in their offices and whinging about people downloading ilegal content, but instead made it available, then their content would be bought more and ripped off less. I would much rather buy or download a decent copy of a film than some of the ones that are downloadable.

There has been studies to say that DRM has been a total distraction in the market, and in fact i believe 'Availability' should have been the focus. There will always be ways around DRM, so just enable people to BUY more.

I think that prices should come down more. I think that content owners will find that finding the right price point in the market will increase sales easily enough to cover the drop in prices required. I still buy CD's from the shop and don't download much as I like the ownership of the physical things such as the cd, the cover and the artwork. In order for me to not want these things, people like iTunes need to realise that paying £7 will not encourage me to do this. Lowering cost will encourage people like me who like the physical components and encourage the freeloaders who are ripping the music off to part with a bit of money as crack downs makes it more dodgy to download for free.

As for limewire. I expect its like many technologies, it's won't ever be illegal to have the software installed, its purely the usage that is illegal. Lets face it, your CSP knows every file that you have ever downloaded. People have been sent letters in the past notifying them that they have been doing illegal downloads.

Cheers
Squid

 

[demonmagus]

Bill Gates has said that DRM isn't really good, because people who buy legit are hampered by it (ripping CD's e.t.c.) and people who want to download illegaly can do it extremely easily

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

How is iTunes not free? Just download from Apple's web site.

Of course, the music isn't free, but then it shouldn't be. It's someone's intellectual property and they deserve to be paid for it. I make a living by selling my intellectual property -- stuff I write for magazines and web sites -- and when people copy those things illegally, they're stealing from me. Not just taking my work, but also my potential to sell that work. I'm sure musicians feel the same way.

Cheers, Neale

While I agree to an extent...that musicians deserve to be paid for their work, I disagree when it comes to the record labels who have merrily ripped off the UK public for years as well as done their absolute best to dilute all of todays good music into utter pop crap. All the while bitching about how they are losing money to people downloading illegally because they refuse to change their business models to incorporate todays technology. Useless to**ers!

The sooner we can bypass the record companies the better.

record companies are handy for musicians, they have the facilities to rip thousands of cd's at a time and get them on the shelves, then they have the whole marketing thing going on, they have alot of contacts and they fund alot of the studio time smaller *cough better cough* bands get in order to get there music out there so yeah record companies do rip us off but they do make it possible for music to be accessible