The Music Industry (from now on only called MI) is putting a lot of pressure on the consumers. They release copy protected media but fail to realise that this is a punishment for the people who buy music. Even if you don´t download music from the internet you most likely know sources where to get that music for free, without DRM and in high quality. The commercial pirates as well don´t care about copy protection.
The only one who is really affected is the one who is buying CDs and DVDs. Releasing copy proctected media is not enough of course, the MI influences governments as well to outlaw people who copy CDs with copy protection or download them from the internet. They want you to purchase the same media three or four times if you want to listen to it at home, at your notebook, in your car and in your mp3 player.
Some companies try to even get more control over the consumers computer by adding additional controlling software to the media. Sony for instance decided it would be a good idea to install a rootkit on the clients computer to ensure no media would be copied.
Again only real consumers experienced this measure. People who downloaded them from the internet had no problem with this at all.
I think it is time to boycott the Music Industry and find other ways to enjoy music from bands and companies that are not part of this MI. My article tries to list alternatives without paying a dime to the MI.
Don´t get me wrong. Artists deserve money for their work, I do not advocate to do something illegal to get the music you like. I only present a different approach.
Here we go..
1. Buy used CDs and trade CDs
You find thousands of used music CDs at online shops like Ebay or Amazon Marketplace. The media has been purchased before and everything you pay will reach the person who is selling the media. (with a small amount for the company who provides the plattform).
I have no experience in trading CDs but a google search reveals lots of interesting results on the topic. Maybe you already have experience with such a service and would like to comment on it. Let us know if this is a working alternative.
2. Borrow CDs.
This might work in some countries while others do not allow this at all. Borrow CDs from friends and listen to those CDs, it´s legal in some countries to copy the content for a friend as well. Check your local laws.
3. Support local bands / bands without major contracts
Many local bands manage everything themselves. They produce their own CDs, they create T-Shirts and play in local clubs and bars. The majority of the earnings will reach the band and the people working with the band.
This is a great way to support a band directly.
4. Listen to (internet) radio and record it
Listening to internet radio is free. Websites like shoutcast, di.fm and xiph.org offer links to streams of thousands of free radio stations. You will find radio stations for mainstream music as well as stations that play stuff like gospel and swing.
It is legal in some countries to record those radio streams using so called streamrippers that download the stream while you listen to it. (There are actually some tools out there that are able to record more than one stream).
Take a look at my guide to streamripping if you are interested in this. Streamer-Radio is another freeware tool that can record streams.
Pandora offers a unique service but is still considered an internet radio station. You enter a song or artist name and it tries to find matching artists that play in the same style. You need to register to hear more than a few songs though. Read this article if you want to find out how to save pandora streams.
5. Audio Blogs / Podcasts
Audio Blogs provide their visitors with audio content. This could be in the form of downloadable mp3 files or music streams. Many encourage their visitors to download the mp3 files, some offer options to buy a CD if you like the music.
Visit monkeyfilter.com for a large list of audio blogs.
75 Minutes is a great podcast site that links to free music. Podsafe Music Network offers many songs as well.
6. Download free music
Thousands of websites exist that offer free mp3 downloads. It could be that a musician offers (part of) his music on a website for free or that a company who sells music is offering free sample songs.
The following list contains only sites that offers many songs for free, some demand a registration before you can download songs but that should be ok in my opinion.
Altsounds Alternative Music Online (no registration)
Amazon Free Music Downloads (registration required)
Archive.org (no registration)
Artistlaunch (no registration)
Audiostreet (registration required)
Audiri (no registration)
CD Baby (no registration)
DMusic (no registration)
Download.com (registration required)
Epitonic (no registration)
Etree (registration required)
Garageband (no registration)
Oddio Overplay (no registration)
Oggle (no registration)
Pure Volume (no registration)
Singing Fish (no registration)
Soundlife (no registration)
Please digg this article if you like it.
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Listen to and download free mp3 music
Plus I advocate actively pirating music, by bypassing any coprright measures and making the music available for download. I say the strangehold hollywood and the US has on worldwide memes has to GO.
Well, at least in Spain is COMPLETELY LEGAL sharing music and movies using p2p programmes. And there is people who download music and meet together to give those CD’s or movies to bystanders, because it’s also legal…
We’ll do our best! ;)
You forget the Creative Commons remix site: http://www.ccmixter.org
CC music galore! Check out Noite De Carnaval by Code.
Thanks for mentioning our program, 75 Minutes, however, your description is just a tiny bit misleading, so I waqnted to clear it up.
What 75 Minutes is is an online radio program that podcasts its shows. While our programs are free every week (and a great way to discover some great independent musicians from all over the world if I do say so myself), the songs we play and link to are not free. If someone likes a song we do encourage them to purchase the music as we only feature independent music from artists and labels with a high level of integrity. Labels hat pay their bands a fair percentage of the sales so that everyone involved (including those that work at the label getting the word out about the music) is able to continue on producing more music.
The music industry as an entire whole is not the enemy here. Just a music industry that puts itself and profits ahead of those creating the product. It’s a fine distinction, but quite an important one. When you don’t pay for music from a label like Dischord Records, or music on a label that some guy is running out of his bedroom, then there is a more direct harm that is being done.
So do spend time copying, downloading and exploring other avenues of music discovery. How else are you going to hear anything? But when you find artists you enjoy, you should look at their background and are encouraged to support them and their label if that support is going to be used in a productive manner. Rather than “Boycott the Music Industry” we really should be “Educating Ourselves About the Music Industry” and only showing financial support to those that fall in line with our personal ethics.
Don’t forget Jamendo, a place to find Creative Commons artists: http://www.jamendo.com/us
you might want to put a referral link in your links .. esp amazon
I live in Canada where downloading is legal hahahaha you suck
I have been boycotting the RIAA since they first decided to sued that little girl with no computer.
And then all those poor college studnets.
I have been checking out my friends bands, and just not listening.
Lets face it if “we” do not watch out the RIAA will take over and we will let them!.
I for one am not going to allow them to take over,…”Only I am but a whisper in the wind, together we are like a roar!.”
http://www.donkihote.com/images15000000/8927548.jpg
One of the best ways to support musicians without allowing your money to fall into the grubby undedserving hands of the music industry is by going to live shows and buying merchandise directly from the band either at the gig or from their website. A much higher percentage of the money you spend in these scenarios goes to the artists who deserve it.
i Think you guys will find this interesting
http://www.harveydanger.com/downloads/
Although I’ve not read everything i just wanted to tell something about that topic…
Well I like CDs… I like to buy them, to own them and everything else. I buy as much used music I can get but I still buy new cds under 10€ wether from majors or not. Yeah i do support nearly illegal things but the music for me is more worth than some mp3/flac files on the harddisc. And I’m copying so much music that these CDs don’t get any weight!
But there’s one thing I try to influence with: I only buy QUALITY! It’s one way I disagree to buy every music from majors but another to buy only QUALITY music from majors. When they’re changing their current cash-targets, 2nd target is reached. 1st target for them will be to see the listeners as friends and not as possible pirates…
another free audio site:
http://www.digitalaudiosearch.com
this may be interesting: http://freemusicblog.net
it’s still small and not very well known, but i think (or hope) it will be someday :)
i still need authors for posts about free music other than electronic music. at the momenti do all the posting… well… at least have a look :)
Dude you can subscribe to the Napster free trial, download an unlimited amount of music to your hard drive, and then convert it to regular mp3s via a program like tunebite (www.tunebite.com) which removes all the DRM restrictions.
Our humble website offers DRM free Mp3′s, mainly Hip Hop and Techno, Also some graffitti galleries to explore. Enjoy!
whoops heres the addy scratchitup.com
please dont digg our site.
One week without music in the world. That´s a boicot. People would go mad, music is always present in our lives. People would realise how important music is for their lives. Maybe like that the world would start to show some respect for authors and musicians.
Hey! Thanks for mentioning our site, DMusic. We appreciate it tremendously. Keep on supporting independent music! :)
It has been a long time since I read something equally common sense. I would even go a step further, and say that giving any money to the music industry in the current state (prosecution of mp3 downloaders, lobbying governments to introduce stricter laws) is highly unethical. I just can not understand why people should be criminalised for such an innocent thing as music, even if some greedy corporations happened to make a business out of it. Businesses come and go, why should this particular one get some special protection at the expense of taxpayers?