December 19th, 2009 / 6:25 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Ken Baumann—
Anyone mess with LaLa.com? Seems incredible: buy a song for 10¢ and you can listen to it online, from anywhere. 89¢ total and you can have an mp3 too. Hmm. Any experiences?
all music is free
all music is free
lazy
+ the illusion of ‘paying the musicians’ is nice
lazy
+ the illusion of ‘paying the musicians’ is nice
go to shows, buy merch
go to shows, buy merch
i don’t like that model, either
i don’t like that model, either
it is honestly incredible to me that people pay music for mp3s or streams
like
honestly
look the song up on youtube
9 times out of 10 it is there
hey you just saved 10 cents
it is honestly incredible to me that people pay music for mp3s or streams
like
honestly
look the song up on youtube
9 times out of 10 it is there
hey you just saved 10 cents
I don’t mind paying for music, in the same way I don’t mind paying for books – I like records, for one, and maybe I’m a little stupid when it comes to downloading, but I feel like whenever I’ve gotten music for free, the files are usually shitty MP3s, meaning I like music that sounds good, and even though I’m not sure I can always tell the difference between a CD/an MP3 at a high bitrate/an album, I feel like I have better luck when I just buy the record. Anyway, back to Lala.com – 10 cents is a great deal, but does it sound good?
I don’t mind paying for music, in the same way I don’t mind paying for books – I like records, for one, and maybe I’m a little stupid when it comes to downloading, but I feel like whenever I’ve gotten music for free, the files are usually shitty MP3s, meaning I like music that sounds good, and even though I’m not sure I can always tell the difference between a CD/an MP3 at a high bitrate/an album, I feel like I have better luck when I just buy the record. Anyway, back to Lala.com – 10 cents is a great deal, but does it sound good?
Try mp3panda.com
It’s usually 5 cents a song and you can drop it into your iTunes library.
Try mp3panda.com
It’s usually 5 cents a song and you can drop it into your iTunes library.
Another concern is that if you pay Lala 10 cents for a song, how much money goes to the artist(s)? 3 cents? 2 cents? 1 cent? 0 cents? Maybe Lala pays the record label for the rights to steam the songs and the artists get nothing. Maybe Lala just bootlegs the music from albums released on small or defunct labels. I think if you are going to pay for music, you should make sure the money actually gets to the people who deserve it. Fuck the middle men. Fuck the bootleggers. Break their kneecaps.
Another concern is that if you pay Lala 10 cents for a song, how much money goes to the artist(s)? 3 cents? 2 cents? 1 cent? 0 cents? Maybe Lala pays the record label for the rights to steam the songs and the artists get nothing. Maybe Lala just bootlegs the music from albums released on small or defunct labels. I think if you are going to pay for music, you should make sure the money actually gets to the people who deserve it. Fuck the middle men. Fuck the bootleggers. Break their kneecaps.
I mean ‘stream’ the songs.
I mean ‘stream’ the songs.
I’m not sure – LaLa.com is owned by Apple, so I’m guessing they’re not playing bootlegs, but who knows. I’m not saying the only reason I pay for music is in the hopes that artists get paid — that’s part of it, but if I really like something, I want it in a format that sounds good. I do like that I can listen to just about anything I like before I buy it, which does admittedly mean that I buy a LOT less music now that I can listen to a record easily before I buy it.
As far as the middleman thing – if more artists started self releasing, I’d be down with that.
I like the experience of walking down to the record store and buying records and CDs. I know this is fetishism. I like the middlemman, at least in that example. And really, used records/CDs are no different than downloading illegally – yeah, I know it’s legal, since owning the physical product allows you to sell it if you want, but in the case of used records/CDs, ALL the music is going to the middleman (in my case, Randy, the dude who owns the record store). Downloading, obv, is on a much grander scale, but if I were to get all ethical about making sure I was paying for my music, I’d have to include used records and CDs.
And a lot of the music I like was released on small, now defunct labels. I’m grateful for the middle-people who are re-issueing that stuff and would like to support them in the hope that they will reissue more hard-to-find music.
For all its problems and limitations, I still like emusic a lot. It has a massive back catalog and they’re doing better at getting newer stuff when it is actually new. The deal keeps getting worse- 20 bucks a month used to get you 90 downloads; now it gets you 50, and the “album pricing” they recently introduced is mostly bullshit or nonexistent. But still. My 50 downloads usually translate to about 4 regular albums, maybe 2 or 3 if I’m going for the old folk/bluegrass stuff I like, which often has 20+ tracks per album. I don’t know the ins and outs of their deals with artists and labels, but to the extent that their catalogue keeps expanding, I assume that people want to be there. It’s convenient, and cheaper than iTunes, and honestly– how much new music do you need in any given 30 day period? I hate the way that the hyper-availability of music translates to a devaluation of any given piece of music. People listen to everything once, but what they always really want is the *next* thing, next next next. I like that emusic offers me a regular flow of music, but has a built-in limit. It forces me to spend time with the music, actually pay attention to it.
For all its problems and limitations, I still like emusic a lot. It has a massive back catalog and they’re doing better at getting newer stuff when it is actually new. The deal keeps getting worse- 20 bucks a month used to get you 90 downloads; now it gets you 50, and the “album pricing” they recently introduced is mostly bullshit or nonexistent. But still. My 50 downloads usually translate to about 4 regular albums, maybe 2 or 3 if I’m going for the old folk/bluegrass stuff I like, which often has 20+ tracks per album. I don’t know the ins and outs of their deals with artists and labels, but to the extent that their catalogue keeps expanding, I assume that people want to be there. It’s convenient, and cheaper than iTunes, and honestly– how much new music do you need in any given 30 day period? I hate the way that the hyper-availability of music translates to a devaluation of any given piece of music. People listen to everything once, but what they always really want is the *next* thing, next next next. I like that emusic offers me a regular flow of music, but has a built-in limit. It forces me to spend time with the music, actually pay attention to it.
I like what you’re saying about people listening to everything at once – there was a story on NPR about this a couple weeks ago which was mostly stating the obvious, but they suggested that listeners are far less active because people have amassed enormous collections of music due to easy availability.
too expensive
too expensive
buy vinyl/steal mp3s works for me.
buy vinyl/steal mp3s works for me.
definitely recommend mp3panda. entire CD’s for as little as fifty cents. haven’t had any problems.
definitely recommend mp3panda. entire CD’s for as little as fifty cents. haven’t had any problems.
google blog search contains all albums ever recorded.
google blog search contains all albums ever recorded.