Metal Reviews

I think that many of you are hilarious. There is one way of ending the "punishment".......stop illegally downloading music!! Period. To those of you who say that 30 second samples and multiple full song samples on MySpace are not enough for you to decide if you like an album...TOO BAD. You're all spoiled rotten by the Internet and it's capabilities to fill your computer up with illegally stolen digital music.

You see there was a time (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) that you heard a track or two on the radio from a band. You felt that the songs were either good enough for you to go buy the album or they weren't. If you did buy the album then you ran home or to your car (cassette or cd) and discovered the rest of the material that you had not heard on the radio. Sure there were some songs that weren't great but that was a part of the process. If you're rational is that you download to find out if every track is a winner then that is the flimsiest argument ever!! I never ever found a CD or cassette in my 28 years of buying music that didn't have a dud song that just sucked. Get over it.

As for videos, we didn't have them at our finger tips as we do today. We had to wait for MTV to play them or sit up half the night on Friday night and watch Friday Night Videos. Now you just go to your artists web page or YouTube and you can see them instantly. Even the old MySpace again has tons of videos from literally every damn artist you can think of.

There are enough ways for music fans to hear a few song samples and decide if they want to buy the CD. Even if you don't want to pay full price you can find many discounted dealers on the Internet. If not you can buy plenty of used CD's via Ebay, Half.com, Amazon (private sellers) at damn cheap prices that beat digital downloading prices.

I sample most of my music from Myspace. I buy every CD. If you don't have the money because you're a student then I guess you won't be able to have as much music until you're out of school and working. Just because you don't have tons of cash doesn't give you the right or perceived privilege to steal the artists work. When I was younger that just meant that I became a loyal follower of a few bands instead of virtually hundreds of bands. I was loyal to Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth etc. I knew there were many other bands I was missing at the time but I didn't have the Internet and MySpace to give me legal samples to fill the void until I had money to buy more CD's. No, we had to wait for the songs to be played on the radio.

Is it right that the RIAA is engaging in these tactics some will say yes some will say no. However, until people stop stealing music, the RIAA will be waging the war against you.

Yup.

I'm against the RIAA because record companies are outdated and fighting against new technology is futile. They should be spending money on figuring out new ways of making a profit (because as long as there are people interested in music, there will be a way to make money from it) and less on trying to fight their losing battle against digital formats, often in ridiculous ways (such as the article this thread is about or what the guy from Devildriver suggested).

Personally, I just can't wait until CDs are dead 'cause I think they're an inferior format to digital.

No thanks. I spend most of my disposable income supporting musicians, record labels and record stores I love, I'll do as I please because I KNOW I am doing the right thing.

No it isn't. there's better options out there.


Bullshit, up until about 2 months ago I bought the vast majority of the music I had. The stuff I did not buy, I had because I loaned the CD from my friends (one of which owns a record store and knew I would buy it even though I had it ripped to Hard Drive if I liked it.) I will continue to buy music as ever because I am a collector.


That's just sad, just because then you have to be at the mercy of record companies ability to market, rather than judge by the quality of the product

...and either way, the record company assured thier record would go gold this way

I am starting to figure out no matter how legendary, overblown, overrated, ect. and album is, the vast majority is about half quality songs, a few great songs and the rest half-assed, half-hearted bullshit that wasn't suitable for a demo. That's how music was done until a few artists insisted on making great all around records (Rush anyone?)

Not really, You're finding out what you'll be getting and possibly saving yourself the hassle if something sucks. I said something similar to what you are referencing. I'll amend that by adding that if an album does not sufficiently give me my money's worth, I wouldn't buy it. That personal standard has got to be half the tracks have to be enjoyable listens.

I have, you should listen to a lot more music, maybe blindly buying albums based on radio-appeal is the problem. On that note, There's no album that has been perfect as far as I'm concerned either.

And does someone not have the right to buy only songs they enjoy from i-tunes after a thorough evaluation of it's material? By this logic, no, you must buy the cow to get the milk. This kind of thinking leads to mediocrity and laziness. You'[re suggesting that you only have the right to not listen to a song after buying it. Fuck that.



Every musician in the business encourages thier videos being broadcast by as many outlets as possible. Who wouldn't? It's free advertisement and the reason these damn things are getting made in today's marketplace anyway.



Yeah, you can pay 5 cents per song legally too. None of this helps the industry, the artist or anyone but the seller, so what exactly is your point? Are you just against doing something illegal with no moral reason behind it?


This is dumb, telling someone who in a few years will have the buying power of a college graduate "see you in few years, thanks for the interest, now fuck off" is the best way to make sure they lose interest and become sour over the music they love. Heavy metal is especially prone to this because you REALLY have to keep up or just drop out of the whole thing. Here's the news from my aforementioned friend who owns a record store for over 20 years:

People will buy whatever music they were into in college for the rest of thier lives, they generally don't change tastes or even what specific artists they care about. they stop being "up on things" after graduation. People will use their buying power later to make these artists and labels money later in the long run. Or they'll buy used and contribute zero, either way seems to suit you fine.



This whole thing is really coming off as "I couldn't do it back then, so now you shouldn't be able to either" Who fucking said downloading something meant you couldn't buy it later. The people that care now have always cared and have always supported music. This won't change. Music sales increase every year, they haven't declined overall since the internet, nor will they ever due to new customers entering the market every damn day. Go ask some popular artists, like Ozzy, Metallica, or hell, even Anthrax what they sell weekly, I bet thier doing about 2000 copies or more per album.



They can't do anything short of searching people's computers. They wont stop the uploading sites that are located off-shores nor the people that link to them. They won't stop people from making copies of music because speakers won't work without an analog signal, and even if they impossibly stop that, microphones will render that useless.

They are powerless, so they need to do thier part and start encouraging artistic integrity and quality above marketablity.
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I hope this doesn't happen to me :(

He obviously hasn't heard of Ken.

Adveser:

Then I suggest that you stop downloading and try the more direct approach. Walk into your local CD store:

#1) Ask if you can sample everything in the store.

#2) When that fails just pick up all the CD's you want and head for the door.

You're doing the same thing. Only your doing it from the comfort of your desktop.

Downloading is stealing.

My argument is not based on a premise of what was should be now. My argument is that technology has enabled users to STEAL music. That's my angle, plain and simple. You seem to think that you have some form of entitlement to STEAL music just because the technological ability to do so exists. If a band records a bad track that's not the fault of the record company. You're arguments are weak.

Bottom line is that the same technology that allows down-loaders to steal music will enable the artists to take back control of their creations. Very soon we'll see the day when the little band no longer needs promotional help from the big labels. It's already begun.

As for you record store friend and his advice about fans losing interest...that's just absolutely ridiculous. The very same technology that allows people to steal music also allows them to "keep up" with their favorite music. I can watch sports on my phone man. Please, if you can't stay in touch with your favorite artists or hobbies today via the Internet then you are living in a cave. Yet another terribly weak attempt at justifying theft.

Stealing music doesn't make you a rebel in the cause to bring down record labels, it just makes you a thief. The power of rationalization that surrounds this subject is mind-numbing.

Good luck man. I hope you're awarded a law suit from the RIAA.

I download music. I'm bad.

I buy cd's. I'm good?

i download but i buy cds that i like

i feel stolen from when i buy a cd that i dont like and cant get a refund

Yes, but that's not the label's or the band's fault that you don't like their product. There are enough people out there who will, and if you for some reason heard a track you liked and then didn't like the whole CD (which has never happened to me) it's not their problem.

They could care less, album sales are way up from anytime in history and the aforementioned support them makes them care a lot less than that.

That seems to be the argument. no matter how much money you spend on either one.

If I went out and bought 2 cars but then stole the 3rd car off the lot after the dealership closed, would buying the first two cars absolve me of any guilt or wrong-doing from stealing the 3rd car? NO. You've still stolen the car.

Cars break down right? Because the car manufacturer decided to put a less than quality part on the car does that make stealing the car ok? NO!

Let's say the car manufacturer charges the dealership to much in selling the car to the dealership. So the dealership only makes a few dollars at the point of sale. Does that make stealing cars ok? NO!

Your logic is absolutely skewed. Arguing this point with you is like trying to reason with my dog.

No. You see things in a very limited scope. If I buy everything I listen to, what's the fucking point of all this? You're telling me I have no right to buy an album unless I find out about it from the radio.

Limitied scope?

If all you've derived from everything I've written is that I'm advocate for learning about all new music material via an antiquated format like the radio then you are sorely lost.

Where's my golden retriever? He understands this better than you do.

It's not their fault, but for say buying headphones, clothes, computers, TVs and almost anything else I can get a refund for stuff I don't like. If iTunes had a system in place that let me "return" songs, I wouldn't download stuff illegally.

I know there are a lot of people who download without buying, but from who I've talked to those are the people that would be making tapes, buying used, or figuring out some other way not to pay full price for albums anyways, while the people who would have been buying music are still buying music.

Yes, but it's different. If they let people get refunds on music people would buy it, rip it and return it. It's the experience they're selling, do you get a refund from your local video rental store if the film you borrowed was poor?

Those are great points noodles.

So, buying music is like renting, but full price with no refunds or incentive whatsoever to try something foreign. It's like you see an album that could be good, you've heard great things, but is it waiting to fuck you out of your money by its sheer worthlessness? These kind of questions can be answered now without buying all those terrible records we should have known better about. Not that anyone is spending less money, in fact, a lot of people are scraping change out of the couch and collecting tin cans to buy all the great shit thier hearing.

An MP3 is a low quality sample of a CD. It IS passable enough, but I don't trust anyone else to rely on thier ability to encode, as I know a hell of lot more about it than most. So I gotta get the damn cd anyway.

So in theory you're in favor of Rhapsody, which hooks you up to a vast library of albums that can be played unlimited and at no cost to intice you to buy the thing, but not when you take things into your own hands so you can choose what you buy more wisely.

Both things are the same fucking thing, but one is evil and horrible. But one is just great. How should the 300 bands I listened to this month divide thier 9 dollars for the subscription?

Way to ignore what I said, thicko. It's like buying a book, or watching a film - it's the experience! You can't take them back and complain, same with music.

You know what's absolutely hilarious and shoots all of Adveser's bullshit theories full of holes??!!

I bought over 275 CD's this year. Most purchases were all based on sample songs that were on the artists' MySpace page, knowledge of the band's prior material, or from reading reviews here ( and then going to listen to the band via MySpace). I don't feel that one of those CD's that I bought sucked. I don't feel that I was ripped off in any way. Not one purchase was a waste of money. Why? Because I listened to a few songs first. I didn't go into the purchase blind.

Oh yeah, I never ever brought up Rhapsody. You did. You keep twisting the argument and attempting to put words in my mouth.