42 replies to this topic

[Uberman - SpecOps Kerrigan]

MP3 players are here to stay, that's for certain. But while Apple and Microsoft currently hold the monopoly, let's not forget about the other underdog companies that are still making MP3 players that hold just as much...they're just not as cute or as cliche to use as the iPod.

So what'll happen? Some genius will make a program much like iTunes that will fully integrate with your OS, and you'll be able to use those not so popular MP3 players to listen to your music on the go.

Unfortunately for the industry, file sharing is here to stay...and as long as computers come with CD drives...so is ripping. Now it's their job to figure out how to get us to pay for it. Yay capitalism.

FYI, you can hook up any Creative, Dell, Archos, etc. player to Windows Media Player, and it works, no questions asked. Even WinAmp works with my Zen, and I assume other devices as well.

And as you said about computers with no CD drives.. what about the MacBook Air?

[marcyt]

Jonathan Coulton has a few things to say about this stuff but it's more about paying for what you download than CDs vs. downloading. It's important that the creators be paid for what they create so getting music illegally is just wrong. I used to love buying albums. Slitting open the plastic and sliding the album out with the cover on, reading the liner notes, was good fun. Liner-note writing was an art form that's now lost. Browsing record store shelves was always fun, it was cool to look at all the covers and compare the artistry. A lot's been lost with the switch to CDs and online downloads. I've had some issues using iTunes as well but I've had even more issues getting mp3s off the PP site and other sites. They play once or twice after download and then I get an error message when I open iTunes again after closing. But I do like my ipod--the sound is good and it's easy to carry around. Downloading may be the future but we've lost more than just the vinyl with the switch.

[darthur]

hmmm...

CoD4 anyone?

I could take you.

[The Renolution]

Record Store Day

="Lets Cling on to a failing form of business aslong as we can because we dont like the idea of changing" day

Seriously, doing a bunsiness degree has taught me that Change is one of the most important parts of modern business. All the companies that are the first onto an idea are the ones that make the most profit. And then to stare in the face of change that will reward those who do it correctly in massive proprtions, and to say "nah, we'll just fight the change and make it worse for all those who do want to change" is just pure idiocy.

IMO, CDs are still important. CD quality will always trump illegal d/l quality, and there's no way in hell id use iTunes, so if i really like the band, the only option is to buy their CD.

Im just waiting for the day where someone will do it right. Unfortunelt, the industry has so many barriers to entry, even those that do know how to do it are never given the chance. Maybe a total collapse of the record industry really is for the best...

Almost every single time, when I get a CD, my favorite songs aren't the ones that made me want to go out and pick it up in the first place. Finding those gems is awesome and there's nothing like putting the album on and listening to it all the way through for the first time and letting it have your complete and undivided attention.

QFMT! Glad to know im not the only one

[Ratsacker]

CoD4, Sure what's your gamertag? :-p

But yeah.. To be honest, I don't care what the music industry does, While i can listen to all the music i want conveniently and free, Im fucking going too.

I've bought 2 CD's in my life time that i haven't later pirated, The PurePwnage Season 1 CD and the Cat Empire's first CD.
It's staying that way until the next PP CD comes out.

[Lord Panzerfaust]

I still buy CDs from my local store mainly because i want to support the bands that i really do like but i have to hear what their songs are like so i go to myspace or youtube to look for their songs i can hear and make judgement on that, if i do like it ill buy their CD and stuff...the only time i use torrents is when i can't find a CD i want ANYWHERE, plus i rather have a physical copy of it more than a file on my pc that might get deleted if my pc crashes or w/e.

[KuroFalcon]

Ouch not being able to redownload your own compilations must really suck

[3xp0sed]

Ouch not being able to redownload your own compilations must really suck



Indeed

[Biohazard.]

FYI, you can hook up any Creative, Dell, Archos, etc. player to Windows Media Player, and it works, no questions asked. Even WinAmp works with my Zen, and I assume other devices as well.

And as you said about computers with no CD drives.. what about the MacBook Air?

The MacBook Air in my opinion is shit but amazing at the same time.. I like how they're really portable etc, just the lack of peripherals, cd drive, ether net etc..

[goldoche]

CDs are so last-gen. It is retarded that they try to make you believe that you should buy CDs instead of downloading.

WARNING GAMER ANALOGY
Now that everyone has an Xbox360, it's like if they would try to sell you an Xbox1 version of COD4 that you would have to run on your 360 anyway with backward compatibility. And they would sell it at full price!

Maybe you care to collect painted plastic discs, but I personally don't. I'd rather collect music that I like and have access to it conveniently.

It's funny they try to sell you this last-gen piece of technology, yet the next-next-gen is almost there: Your music collection on the web. See it at as last.fm, but with an iTune-like interface so that you build-up your library and listen to what you want when you want. I bet Apple is ready to deploy such a service in the near future. I would definitely dig into that! The technology is so ready for that too, hell their iPod touch is online. It would be so convenient, that installing software and managing gigs of music files will be so last-gen soon. And sure you'd still be able to download tracks for your old MP3 player in the garage. This is sure to happen, sometime I even wonder why it's not there yet, we have been streaming YouTube videos for years for f* sake! Who has an offline library of short clips? lol

[largpro]

I totally relate to your article, but glaringly in the vein of the iPod and ITunes comment. LarG Productions can't steal from itself....can it? That function is plain ridiculous. Seems a little odd that a company which was kept afloat in the darker era by multimedia designers and creators, would implement something that discourages the aforementioned in the post iMac and iPod era!

Graham

[Sarthis]

Dude Geoff, why arent you honestly like a master debater. You are pro at arguments. like honestly, espically with the whole violence and video games thing, you could be like Jack Thompsons arch nemesis.

[Fuzzle]

Internet internet... I would feel so bad if I was a dedicated musician right now. The money would never arrive =D, people would be just hearing ure music for free T_T.

[Amish]

All music stores in my town are going to get replaced with a shop that only sells games (No its not a wery big town, its in norway, a not wery big country around 60000 people live here).. Even if the stores who was there before sold games and music.. I like to have the CD bouth at the store, just for the cover and it will fill my music collection.. But i download the music before i buy it tho, just to listen if its worth buying. Gues i need to order the cd online now, will take a week before i will get the cd, so i gues that i need to download it to listen to it, dont want to wait a week.

And Geoff, you can use Winamp if you dont like iTunes Work with every iPod.

[cjboonie]

so Record Store Day is like a fan-meet for ppl who like to use CDs!?
that would be me.

[eedok]

lol if Edmonton wasn't on the first page, I'd just assume this was taking place nowhere.

[Bilge]

Maybe this is part of the problem.

Even if I am the only one, I see what you did there.

[bl00k]

I couldn't agree more with the iTunes comment. I warned my friend, I told him that iTunes is trash, but he used it anyway and lost about 30 gig worth of music because it wasn't DRM. He was furious. The worst part is he went back to iTunes, like a battered wife to her abusive husband. Some people just don't learn.

[OkitaMakoto]

Wow. Insane, just on Wednesday here at Earlham College, Richmond Indiana, we had a guest speaker, Professor Pamela Samuelson present on "Should Information be Free." She is a professor with the School of Information and School of Law,
University of California at Berkeley.

She spoke of the growing need to rework copyright laws to fit the modern digital age and to work more easily with the youtube/facebook/myspace(*shudder*) generation of personalized media, using songs in user videos, etc.

After the presentation, I had the strong urge to ask her about there not only being the need to change laws on copyrights, and for users to take up more responsibility for their pirating actions, but rather what she thought about a company's responsibility...or rather NEED to update their methods of ditribution and money making strategies.

I planned on using PurePwnage as the perfect example. You are simply amazing people in my eyes. The way you make a show for free, offer it up for FREE downloads at what I consider amazing visual/audio quality, and then offer more tangible, physical sources such as DVD's and CD's, shirts, etc for fans to show their support and thanks. Myself and countless other fans are MORE than willing to pay money for these products. You love your supporters and give them a quality product for FREE, and in return, out of LOVE and devotion, we buy your various "side" products in the hopes that you will continue making videos/projects for us to enjoy.

This is exactly what the music industry should start doing, in my opinion. Rlease these songs on the internet, cheaply, very cheaply and efficiently. itunes isnt too bad of a way, hell, amazon does it now. Sure get rid of the gimmicks and antitheft crap and give it as it is. Then you come up with great side products. Things people want tangible copies of. They already do that with t-shirts, DVDs of concerts, etc. The problem with trying to stop music piracy is that most times a song is downloaded, it is just that one song a user wants. They dont want the whole cd, and if they had to pay to get it, theyd say screw it and just not pay. You cant fix that.

But alas, she ended the presentation by chewing out a student who asked about the inclusion of pharmaceutical drugs and copyrights[patents] and no one wanted to talk to her. I found her after the presentation but she immediately told me she had to drive to Pittsburg and couldn't take any questions.

So, in the end, I was pwnd and didn't get to ask it, but then I soon after heard from a friend about this very update... heh, great minds think alike, amirite?

Thanks for everything you do, I'm sure you hear that all the time, but know that I and many others think of you and the show[and its commercial strategy? for lack of a better phrase] as complete and utter genius. Pure Win.
Thank you,
Tom Wilson

[on0123]

Bot suspended -Byak

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 01 December 2011 - 01:18 PM.