[Ancestor]

Download everything. Good luck with your speech though. Mine was on trying to convince people to switch to mac.

[NemesisTheory]

I'm in the middle on it. Without sampling albums, there's no way to know what to buy. There are more bands now than ever. Often its impossible to find a single mp3 from some releases, and sometimes myspace samples are terrible quality. I buy the albums that I like. I tend to buy more albums from small labels and lesser known bands because I think they need the support more. I will buy cds and merchandise directly from a band when possible. I also like having the real cd in hand, with artwork and lyrics.

As far as labels, remember that a lot of labels now are quite small, sometimes being run out of a dude's house. Not all are corporate giants. Supporting indie labels can be as important as supporting a band directly.

Scott

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by Metal Ken

You probably wont find much support for your argument. Personally, i'm for it. i'm fiercely loyal to my favorite bands, however, i do download albums. If i like them, i buy them as soon as i can to show support, and to of course have the band sign when they come by locally. If not, i delete that shit and forget about it. Simple as that.

This.

[Ancestor]

Look, if you follow the riaa line of reasoning, no one should even be allowed to have a computer. We can all just go work in the field, come home at the end of the week and spend our pay on a disc that will play once and then self-destruct. And they would probably even prefer it if we listened to the "play-once-then-destroy" disc alone. No sharing!

[Celiak]

I don't download too much because I prefer CD quality and above, .mp3 files make me sad. Flac works but it's a bit too big to download.

I actually wish they would put music on blu-rays, the higher fidelity the better in my book.

[oompa]

pretty much what Metal Ken said.

it hurts the popindustry, whose goal is to sell you stuff fast cus you wont like it a few months from now. the rest of the genres, the ones where you can pick up a 10year old album and go "wow, how did i miss this one?", i think they actually benefit from it. and if they are actually good, they'll be making millions from going on the road.

and its just good promotion. i dont know how many really small and obscure bands i have found through downloading their shit, loving it and then found their album in an even more obscure net-site that ships from like.. the moon or something either way, i think small bands benefit the most from it. and if everyone would just prioritize and buy from the small dudes first, then the internet would just be the best type of promotion the world has ever seen.

but as above write wrote: im kinda into sound, and i dont often find stuff that has good quality. mp3 can be but the people that put out rips usually dont know how to rip mp3 properly a properly ripped 320kbps cbr, no one would ABX various samples from especially well. still, properly ripped mp3s are as rare as penguins on the north pole, so i always prefer to buy music and rip it myself.

i also only see the dinosaurs putting their CD prices up all the time and most other companies follow them blindly. as soon as the friggin CD-popindustry can die off i imagine CD's dropping in price a bit as well.

[JBroll]

The artist gets shafted quite a bit... if you don't buy, they lose the royalty, the sales numbers that help them get good deals and other benefits, help with touring, and the possibility of more albums.

I don't know how the metal labels like Metal Blade, Century Media, Nuclear Blast, and the likes are tied to the RIAA, but if someone else knows I'm interested.

Jeff

[Zak1233]

I think dl'ing music is a great thing and and imo it does benefit for labels due to the fact that your downloading music to see what the band is like and you then buy their albums etc if you like them or not. So yeh i think its a good thing.

[JBroll]

The labels or bands give away a song or two so that you can decide if the song is right for you. That's the advertisement they give.

Do you expect to watch a movie or eat a meal at a restaraunt before deciding whether you should pay for it? I wouldn't. You see the commercials and trailers, or you have a sample (depending on the restaurant), but if you try to get away without [EDIT: said with, whoops] paying for the whole thing only if you like it you're nuts...

Jeff

[Zepp88]

Originally Posted by JBroll

The labels or bands give away a song or two so that you can decide if the song is right for you. That's the advertisement they give.

Do you expect to watch a movie or eat a meal at a restaraunt before deciding whether you should pay for it? I wouldn't. You see the commercials and trailers, or you have a sample (depending on the restaurant), but if you try to get away with paying for the whole thing only if you like it you're nuts...

Jeff