Why do you not download music illegally?

[Rakehellion]

I like how people say they buy music to "support the artist." It's like this dude makes great music, but he's not a nice guy, so screw him! And this other guy I like, but he makes millions of dollars anyway, so torrenting I go!

People don't buy music for music anymore. It's all politics.

Your daughter's a big Justin Bieber fan. Do you stop buying albums for her after he goes on a racist tirade?

I remember back in the day people bought music because there were only about three different albums that you could listen to from start to finish anyway.

 

[Wyndru]

Word.

 

[alkemyst]

dafuq?

 

[Kaido]

Spotify. Ten bucks a month.

+ 20 million songs
+ Pandora-style radio
+ Offline albums for DIY playlists
+ Good recommendations for finding new music

For less than the cost of one new CD per month, I get access to an entire library of millions of songs instantly, no hassle.

 

[effowe]

I don't?

 

[ultimatebob]

Because I'd rather pay $1 a song than risk getting sued by the RIAA? That, and you can legally hear most songs on YouTube now.

But, yeah... If you want to support the artist, go to their concert. The distributors and producers get more profit from music sales than the artist does.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I illegally downloaded all the music I had any interest in between 1998 and 2002. It's sitting on my NAS, along with the ~100GB or so of legit CD rips and the few GBs of iTunes purchases.

Most pop music is crap. If I had a kid and they wanted Bieber, they could buy it with their own money.

 

[CZroe]

Because free iTunes Match downloads for a $1 disc from Goodwill is even cheaper than buying the two or three tracks I want and the rest of the album is a bonus that I often didn't even know I wanted.

 

[shortylickens]

cuz Amazon prime now has music.

 

[lxskllr]

I If I had a kid and they wanted Bieber, they could buy it with their own money.

That's how I see it. I'd buy music I considered quality, but didn't personally like, but I won't buy shit. Good thing my daughter never listened to shit. Disappointingly, she isn't really into music either. Youtube is good enough for her, and she has little desire to have a local collection :^/

 

[William Gaatjes]

I never download. But since there is a copy fee on every computer part or related article that i buy, i do record sometimes music for my own use. I mean, i payed that copy fee for it. Might as well make use of it.

 

[BUTCH1]

Ahh, the early days of "Napster" when I still had dial-up LOL, then it was "All of Mp3", that Russian site that was ultra-cheap, now if I want something I just buy it off Amazon for a buck, no DRA hassles, decent bitrates and I don't feel like I'm stealing shit..

 

[MrPickins]

Because most of the music I want is easily available, for a reasonable price and DRM free.

and I don't feel like I'm stealing shit..

This too.

 

[vbuggy]

Jeez, the last time I did was like 15 years ago. Now it's too much hassle to *not* stream or buy music legally unless you're looking for something really weird.

 

[Slew Foot]

Youtube plus Fullrip.net

 

[ElFenix]

meh, i still buy CDs.

 

[Ichinisan]

I buy real CDs from thrift stores and pawn shops whenever possible. Rip them lossless.

On the go, I stream my music with iTunes Match. It's not lossless quality when streamed, but it's still way better than most MP3 downloads.

 

[Leros]

It's not worth it anymore.

In the old days, I'd spend $20 on a CD and usually find out I only liked a couple of songs. Pirating 100 albums a year would save me $2000 and let me listen to music I may not have been willing to risk paying for. Now, I pay $120/year for Spotify and have access to everything. I'll gladly pay $120/year to be legal and theoretically support the artists.

 

[Mixolydian]

I rarely obtain new music at all. I have everything that I like (which is very limited).

Though if I do get new music, I try to buy it directly from the artist if possible. Usually they are indie musicians who do all their own production and sales.

 

[pete6032]

1. The price of music has decreased significantly versus 10 years ago. Now you can usually get a new release CD for $9-$12 while 10 years ago you would go into a store and pay as much as $18-$20 for a CD.

2. No more DRM.

3. Amazon MP3 has made is highly convenient. Access to my entire music collection on any device, and I can download the mp3 to any device.

4. The amount of music that I download today is way less now since we have services like Pandora, which are free.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Finite hard drive space and finite good music. Once you've run out of one or the other it's time to stop downloading.

 

[BUTCH1]

Youtube plus Fullrip.net

Very handy, thanks!, YT took down their video tutorial, violated "terms of service" LOL..

 

[lxskllr]

For unusual Youtube music, I download in webm, and extract the audio locally.

mkvextract tracks [yourWebmFile.webm] 2:[yourOggFile.ogg]

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I do both. I like to buy used CDs on eBay/Amazon and at thrift stores just to satisfy the collector/bargain-hunter urge, I'll buy a handful of new CDs from my favorite artists, and the rest is mostly downloading.

EDIT: And ripping audio from YouTube, unless it's very obscure and absolutely cannot be found anywhere else, should be a crime for polluting the internet with shit-quality rips.

 

[DigDog]

the stuff that is free is generally 10x better than the stuff that is paid