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So where do you steal your music?
- Thread starter Cardinal
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Hmmmm ... okay, this is a borderline topic, since many other bulletin boards have a policy of killing discussions about file sharing. Still, though, since it's discussed in mainstream PC magazines, I don't think there's any harm in discussing it here. I'll draw the line at open discussion of finding WaReZ, though. Sorry, d00dz.
Disclaimer ... Cyburbia does not condone any illegal activity.. That being said, two good sources are ...
1) KaZaA Lite ... no 128 kbps limit, a ton of obscure tunes, and NO SPYWARE.
2) Usenet ... the alt.binaries.sounds.* newsgroups, if you wait around for a bit. It's a good place to go if you're just browsing, and not looking for anything in particular; you'll find tons of [baritone=5]deep cuts![/baritone]. The quality of rips posted to Usenet is usually outstanding; 192kbps LAME MP3, Q6 OGG or Monkeys Audio is the norm.
Another alternative is to download Streamripper, find a high bandwidth stream (128kbps or better) with accurate song identification, and sit back as MP3s are fed onto your hard drive.
Stream ripping is GREAT if you're into techno, because there's literally hundreds of high-bitrate ambient and electronica streams. The majority of folks aren't, though, so stream ripping is of limited use. Unfortunately, my favorite stream, Radio Paradise, delays their metadata by several seconds, so it's not practical to rip it.
What I've been doing more is finding the lossless version of a song (.wav or Monkeys Audio), and then converting it to Ogg Vorbis format at Q6 VBR. Ogg Vorbis is an open source format, and the sound quality is better than MP3 at an equivalent bandwidth.
Disclaimer ... Cyburbia does not condone any illegal activity.. That being said, two good sources are ...
1) KaZaA Lite ... no 128 kbps limit, a ton of obscure tunes, and NO SPYWARE.
2) Usenet ... the alt.binaries.sounds.* newsgroups, if you wait around for a bit. It's a good place to go if you're just browsing, and not looking for anything in particular; you'll find tons of [baritone=5]deep cuts![/baritone]. The quality of rips posted to Usenet is usually outstanding; 192kbps LAME MP3, Q6 OGG or Monkeys Audio is the norm.
Another alternative is to download Streamripper, find a high bandwidth stream (128kbps or better) with accurate song identification, and sit back as MP3s are fed onto your hard drive.
Stream ripping is GREAT if you're into techno, because there's literally hundreds of high-bitrate ambient and electronica streams. The majority of folks aren't, though, so stream ripping is of limited use. Unfortunately, my favorite stream, Radio Paradise, delays their metadata by several seconds, so it's not practical to rip it.
What I've been doing more is finding the lossless version of a song (.wav or Monkeys Audio), and then converting it to Ogg Vorbis format at Q6 VBR. Ogg Vorbis is an open source format, and the sound quality is better than MP3 at an equivalent bandwidth.
Jen
Cyburbian
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- 1,704
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If you like jambands such as String Cheese Incident, The Slip, Martin Medesky and wood and those type bands that allow taping at their concerts. YOu can go to www.etree.org and learn how to download music from etree FTP sites.
Repo Man
Cyburbian
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- 2,550
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I use Kazaa, the usenet groups, and Win MX. I agree with dan about the Usenet groups. I only recently startes using them and I am addicted. Each newsgroup represents a different genre or era of music and almost all postings are done as whole albums, so you aren't searcing for tracks like in Kazaa. People tend to post box sets too, which is very nice.
nerudite
Cyburbian
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I love WinMX... although they did not have the cool obscure stuff audiogalaxy used to have. Unfortunately audiogalaxy bundles with gator software, which creates a lot of pop-up ads... so I dropped it a long time ago. I'll have to give this kazaa a try... I've never used it before.
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WinMx has been good to me.
nerudite
Cyburbian
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Thanks for the tip... I hate the spyware/gatorware type stuff. Drives me nuts. Three kids use my computer at home, and they download little programs and games all the time that includes the spyware in them. I have to go through every few weeks for a sweep of programs.Dan said:
Hey... know of any good freeware that finds and deletes spyware programs?
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There's an interesting editorial in today's paper (www.concordmonitor.com) related to this thread....
Editorial: Bootleg music
Recording industry must do more than catch the small fry.
Monitor editorial
Entire nations are busily producing billions of dollars worth of pirated and bootleg CDs, tapes, software and DVDs. Tens of millions of consumers, not all of them kids, are downloading music from the Internet. People are making so many of their own music CDs that blank disks now outsell those made commercially.
So it seems a bit heavy-handed for the music industry to pick on Michael Cohen, the owner of Pitchfork Records in Concord. But as Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said of the video piracy that cost his industry an estimated $2 billion last year, "We're being nibbled to death by ducks."
Last month, the Concord police and a private investigator hired by the music industry raided Cohen's little record store and confiscated more than 500 bootleg CDs. The illegally produced recordings of live concerts by popular music groups were selling for big money, as much as $69.99, according to the Pitchfork customer who tipped off the industry authorities who came to Concord.
When you consider that it costs about a quarter to mass-produce a CD, it's clear someone is making a bundle off work that legally belongs to the artist and the recording industry.
There's a difference between making a copy of a legally purchased recording for a friend (piracy) or downloading music from the Internet and bootlegging as a business. The former is legally and morally questionable at best, but bootlegging and piracy for profit are clearly illegal.
Technology is now so good that it is making criminals of us all. Cable modems make downloading (stealing) music files quick and easy. Enormous computer hard drives capable of holding a thousand songs are cheap and will only get cheaper. It won't be long, the experts say, before people can e-mail copies of whole CDs of music back and forth as easily as they now do messages or photographs.
Most people know pirating music is wrong and feel guilty about doing it. But they also find it impossible not to take advantage of the new technology to copy a $16.99 recording for pennies.
We can't sanction the theft of any artist's work, whether by piracy or bootlegging. Yet it does seem that the right way to fight back is with competition. The technology can't be stopped, so the recording industry should instead compete on price, quality and availability.
There may be a good reason virtually all music CDs of current, reasonably popular groups sell for the same price, give or take a buck or two. Call us suspicious, but there may be something funny going on.
The industry estimates that music piracy increased by 25 percent in 2000, causing global CD sales to drop by 5 percent in 2001. Price is a big part of the problem.
Record companies must realize that if music does not become cheaper, it will become free.
Most of the bootleg CDs Cohen apparently sold were recordings of live performances that recording companies didn't care to issue. The companies and artists should take a tip from the rock group Pearl Jam. It issues official CDs of every performance for prices lower than those typically charged by bootleggers.
Given the choice of buying a legal, quality recording of a performance or an illegal copy of dubious quality, most people will make the right choice. So if Cohen broke the law, he should face an appropriate punishment. But the best course for the recording industry in the long run lies in addressing the reasons consumers purchase bootlegged music in the first place.
Editorial: Bootleg music
Recording industry must do more than catch the small fry.
Monitor editorial
Entire nations are busily producing billions of dollars worth of pirated and bootleg CDs, tapes, software and DVDs. Tens of millions of consumers, not all of them kids, are downloading music from the Internet. People are making so many of their own music CDs that blank disks now outsell those made commercially.
So it seems a bit heavy-handed for the music industry to pick on Michael Cohen, the owner of Pitchfork Records in Concord. But as Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said of the video piracy that cost his industry an estimated $2 billion last year, "We're being nibbled to death by ducks."
Last month, the Concord police and a private investigator hired by the music industry raided Cohen's little record store and confiscated more than 500 bootleg CDs. The illegally produced recordings of live concerts by popular music groups were selling for big money, as much as $69.99, according to the Pitchfork customer who tipped off the industry authorities who came to Concord.
When you consider that it costs about a quarter to mass-produce a CD, it's clear someone is making a bundle off work that legally belongs to the artist and the recording industry.
There's a difference between making a copy of a legally purchased recording for a friend (piracy) or downloading music from the Internet and bootlegging as a business. The former is legally and morally questionable at best, but bootlegging and piracy for profit are clearly illegal.
Technology is now so good that it is making criminals of us all. Cable modems make downloading (stealing) music files quick and easy. Enormous computer hard drives capable of holding a thousand songs are cheap and will only get cheaper. It won't be long, the experts say, before people can e-mail copies of whole CDs of music back and forth as easily as they now do messages or photographs.
Most people know pirating music is wrong and feel guilty about doing it. But they also find it impossible not to take advantage of the new technology to copy a $16.99 recording for pennies.
We can't sanction the theft of any artist's work, whether by piracy or bootlegging. Yet it does seem that the right way to fight back is with competition. The technology can't be stopped, so the recording industry should instead compete on price, quality and availability.
There may be a good reason virtually all music CDs of current, reasonably popular groups sell for the same price, give or take a buck or two. Call us suspicious, but there may be something funny going on.
The industry estimates that music piracy increased by 25 percent in 2000, causing global CD sales to drop by 5 percent in 2001. Price is a big part of the problem.
Record companies must realize that if music does not become cheaper, it will become free.
Most of the bootleg CDs Cohen apparently sold were recordings of live performances that recording companies didn't care to issue. The companies and artists should take a tip from the rock group Pearl Jam. It issues official CDs of every performance for prices lower than those typically charged by bootleggers.
Given the choice of buying a legal, quality recording of a performance or an illegal copy of dubious quality, most people will make the right choice. So if Cohen broke the law, he should face an appropriate punishment. But the best course for the recording industry in the long run lies in addressing the reasons consumers purchase bootlegged music in the first place.