MovableBlog: Month Without MP3s
March 5, 2003
This week is the beginning of my second week without any illegal MP3s on my hard drive. But since there was no announcement of that fact, there's no way you could have known this, so officially, today marks the first day. I will go a month without downloading or accepting from friends any MP3 that is not sanctioned by the record company or musical artist in question. Why?
- because artists who do it for a living deserve to be paid for their creation, irregardless of how pompous the artist or crappy the music.
- to rediscover my CD collection.
- to give credibility to my position that I am more likely to buy a CD of an artist whose record companies (independent or otherwise) puts out free, high-quality MP3s from their album as 'loss-leaders'. The RIAA seems more interested in fighting the medium rather than co-opting it.
- because the programs used to download MP3s contain spyware, adware and parasites. Yes, there are versions of software without them. Still.
- I'm getting cable TV this week. Not the smartest move on my part, but it's cheap, so...
I will not download MP3s nor will I accept them from friends unless, of course, the artist and/or record company has consented to their free distribution that way. In other words, if it's not available from the official website, then it will not be on my system. The major objection I can see to this is that people will think I'm "losing out" on all the great songs out there, to which I say, with a shrug, "yep, you're right".
So here goes: a month without MP3s.
Comments
What about after that month? Well, let's see how crazy I go this month. No MP3s for a month make Richard something something.
Posted by: Richard | March 5, 2003 07:17 PM
Since my freshman year (Napster was in its prime) I have downloaded at most 50 songs, and not a one in the past 6 months.
I am the person that the RIAA doesn't want to know about, because all the illegal albums I have on MP3, I have started to purchase. I have bought over 50 older cds in the past year to fulfill that.
I hope that you continue your anti-illegal MP3 ways, you will feel much better in the end when you know you are not one of the people in the RIAA's statistics.
Posted by: Erik | March 5, 2003 09:22 PM
How about a condoned by the artist but not official site? You wouldn't want to miss out on Shannon's Less Like You just because it's hanging out on my server instead of hers, would you? (I don't have a clue what sort of music you listen to, but I'm not about to pass up such a great opening to pimp Shannon).
Posted by: Phil Ringnalda | March 5, 2003 09:22 PM
What about making mp3s of stuff you own? It should be fair use, but the RIAA doesn't like that either.
Posted by: tamaracks | March 5, 2003 09:34 PM
Erik: I purchased two CDs recently that were burned from MP3s. Mostly because the sound quality is better, but also because the artists in question deserved my hard-earned dollars.
Phil: the point may be moot, since I'm not going to install P2P software, but you're right, what I said doesn't take into account the MP3s that are legally traded on unofficial websites. Guess that's allowed too. I'll give the MP3s you have a shot.
tamaracks: yeah, I already ripped some songs from the CDs I purchased legally. In the long term, ripping all my CDs to MP3 would be a time-saver, but in the short-term, plopping the CD in my computer's CD-ROM drive is easier. I'll probably only end up doing it for the CDs with only a few good tracks.
Posted by: Richard | March 5, 2003 09:46 PM