Lets be honest, a lot of us download music for free. We dont support filesharing here, but i would like to know why people feel justified to download mp3 tracks for free. or why they buy the music.

In years gone by, we used to share freely trance tracks and we had 50,000 downloads in on day. However this may have led to the down fall of the cd, as sales have falledn dramatically all over the world.

We always justified ourselves because trance was only available on vinyl to buy in a limited number of developed countries. The internet was open to the world, and was, and still is the only way for some people to get hold of the music they are addicted to.

However now you can buy a single for as little as 99p, then how can you justify downloading music for free? I wanna know your opinions.

Personally i think we need to repay the hard work and effort put in by the producers. And i wish all the money could go directly to the producers, and cut out the record labels.

We havent had a great existance because of record labels. In my experience a lot are out to make money, and dont care about the fans, they just see the £ signs.

We now have plenty of mp3 download stores to legal download ans support the artists to create amazing tracks which make our hair stand on end. So personally i dont think the downloading of files for free can be justified anymore.

However when it comes to compilation albums i have a slightly different view. Albums from gatecrasher, etc, a club who totally sold out, renamed to crasher, and now seemed to have realised everyone loves the logo and the name gatecrasher, and have had a U Turn. They are now just out to make the big bucks. Their classic album just realeased included a couple of top notch tracks, but on the whole was just cheese. How can a super club which has had millions through their doors and all of the greatest DJs justify making a classics album which is more aimed at the beer boy than the trance faithful who supported their club for so long.

So anyway enough of my ranting, i want your views. If you use soulseek, etc, tell us why you feel justified. I dont want flaming, i dont want to know where you download it from, just why you feel you are within your rights to download for free.

And on the other hand, why you feel we must support the artists and pay for legal downloads?

i ll make it very simple and clear
as personally i do download for free as i can but i only sample them if i like it i buy it if not i simply dispose of it do i think its wrong NO ITS NOT. i dont keep them and use them in any way so if they are available for sampling i will not think twice
as far as should downloads be paid for of course they should be producer must get compensated

yea... dont look at me. i account for over 50% of all purchases from the ukta mp3 store.

I believe that an album produced in a studio for commerical sale should be paid for and you can check out my iTunes account and see way too much money spend on albums...dayum that one click purchasing...but being a former deadhead (yeah I followed the grateful dead around during my college days) trading live sets is a way of life for me ... I don't think that unless the set was specifically designated for future album sales that its okay to share the music freely...how many people have been turned on to new music by someone sharing a killer set with them? I have many times and it encouraged me to go out and buy thier album and go see them live.

Buy them, some of you guys don't have any idea how much work it takes to make a track and get it released! And sometimes you might get it released and it already gets out there buy some of those leakers! And I don't really believe in people who say they just sample them and buy it if it's nice... (fuzzion) I can remember some download area's on several forums where they say it's to sample the tracks and buy them if you like it but hey... that's ok but then don't share a whole lot of UNRELEASED TRACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sure I leeched a time ago but I stopped doing it, it's really unfair towards the producers...

Cellec

Live sets can be downloaded for sure imo but only IF it's not the best quality and people won't be able to make recons out of it...

As I don't use vinyl (no turntable) I have to use cd's. The downside of this is that not all tracks are released on cd or as a digital paid download. So they sometimes 'force' me to download these tracks.

I'm glad that paid downloads are offered more and more these days

I really downloaded a lot of traxx, but since my drive-in show grows and grows and the party's we do are getting bigger and for open public it's too risky to play downloaded traxx, so I buy a lot of cd's and singles lately (about 500 euro's last 2/3 months I think)

Legal download is ok, but it's complicated when the get you and you'll have to explain you're donwloading legal... just keep on buying

I'm a heavy vinyl buyer so the majority of money I spend on music is on them, with the rest spent on the odd album or compilation.

I've been an avid buyer of mp3s since 2004, and I'm happy to pay for something I like. I download, using slsk like many of us in here, and I use it to check out tunes. If I like them I buy when they become available, and if not I delete.
Can I look all of you in the eyes? Yes. I spend about 50-70 £ on mp3s every month.

i do buy vinyls since a few months now and as soon as i get my new creditcard ill start to buy mp3 off some shops. i love that music and thats why its so important to support it.

I hope I'll manage the things with my MasterCard till the end of september, so after that I'll buy at least a few mp3s. Still download almost everything for free What can I do with myself? And be sure that I understand how bad it is

you dont have to believe me thats the way it is
would you rather have me write some fake s**t like oh i never download anything
like i said if i have oportunity to hear it in full before i buy it you damn right i will i do not keep them and its for SAMPLING purposes only
if everyone else was like that it would be great but it ll never happen just like ppl sharing illegal mp3s wont stop ever neither
this is reality some take advantage of it and some use it in a good way (like me ) but to say its wrong or right is impossible because if ppl dont want things shared they have to stop it alltogether

same reasoning here

quite frankly i only download if i can't buy it

case in point ---> Chris & Kai - Gone To Heaven

I would pay $50 for a copy on vinyl, but alas it's not possible...

speaking of which, where the hell is my copy of Max Graham's Gone?!?!? it's been over a year now MAX!!!!

if they don't let me pay for it then it's their own damn fault!

btw, i do pay for all the tracks that are released

Heh , i mostly buy mixed albums or whatever i like on cd , but when i wanna mix with stuff i can't just rip the mixed songs of the cd ... so well i download them to listen to and well i don't feel secure buying songs yet over the internet. don't have a credit card at first and second , there are shops who allow phone payments but if i see the phonebills afterwards it seems that the prices on the site were just not right.

ah well anyway i try to support the artists i like

edit:

oh just read about why u think we should support the artist, my answer:
they make tracks to earn money from it and well for personal / public pleasure as well , but also for money so i guess if we're not supporting them anymore there is no reason for them to make anymore songs thus leaving us without any pleasurable music at all....

that's my opinion

i download tracks for free but if i like a track i buy them on vinyl or cd. its easy if i feel like o my gosh this man made a dope track ill support him 100%. its like you get what you give as long as there is quality im ready to pay if its all about the money for the producer then i say why dont you go outside and play hide and go f**k yourself. its discusting whats going on nowaday alot of producers pop up just because of theyr connections to make some money they dont improve the industry the distroy it, and then they dissapear you want me to support them. comon its like supporting a crook.
Richard ashcrowft said once that "every week 100 000 vinyls get released and out of those vinyls only 100 are worth buying. "
but till every track gets delivered to every point of earth it takes times so till then people
can use free downloads for this sake, you check which trax is worth the support and which are not.

one positive about downloading is it forces artists to produce tracks of much higher quality. i download alot and if it;s good, i'll buy the cd and support the artist.

at the moment i cant afford to buy all of the music i love, just finished a college course an as soon as i have a job il be buyin more

to be fair tho, i dont download from the likes of slsk unless im desperate for a track i really cant get, i have a freind who sends me a lot of tunes privately that arnt released yet, for my own use, i dont share them, and he shares them with very few. i only use them to mix at home, and i try my best to buy what i like, if i plan to play sumthing out il definetly buy it unless thers no chance i can get it. tunes that i dont like i just delete and dont use anyway.

i justify this because im not using the tunes in mixes that will ever see the outside of my bedroom which i know still isnt a good thing BUT i do buy as often as i can, il often see a tune iv had for ages on cd and even got bored of, but still buy it on vinyl... because i do feel a bit guilty

Armins getting pestered for a release date on this at Absolute Armin

im 90% (guessing) that itl be out on Armada, probably Armind

I attempt to buy as many albums as I can, compilations, arists albums, deejay mixes... have well over 400 now.

The only reason why I use Limewire (which is my PSP of choice as of now) is because certain tracks that are promo-only or are not on CD yet. Even vinyl for that matter it is rare, such as:

-tracks from Andain (because they haven't released their album yet and only had two singles out: "Summer Calling" of them being rare)

-Motorcycle (I bought their single but their other tracks: "Imagination" and "Around You" you cannot find. Besides the acoustic version of "Imagination", which I have because I bought the Bloom album.

-Brian Eno's "An Ending" (Leama & Moor Remix) (I even searched for this vinyl and couldn't find it. Hardly anyone's heard of it. I did get the original, which wasn't hard because Eno is a god apparently.


So for me at the least, I buy any albums that I can readily get, I have access to a Virgin Megastore and everyone has access to Amazon, or even download stores on-line... which I have done.

I only use it for promo-only tracks or tracks that aren't released yet or will not be released. As well as tracks from livesets (which is debateable as livesets are not for revenue).

Even so, I myself rarely use it anyhow.

how

err, i think it would cause quite the opposite.

my thoughts exactly

unless hes talking about legal downloading

highly unlikely

You're basically saying that the quality of the material that artists are currently putting out are shoddy. In besides mainstream pop, this isn't true.

Pretty much every piece of research done into this shows that people who file share music spend more than the average person on music.

I'm going to be honest and say I do download a good bit, not as much as I used to, and I do buy CDs, I'd say I spent about €120-150 last month or two on CDs.
The reasons I still download are:

1. Selection, there doesnt tend to be much trance available in any mainstream stores here, I don't go into the city centre if I can help it where I'm sure the more specialised shops exist, and I don't have a credit card to buy online.
An example is the last time I was in Virgin Records, the "Dance" section was full of CDs by The Streets, 1 CD by Armin, 1 by Tiesto, and the rest were almost all pop compilation CDs.

2. Price, €30 for a single CD album? I'd rather buy 6-7 pints thanks very much. To be worth that much it has to be *good*, if it is, I'll buy it, otherwise, I'm not spending that much money on it.

2. Ease, its soooo much easier to click a button than get off my ass and go to a shop and look. Not a justification I know, but its still a reason. If/When I get my CD this wont be a problem.

I am a collector of vinyl so the majority of tunes i like i will get on vinyl when they become available to me.

But, i do download MP3's, some i pay for and some i don't, but like i said i collect vinyl so if i like the tune the chances are i will buy it.

besides, the majority of my music i download now is from live sets.

Ive basically stopped downloading mp3's illegally since i became a label owner. not because im so majorly against it, but more cos i should set an example.

i think provided people pay for the majority of the music and certianly anything they intend to use professionally or for promotion of themselfs then its fine

as more and more tunes become available to download from the legal sites tho i feel its less justifiable to use p2p's to get any mp3, as the sites often have large samples of tracks and the price of them is so cheep its a joke anyone can say they cant afford them

i really only hear new stuff on radio shows or out clubbing nowdays, unless ive got stuff of the legal sites


people who dl for free and use to dj and promote themselfs are the scum of the earth imho, but thats another story

for me, i can sample (download) an album of an artist i like. if i like the entire album, i go and buy it on cd. if there's only 1 or 2 good tracks on the album, i'll either pay for a high quality version (320 kbps) download from a site or wait until the cd single comes out. for the record companies and artists, i assume there's more money to be made when people buy entire albums vs singles.

this also applies to singles with remixes. if a vinyl or cd single has 3-4 remixes, with 1 remix being good, i'll just buy online that version and not buy the single/vinyl.

so how do you buy singles from the album if its only released as compilation it just doesnt make any sense
i understand what you mean with singles yes i agree but albums there is no way every tune will be released as single so you have to either buy it or leech it and keep it against the rules