the annual creativecommons fundraiser has just started and as per usual i donated my $75.-. i thought this would be the perfect moment to explain my attitude towards downloading music and video off the internet as was recently recommended in wired magazine.
music
i own over 5000 vinyl records, yup, still keep them! and 500 or more CDs. so it’s not like i NEED more music. or do i?
looking for music online often is based on a mood, a fluke. it is spur of the moment, and once you set your mind to wanting music by a certain artist you want it fast and you want it in a comfortable way. everything – or almost – is available online now. it would be – will be some day – the ideal place to shop for music. often it is music i own on vinyl that i want in digital form.
i usually do look around if i find music in a legal way. however, iTunes is not an option because of the godawful drm they slap onto their mp3s, amazon does not sell mp3s in switzerland yet, the russian websites are not fully legal, or i have no clue, and i am afraid to submit my credit card data. so i usually end up checking for a torrent. and i usually find it and download it within seconds, great quality, no drm, easy, fast.
give me all music exactly like that and i will gladly pay for it. ideally i think some sort of subscription based model will have the best future, you pay a certain amount per year and have a quota for downloading music. in the meantime i am stuck with having to download music illegally. once a year i donate money to creativecommons to justify this as an “act of private conscientious objection against laws believed to be indefensible”. ha! yeh, that’s a quote from the wired article.
notable alternatives are bleep.com and certain record labels, like ninjatune, or artists selling their music directly online, where i always gladly pay for music and end up spending somewhere between $ 50.- and 100.- per year. this would be another concern i have, if i knew the money went straight to the artists or to labels where artists are treated in a fair way, yes, i would gladly pay for music. but the music industry is a mad old whale. kill it. reinvent it.
give me music with
no drm
fair deals to the artists
good quality
available fast and comfortable
everything available
and i’ll pay for it.
video
not much to add really. give me a comfortable, easy, fast way to download films or tv series drm-free and i will gladly pay for it.
here the main issue i have living in europe are release times. everyone and their dog will be talking about certain movies or tv shows, but here in europe we have to wait. and wait. and wait. and then wait some more. to then sometimes see the shows in their horrible synchronized versions on tv years later? while we could comfortably download the torrents and see it within hours of its original air time? no way.
i mostly download tv series these days. usually 2-3 series at a time, switching over the years. again, give me this service, torrents, fast, good quality, and i will pay for it. in the meantime i am stuck downloading illegally and donating to my favorite charity. till then.