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The lost joy of music piracy

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Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#421

Post by rusk »

SllX wrote: post #110
rusk wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple knew they were selling a device to play pirated music If I’m remembering right, the tagline on the Mac mini was “rip mix burn”

Predates the Mac mini (tagline: The most affordable Mac ever.) by a good few years—predates the iPod even—but it was an Apple ad campaign: https://youtu.be/K0ZWuhcM7t4 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Apples-Rip-Mix-Burn-camp... You can’t really call it a pro-piracy message though. Ripping implies you have the original CD already.

> You can’t really call it a pro-piracy message though.

Of course not. That would probably infringe on advertising standards. But it is the clear implication.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#423

Post by BoingBoomTschak »

d3rockk wrote: post #413
gfody wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

crappy speakers?

I was about to say the same thing.. I use a dual A7X setup with a Sub10 Mk2 in a proper studio listening environment, and I can easily hear the difference between a low‑quality MP3 and a fully lossless WAV/FLAC. I do have trained ears, but even an untrained listener could probably notice that level of difference.

Define low-quality. Encoded at V[0-2] with a recent LAME, I doubt the difference is more than ABX nitpick material; and that despite MP3's inherent limitations (like https://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME_Y_switch...).

I use a pair of calibrated Genelec 8341 btw.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#425

Post by charcircuit »

sandcat_ wrote: post #22
charcircuit wrote: post #20

Any amount of joy you lost is a fraction of joy lost from people blatantly stealing the fruits of other people's's labor. Communities do not have to be parasites to exist. Similar amounts of joy could be created over a different interest that didn't require stealing and hurting others.

Hey now, that’s a bit of a harsh way to talk about record labels. Sure most of the money you pay goes to the top performers, no matter what you actually listen to, but that doesn’t make them parasites. Executives have to eat too.

The parasitic community I was referring to was what.cd.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#426

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

port11 wrote: post #306
erikschoster wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was also common to have a collection of CDs you owned and wanted to put on a device like this.

Yeah, GP is rose-tinting piracy and Apple’s stance a bit… When I was a teenager we had _dial-up_. My first 2 iPods were strictly playing ripped CDs, which I, friends, or family had bought. Buying the iPod itself was probably cheaper than 2 months worth of internet traffic back then.

GP probably wasn't alive back then in all likelihood.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#427

Post by _virtu »

Diogenesian wrote: post #257
speed_spread wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy encouraged buying music. You'd learn of this cool band through a friend and would buy their next album when it came out. People still had the same budget for music but weren't so much at the whim of what music executives wanted to push at the moment. The network effects more than made up for the "lost" revenue.

That's total bullshit. Global music revenue fell by 50% because of piracy[1]. What music piracy did was make it impossible for artists to sell albums without engaging in parasocial celebrity-building and shameless merch. And everyone knows this is true!!! Music pirates also like to point out that historically musicians only played live, so it's totally a-okay that jazz musicians can no longer make a living from the s…

At least for me, I pirate music, but I make an effort to contribute directly to the bottom line for artists. This is best done by buying overpriced merch at shows or donating directly if possible.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#428

Post by charcircuit »

dns_snek wrote: post #133
charcircuit wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>increasing exposure, via piracy, is actually better for the artist long term. If breaking someone's kneecaps extended their life by 20 years I wouldn't want someone to randomly break my kneecaps and feel good about it because they "did me a favor." >I pirated plenty as a kid with no money Neither age nor wealth exempts someone's stealing from being a crime. In fact I see it as worse crime as it sets a bad example th…

Breaking someone's kneecaps is unquestionably a crime, copyright infringement for private consumption is not a crime, it's a civil offense (because listening to pirated MP3s doesn't make you a danger to society) so equating the two is a fallacy. I'm sure you already knew this since these arguments have been rehashed thousands of times over the past few decades. I don't think you'd find much (if any) support on the mo…

>people who genuinely can't afford to pay the asking price

In reality these people could pay for music. A kid could ask their parents for money or go mow the lawn of a neighbor. Often many of these people who can't pay could sacrifice something else in their life in order to be able to pay. For people with poor financial aptitude often their expenses will grow to match their income so they will never be able to pay despite making enough to pay if they didn't spend the money on something else.

>do you think they also like to have their kneecaps broken?

If an artist thinks a child breaking their kneecaps is a good thing they are free to let it happen. But there is a risk that it gives the impression that other artists are okay with it.

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#429

Post by cdrnsf »

devonsolomon wrote: post #112

The thing I miss most, and the thing we’ll never get back was the cultural buy-in and network effects. My music discovery then was different friend groups incrementally amassing large collections of albums in whatever sub-culture that friend groups had doubled down on. My iPod would be the culmination of my friendships. I would then fall in love with bands and albums and tracks on these albums without any influence b…

As someone with a tattoo of a clickwheel iPod, I can't help but endorse this.

All of my favorite recommendations and artists have come from friends I know in real life, online or both. Zines, blogs and other music communities are all wonderful sources as well. last.fm's trove of recommendations are still accurate and I hope it holds on.

I have different friends who I ask for recommendations from different genres and then end up in exploring further once they've opened the door.

Everything I listen to is from MP3s streamed through Navidrome living in an S3 bucket. My larger library is in another bucket and mirrored elsewhere. I collect some records but opt for the convenience of listening digitally and that listening consists of whole albums, never playlists (and never anything AI generated).

Re: The lost joy of music piracy

#430

Post by charcircuit »

ktallett wrote: post #98
charcircuit wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You own a license when you buy it digitally. Stealing is never okay regardless of if something is technically buying or not.

You can't steal something unless there is ownership of it by the other person. There has to be loss for it to be stolen. Stealing isn't ok, but downloading music or movies without paying isn't stealing.

>There has to be loss for it to be stolen.

Counter example: Pirating a song is considered stealing as you are taking something for free without paying for it. You are using a definition that is different from the average person.

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