51–60 of 162 posts
The beautifully written but not much known Rune Blades Of Celi ebooks no longer can be purchased, as the small publisher is just gone. Of course, the ones I purchased could no longer be downloaded. But want something bigger? Fine. The Wheel Of Time (is that large enough for you?) Complete Edition I bought for over a hundred dollars also can't be donwloaded any more. (And to be more on topic, one of my favorite artist…
This is were you went wrong.
The beautifully written but not much known Rune Blades Of Celi ebooks no longer can be purchased, as the small publisher is just gone. Of course, the ones I purchased could no longer be downloaded. But want something bigger? Fine. The Wheel Of Time (is that large enough for you?) Complete Edition I bought for over a hundred dollars also can't be donwloaded any more. (And to be more on topic, one of my favorite artist…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what's it's worth, I use mp3caprice.com to download zipped music. The prices are pretty fair and I don't have to store another CD on the shelf. The bitrate is decent and I can find albums that aren't available anymore. The bonus for me is, since I subscribe to Mojo magazine, I can Youtube new artists and if I like them, go download the music.
That looks like piracy, but paying someone for it? Thanks, but I actually prefer to support the artists I listen to, and when I can’t afford to, or it’s impractical, to not pay those who prevent artists from getting money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wasn't there some recent article about how Bandcamp got acquired by a competitor and is more or less being left to rot on the vine? I agree, the FLAC downloads are a major perk of it, and I'll happily buy music there. But I wouldn't trust it to be around long term at this point. It's too consumer-friendly to exist long term in this modern world we live in. :(
In the long term, everything is temporary. Enjoy the good stuff now while it's here!
The Chinese system of central libraries is better than copyright. Imagine having every book ever written, for free, all your life. Imagine authors and inventors being compensated twice what they are usually paid in the USA, while the corporate lawyers panhandle. I know the lawyers would end up as party higher-ups still screwing us, but I can dream.
At least so far, Bandcamp has not changed after the sale (neither sale). You can still buy music, and try it out for multiple album streams before buying (unless the artist or label disable it, which is rare), and download as FLAC. Granted, not always useful if what you want is from major labels, but still, keep in mind that there are options.
Wasn't there some recent article about how Bandcamp got acquired by a competitor and is more or less being left to rot on the vine? I agree, the FLAC downloads are a major perk of it, and I'll happily buy music there. But I wouldn't trust it to be around long term at this point. It's too consumer-friendly to exist long term in this modern world we live in. :(
"Please let me have the thing I want and reasonably should have"
to an open
"Eff it, the tech is here, I'm just taking copies now and you should too."
(not that I ought to support that sort of thing, since I am a lawyer and we have promulgated standards of professional behavior I shall tell all of you that that second thing is bad, very bad.)
I'm considering some kind of combination of autoloader feeding either Exact Audio Copy (which isn't set up for them) or dbpoweramp (which apparently is set up for them) to get metadata, then I guess I will have to pirate or rebuy discs when the AccurateRip indicates that there's some damage to the disc. I've avoided iTunes and its descendants due to all of the horror stories about destroyed music libraries and music…
For fixing up metadata of your existing collection there is Picard.
Capitalism responds to demand. We have to stop paying for convenience and start demanding better. Save your money from Streaming, purchase used and physical only. Force the market to adapt to you.
How have purchases influenced copyright laws being pushed again and again as Disney demands ?
How have purchases changed improved working conditions? Biodiversity ? The climate ?
We can't buy a better future, because there'll always be someone richer than us. We need to build it directly and ban the illusion that is the market
For a while my ancient CD collection and healthy ecosystem of local used vinyl / CD stores had us in a nice routine in conjunction with youtube-dl and my posse of old Sony voice memo usb mp3 players.
Then youtube-dl wasn't a thing anymore (maybe it is again?)...
Then we had to get a new car (a Tacoma)...
No CD player, no aux cable.
I had really bad early experiences with apple music and Spotify not having stuff I wanted. Unclear artist support reputations also (Im no expert there). But it all had heavy Enshittification vibes early on IMHO.
Anyway somehow in my exhausted dad mental state I've concluded that buying albums on iTunes like a maniac is at least worth a try before augmenting my car to have an aux cable and / or peripheral CD player. I held off buying albums on iTunes literally until 2 months ago. Very strange but maybe working.
Anyway curious what other folks are doing as far as listening to music. This article was spot on but I needed a Solutions section...