Do you download?

[Hannah]

I was fooling around with my iPod earlier and I decided I wanted some old-time Elvis music. I automatically hit the iTunes button, and something occurred to me. I haven't downloaded in the naughty sense of the word since I got that thing. The price that iTunes asks for most things is not enough to get me to use uTorrent anymore. Of course, I've replaced my computer in the meanwhile as well, and the desire to download those programs hasn't really crossed my mind until tonight.

I do have a YouTube downloader and converter, but I mostly use it for music like Reina Del Cid and Abby Simons, who aren't on iTunes. I don't have any guilt about it really because I do buy music from up and coming performers and I go to my share of live shows; nor do I consider it particularly wrong to use programs like Limewire and uTorrent, I just kind of stopped when I discovered iTunes.


Being a pretty frugal bunch, I'm curious how much you would pay for music? I spent $400 on my iPod touch and have easily spent that much more on iTunes, but mostly in productivity software and games. I'm barely using a fraction of it's capacity, and if I had more money on hand and not tucked away in savings accounts I'd prolly buy a lot more. Is .99 per song unreasonable? I have a lot of complete albums that were bundled for like $8, too. Is it worth the money to you?

[Muffin]

I wish I could afford to support the artists that I 'borrow' from, there is some amazing talent out there that I'd love to be able to afford to show support for instead of just posting ♥ on last.fm artist pages. Maybe if we got payed more we could have more elbow room to do such things? But where do you draw the line? Should we be able to afford everything we have the time to listen to and watch? Would it be unhealthy to do so? A question of respect and priority?
Do these artists survive happily enough from making money from live shows etc. I Really don't know.. it's a rock and a hard place and I feel bad about what I do but not enough to stop me, I just love music etc too much... it keeps me feeling happy. I Think most artists would rather you listened for free than not at all as well.

*is no doubt going to hell, the really bad bad section with the hottest of flames etc etc*.

[lizbeth]

I leech and I leech hard!

I support artists by going to shows. and I go to a lot of shows.

to hell with the execs that get 75% or more of the album sales.

[Silver]

Used to. Now I buy the CDs (materialism, I like the album art and the fact that they serve as backups) for the most part. Unfortunately, the used media store near me just closed. So no more older stuff for me. If I only want one song, and I really like it, iTunes. If I only want one song or two, download.

I really just can't stand the crappy quality I usually end up downloading. Static doesn't excite me. Uneven sound levels, "fuzzy" sound, weak bass/treble, meh. So I try to avoid it.

Actually, I used to use a P2P program called Ares. That yielded some pretty good quality downloads. Unfortunately I had to reformat the drive (some screwups- I'm better with my laptop now) and lost it. It was open source and now I can't find the original anymore. Just the derivatives. So if anybody knows, I wouldn't mind if you told me where to find it.

[lizbeth]

it's really all about usenet if you wanna download and not deal with decoy files. if you want quality, FLAC is awesome but I prefer my rips at 320 since it's the sweet spot between file size and audio quality.

[Lachlann]

it's really all about usenet if you wanna download and not deal with decoy files. if you want quality, FLAC is awesome but I prefer my rips at 320 since it's the sweet spot between file size and audio quality.

FLAC is amazing with traditional instrumentals. The files are huuuuuge, though. I haven't tried FLAC with non traditional instrumental music yet, though. How does that hold up?

I rarely run into problem with 'quality' when I download. If I'm already caught up with an artist, I might buy the CD, but there are times when I'm getting into an established artist and I want all their music and whatnot.

[Muffin]

I've always stuck with soulseek for music and never had any problems with not finding what I want there. It's a goldmine to me.. and a safe one at that.
320 is good but I'll take anything over 192.. I usually only play it through my computer speakers for treble and another cable out to my bass amp for the bass... and it works a treat. ^_^
Especially when you're on the loo and the TP holder is vibrating lol (bedrooms next to the loo btw). >_>

[lizbeth]

honestly, I stay away from FLAC for anything except orchestral or live recordings and some electronica if there is alot of depth to it. pop/rock just doesn't benifit from the higher bitrate IMO and isn't worth the added filesize to store it.

this time of year I download a lot of music becuase it's just after the Coachella lineup comes out and kicks off the summer music festival season. there are so many bands that I'm not familiar with so I will listen to a song or 2 on youtube or last.fm and then download their discography from usenet or a torrent so that I'm familiar with their library when/if I see them.

[cendre]

I'm a damn dirty pirate. Buying albums makes me feel so much better though.

Speaking of rips, I prefer v0 to 320. The file sizes are generally smaller while being pretty much the same quality.

[placeholdername]

I only download music to see if I like it, if I do I buy the CD.  I can't stand the low audio quality on most shared music files.  Plus I like having the CDs to play in my car.

I used to download a lot of TV shows since I don't own a TV, but nowadays almost everything is on Hulu.

[tekla]

MP3 are to audio quality what Kraft dinners are to gourmet food.  Sorry.  It's hard enough for me to listen to a good CD on good headphones or speakers because its not the live $1/2 million sound system I listen to most of the time.  The MP3 just suck, but then again, so does most of the new music, and it's not recorded at a quality that would make you want to step up and hear it.

[IndigeoAliquis]

I've pirated (games, software, music, movies, books, everything) since 1998 and will not stop anytime soon. I've learned a lot in the past 12 years about formats, quality, scene releases, people argue with other people on how to pirate correctly.. it's a laugh riot.
I've bought a few CDs in that time, of really exceptional artists. I tend to do that when money goes from my hands directly to theirs, and no-one elses.

[Muffin]

MP3 are to audio quality what Kraft dinners are to gourmet food.  Sorry.  It's hard enough for me to listen to a good CD on good headphones or speakers because its not the live $1/2 million sound system I listen to most of the time.  The MP3 just suck, but then again, so does most of the new music, and it's not recorded at a quality that would make you want to step up and hear it.

One of the things I love about lo-fi bands like easyworld, GBV, neutral milk hotel, the crabs etc is the characteristics of the sound quality or lack of.. it's part of the personality of the band.
But I do agree with mp3s in the sense that I've heard 128 then upgraded to 320 and noticed subtle background instruments after upgrading. But to me I don't notice a difference between a 320 burn of a album and an original version of the same album.

[IndigeoAliquis]

Tell me you're not talking about transcoding something from 128 bitrate to a higher one thinking it will somehow magically pull studio quality out of the ether?

[Muffin]

Tell me you're not talking about transcoding something from 128 bitrate to a higher one thinking it will somehow magically pull studio quality out of the ether?

lol.... no I my come across as a dolt most of the time but I assure you... >_>
I mean 'acquiring' the same album again in a higher bitrate.

[Jasmine.m]

I try hard to by CDs, b/c I'd rather have the physical media at my disposal. Formats are guaranteed to change. I also prefer .ogg to .mp3 simply b/c it's open-source. If I do d/l an .mp3, I use Lala.com. All of the their .mp3s are $0.89 and are DRM free.

That being said, I have d/l both on my iPhone and from iTunes simply for the convenience (like I'm on the road or something).

[Stephanie2664]

I used to pirate full time, and often.  Currently I'd have to say 75% of my downloaded music has been pirated.  Though lately, for some reason I have begun paying for my downloads using iTunes.  Not really sure why I changed except for the fact that iTunes works 100% of the time and the software I used to pirate would constantly need a patch, upgrade or simply would not connect.

I do buy CD's on rare occasions. Such as some compilation of greatest hits or if I really like the artist and need a hardcopy of the music for future use.  Such as The High End of Low - Marilyn Manson (Which is the last CD I bought...)

Have a great day.   

[Miniar]

Ever since we got Steam we stopped downloading computer games illegally.
It's brilliant, simple, and often has offers that appeal to us.
The affordability and convenience of the thing is just awesome.

Music I don't always buy... though a fair bit of what I download is stuff I have/had on CD. (Certain exes and relatives have borrowed and never returned cd's and scratched the f out of others making them unplayable and so on... )
The main reason I do not buy music downloads is that they're often in some other form than MP3 and I can't burn 'em to CD, and so on.. all this protection junk just makes me not want to pay for the file because of the fuss it entails.
I get digital music to play on my MP3 player! When the file won't play on it unaltered, and is protected from being turned into an MP3, then the file's just a waste of space and money to me.
Plus, most music downloads, in my opinion, are overpriced.

Movies.. well...
There's a pizza & video shop up the hill. They have a "movie special" that is a 16" pizza with three topings (+cheese & sauce), 2l soda, and two movies (one new, one old). The pizza is so good that it's ruined us for pizza from "other" places, so we get it sometimes.. and then we get movies with.. cause it's cheap.
Other than that... we download some... occasionally....
If there was an online thingie "like" steam for movies that was as affordable as steam (come on! 2 dollar offer on psychonauts.. the most awesome game I've played in years!!) then we'd probably use that instead.

[BunnyBee]

You could try Amazon Unbox for movies/tv.  I've used it a few times and I didn't hate it.  You can "rent" movies for a day or two for a few dollars and since they stream, there is virtually no wait.  I've only rented, If you buy content from them it's DRM-ed all to hell. 

[The None Blonde]

I used to download, but since getting into the DJ scene professionally, the quality of the music just doesnt match what I need... CDs and vynl... the only digital media I have (50gig or so) is all lossless for performance use. Downloaded stuff just isnt worth it.