Stealing Music the Old Way...

[Drakantus]

I signed up for one of those "buy one get 12 free" music clubs.

They rip you off on shipping of course, $19 to ship my 7 "free" CDs. Still, compared to something like iTunes this is a much better deal.. it's around $2.75 per CD, and I get a real physical CD instead of just a handful of AAC files. I don't understand how Apple can claim that the prices on iTunes are just enough to break even when places like BMGMusic Club are giving real CDs away for a quarter of the price.

[blakerwry]

BMG makes the CD's though.... They also own the copyrights... maybe it's cheaper for them compared to apple.

[sechs]

Considering that it only costs pennies to make a CD and that royalties are around $0.05 per minute, and that media mail shipping is less that $2 for 2 pounds; I'd say that BMG is breaking even on that start-up deal, and making money hand-over-fist on any subsequent purchases.

[timwhit]

I prefer downloading full albums from eMule. Way cheaper and probably more selection as well.

[Drakantus]

I prefer downloading full albums from eMule. Way cheaper and probably more selection as well.

Is that legal?

[CougTek]

Since stores like BMG and Columbia House generally don't sell most of the stuff I listen to, I still buy CDs the old way : on shelves. Costs me more per CD, but I'm not tempted to buy more disks than I would otherwise so all in all, I don't spend much on audio CDs. I must have around 40-50 CDs and I bought them over a ten years period.

[timwhit]

I prefer downloading full albums from eMule. Way cheaper and probably more selection as well.

Is that legal?

Not exactly.

[Mercutio]

Does it matter?

[timwhit]

Does it matter?

My thoughts exactly.

[i]

It matters if you value having any freedom on the internet whatsoever.

[Mercutio]

And the freedom to paying to download reduced-quality clips of the same for-shit brand-name pop music I could buy locally is so important?

[i]

for-shit brand-name pop music I could buy locally is so important?

If you feel that way about it, why would you download it all - legally or otherwise?

[sechs]

It's not like the Kingston Trio is a hot file-swapping item....

[Mercutio]

for-shit brand-name pop music I could buy locally is so important?

If you feel that way about it, why would you download it all - legally or otherwise?

I don't download any music. I share a great deal of it, because the music that I enjoy has exactly zero exposure in the for-pay services, and likely never will. A big recording company doesn't stand to gain anything from offering jazz or classical recordings - the market is too small. Therefore I'm all in favor of ANY alternative means of distribution.