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[miles]

I am in my 30s, and I pay for mp3s. Especially when I want to support the artist producing it. I have paid for all of MC Frontalot's albums, and some of Jesse Dangerously and MC Chris's. I don't download music illegally if there is a legal way to get it.

The nerdcore rappers, they are good at giving you ways to give them money without having to deal with owning physical objects.

I just started paying for mp3s only in the last couple years or so. Probably right around the time I turned 30. And usually only when they are discounted at Amazon. Sometimes CDs are cheaper than mp3s so I still buy CDs. I download music illegally still, but usually only if I'm doubtful I will like something enough to pay for it and don't want to only listen to it on youtube.

I'm an impulsive music buyer and also a collector. I still buy CDs at stores but typically when I'm out of town and am checking out new or old favorite record stores. I only purchase favorite albums or new releases from favorite artists/bands on vinyl. If I'm at a record store which sells used cassette tapes and see a favorite album, I'll buy it. If a favorite band or even a band I really like released something on cassette I'd probably buy it.

I don't understand why there is a entire fuck*ng thread about this.

[jaydub]

I have a dead computer that I can't bear to trash because its (probably functional) hard drive is loaded with mp3s I ripped from CDs that are long gone.  Someday when I have a desktop computer again I'll be able to retrieve them.

[pmcd9]

I have a dead computer that I can't bear to trash because its (probably functional) hard drive is loaded with mp3s I ripped from CDs that are long gone.  Someday when I have a desktop computer again I'll be able to retrieve them.

I keep my music and all the rest of my files for that matter on an external hard drive.

[theinevitable]

This is the only mp3 I have ever paid for, because I needed in that moment to make it my ringtone. Specifically, the part I linked to.

Ever since then it has been the Keyboard Cat song.

I can't find my external harddrive ever since my move, and I am scared that my computer will die and nothing will be backed up. I should probably just buy a new one.

[Choop]

skip the external hard drive and get yourself a cloud storage account somewhere. it's slower and requires internet, but you'll never lose it, and you can always back it up to DVDR or a thumb drive or something.

[wombat]

Keith, do you know any musicians personally?

I just remembered when I was in my 20s and found that a friend of a friend of mine had a huge collection of music, and it was all cassette tapes that he had taped off other people's records. I was completely flabbergasted, especially because I knew him as part of a circle of people that included a number of professional musicians. How did he not see that he was basically stealing from his own friends?

[wombat]

skip the external hard drive and get yourself a cloud storage account somewhere.

Anyone want to tell me what cloud storage service I should use? After the whole desktop computer dying thing, which has taken over two days of the Tech Staff's life at this point, I need to have a better cloud storage system. Attaching files to gmail and mailing them to myself is not exactly a system, and I think updating the old backup files that I have to use FTP for is not a very cutting edge approach.  But not Google, preferably, since too much of my life is already in the clutches of Google.

[jay-ell]

Yeah, I wasn't saying peeps in there 30s, more like about two years before I went to college to about the time I finished stealing music was like totally the thing to do, I don't know that my little mini generation will ever get over that.

No, I get this. We are about the same age, I think, and my friends and I all totally stole music (and software, and movies, etc) in college. Napster and BitTorrent and the whole deal. Most of the people I know (who are my age or slightly younger) are happy to pay for it now if it's available legally. We only pirate stuff if distributors don't make it available for legal purchase -- like Game of Thrones, 2012's most pirated TV show. It's not just me and my friends; there are whole articles dedicated to this idea. I read one just last week, but I can't find it again now.

[wombat]

Saw this on Twitter this morning and it seems like all you need, not a whole article:

 ‏@KimDotcom How to stop piracy: 1 Create great stuff 2 Make it easy to buy 3 Same day worldwide release 4 Fair price 5 Works on any device

Of course this is only true if people like Keith come around to the idea that a fair price is somewhere north of zero. I think JL's example shows that they might once they have any money to spare.

[theinevitable]

People who pay for mp3s, what service do you use to buy things?

Generally I have a list of bands whose entire catalog I want to own, and will buy their albums new. Other things that I like a lot I buy used if I can (which I know Wombat hates). The third tier consists of bands I know nothing about, who I want to check out. That gets downloaded. But everything gets downloaded first.

I am trying to purchase this album but don't want to get it off of iTunes. It is funny to me that a video he linked to from his own page has been taken down.

Is iTunes good? For some reason I am worried about giving them my money.

[wombat]

People who pay for mp3s, what service do you use to buy things?

I just use Amazon, maybe that is an old fogey thing to do.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I mostly use eMusic. $12/month gets me roughly two full-length albums, plus a couple extra tracks. They sometimes have sales on specific labels or genres, which will make the credits go a little farther. Regular ol' MP3s, play anywhere, no DRM. Focus mostly on indie labels, but they've added a couple of major labels (back catalog mostly) over the past year or two.

If you are interested, let me know and I can e-mail you through their "tell a friend" thing, which will get you a $10 starter credit, and me an extra $10 if you sign up.

Ignore any similar posts from Cort asking you to sign up through him instead.

[miles]

Inev, I bought that mp3 album on amazon. I don't know what changes Apple has made, but I rarely ever buy from itunes because they didn't used to sell mp3s, and unless it's an exclusive release I refuse to buy music in proprietary formats. Maybe it's different now but I like amazon. I like Google too but last I checked their selection was lousy.

[jay-ell]

I usually buy from iTunes because it is simple to synch music and videos across all our iDevices. (We have 2 iPhones, an iMac, an old iPod touch, and a 2nd-gen iPod that lives in our van and serves cartoons to our backset video screen via RCA cables to a built-in VHS player.) When I want something that isn't available on iTunes, like a nerdcore album, I'll check the artist's website for a download link first. There is usually a way to download it legally and pay via PayPal.

Failing that, I will order a CD and rip it to the laptop, but that's a pain because then I have to manually load it on to each device. I'll also sometimes buy via Amazon, but the problem there is the same as with a CD -- unless I buy through iTunes, there's no way to make things magically & effortlessly appear on all my devices at once.

[jaydub]

Can't you have Itunes import a stand-alone mp3?  I thought I had done this a while back, but maybe it was something else.