While I did give my take on how piracy may have been better for the industry overall, I don't support it at all. However, sometimes our wills are weak and we are tempted to download that one last album to complete your collection. Well, there are a lot of alternatives that are legal!
Great places to pay legitimately for the album:
Itunes!!
Amazon!! <-- both are DRM free!
Great places to stream music:
Pandora Radio
LaLa.com
Great places to stream videos:
Hulu
Boxee
Youtube (iffy)
There are a lot more great places but there are many great places that aren't particularly legal or are standing on the gray zone. The Pirate Bay may be a great place but is (for the most part) pirating!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Case for Piracy
Don't make any assumptions based on this blog title! Piracy is still ILLEGAL.
However, I do want to state a couple of things that I've heard about piracy and how it is actually working out. Of course piracy is extremely harmful to the music industry. However, there are some instances where it isn't. If you take nine-inch-nails as the primary example, they've created a business model for singers not based on any huge record label and fancy advertising but on piracy. Google the topic to find out more about it, I'm not wasting my breath here.
Another way to look at piracy is whether or not it is a bad thing for the industry as a whole. It was inevitable. As soon as mp3s became a standard, piracy was sure to break out. With the internet, its a free distribution platform (well almost, you still gotta pay for internet). Yet, the internet has also helped the music industry to make even more money through promoting the songs and even selling them on itunes or amazon. In a way, it also made music (and movies) a lot more convenient to get, legally or illegally.
Piracy forced the industry to adapt to the web 2.0 architecture. Maybe we would have all still been buying CDs without the piracy issue. It forced the media to come onto the web and battle it out online and was ultimately better for the consumer. You can now buy tracks individually without all the wasted plastic and extra charges (like tax). In a way, it keeps the industry honest.
However, I do want to state a couple of things that I've heard about piracy and how it is actually working out. Of course piracy is extremely harmful to the music industry. However, there are some instances where it isn't. If you take nine-inch-nails as the primary example, they've created a business model for singers not based on any huge record label and fancy advertising but on piracy. Google the topic to find out more about it, I'm not wasting my breath here.
Another way to look at piracy is whether or not it is a bad thing for the industry as a whole. It was inevitable. As soon as mp3s became a standard, piracy was sure to break out. With the internet, its a free distribution platform (well almost, you still gotta pay for internet). Yet, the internet has also helped the music industry to make even more money through promoting the songs and even selling them on itunes or amazon. In a way, it also made music (and movies) a lot more convenient to get, legally or illegally.
Piracy forced the industry to adapt to the web 2.0 architecture. Maybe we would have all still been buying CDs without the piracy issue. It forced the media to come onto the web and battle it out online and was ultimately better for the consumer. You can now buy tracks individually without all the wasted plastic and extra charges (like tax). In a way, it keeps the industry honest.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Youtube Tutorial
I think we all have been to youtube to watch little kittens and weird japanese prank shows. Sometimes I think that is all that is on youtube but the reality is that there are a lot more useful things on there as well. While we may think that youtube is just a bunch of people filming some concert or them doing some crazy karate, we may be missing a serious educational experience on youtube as well.
While I was being rather bored, I heard an incredible piano piece which struck me so hard that I wanted to learn piano just so I could feel "impressive" that I could play that piece. Don't ask me what that piece was, it was on the radio. I googled in "piano tutorial" and noticed that there were youtube results!
You might not think much of finding people trying to teach you piano on youtube to be impressive but its like getting free tutorials online where you would have, without it, gone to the library to pick up a book or look through the yellow pages to look for a tutor. Not only that, you might not even be able to find a tutor or book to help you out where you're located. With youtube, it's everywhere (except maybe china...). It isn't just limited to piano either. You can learn guitar, flute, computing, php, sql, java, basic, photography, and etc. The list is practically endless. You might even be able to find tutorials on bagpipes or some other exotic instrument!
While I was being rather bored, I heard an incredible piano piece which struck me so hard that I wanted to learn piano just so I could feel "impressive" that I could play that piece. Don't ask me what that piece was, it was on the radio. I googled in "piano tutorial" and noticed that there were youtube results!
You might not think much of finding people trying to teach you piano on youtube to be impressive but its like getting free tutorials online where you would have, without it, gone to the library to pick up a book or look through the yellow pages to look for a tutor. Not only that, you might not even be able to find a tutor or book to help you out where you're located. With youtube, it's everywhere (except maybe china...). It isn't just limited to piano either. You can learn guitar, flute, computing, php, sql, java, basic, photography, and etc. The list is practically endless. You might even be able to find tutorials on bagpipes or some other exotic instrument!
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