iTunes does me a favour

Chris Norton, May 11th 2006, 11:45AM

This morning I was sitting on the bus, listening to <nme mode>Wildhearts' frontman Ginger's confessional rock opus Valor Del Corazon</nme mode> (because nothing says 'commute' like a double album about your wife leaving you on account of your heroin habit), thinking about the differences between CDs and mp3s. And how heroin habits are a bit of a bad idea. And various other stupid things... but mainly about CDs and mp3s.

Last night iTunes suddenly decided to delete half my carefully downloaded album artwork. At first I was quite irate, because I'd spent ages finding it all so it would show up on my ipod. But after some thought, it started to feel like iTunes was trying to enlighten me. I still buy CDs, even though I just rip them straight onto iTunes and stack them up in the corner. It feels somehow more like I've got a handle on the music if I physically own it, and getting the artwork onto iTunes felt like a link to this physical medium.

Well shame on me for trying to cling to the old ways! Shame on bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers for moaning about people downloading their music, instead of embracing the new ways! When we get fixated on album art, sleevenotes and so on we're just not getting it - CDs and record sleeves aren't music, music is music and it's something that only ever really exists in the air and in the mind. That's why the abstraction of going digital is so appropriate - it frees the music.

So maybe next time I get the urge to download more album art and lyrics for my collection, I'll just stop and listen to the music itself.

Tags: downloads, media, mp3, music
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Russia - the Internet villain or hero?

Jonathan Bowers, April 7th 2006, 12:15PM

American congress has named China and Russia the world's two biggest Internet pirates. Earlier this year, the UK's ISPA named Russia in its top 5 Internet villains and this week an XTN Data survey tells us that Russia's allofmp3.com is one of the three most popular legal music download sites in the world. Although, the site is called quasi-legal by many.

I'm with the consumer perspective on this. If you create a global market and encourage anyone to sell within it, then you have to be prepared that someone somewhere will be able to provide at a cheaper rate than others. I know a lot of people from different walks of life that download music from allofmp3 and will continue to do so until they are told that it is illegal. Quite simply - as consumers, we want value for money. It's not as though our first thought is for the starving music executives, it's more likely to be for the huge price rises we've seen over the years on CD's.

Should allofmp3 be bundled into the 'villain' category? People find the loop holes in business everywhere in order to get the legal edge. Often they're closed. But until this loop hole is closed isn't it more of a 'hero' for the people?

Tags: downloads, internetlaw
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