Downloading saves money.

[Guest]

yea jetstar simetimes use poland to press vinyl. it sounds flat. the vinyl looks pretty but sound is low so is better to buy a cd.

[Guest]

much of my discomfort with MP3 etc stems from the awful quality of the sound - they are like passing razor blades through my ears! And the youth are getting used to this degraded sound and don't know any better. Pity them who haven't heard a vinyl record spun on a good hi-fi.

once again you're not afraid to exagerate...

reading your post, it seems that hi-fi equipment and medium have just deteriorated since cd and mp3 were created. it is an absolute non sense.

you pretend mp3 is like razor blades thru your ears. my advice is to ask a friend to record on mp3 some vinyl on 128, 192 and 320 kbps. ask him to play the vinyl, and the 3 mp3 files... then try to identify the format. I hope that you'll let us know if your ears are so infallible you're pretending. you could also do the same with an original cd, a burned one and 3 mp3 files. trust me you'll be more humble about your ears...

but once again my point is that music is what comes thru your ears... I enjoy a party (with crackling vinyls and poor sound quality) even if the sound is far from what I can hear at home.

one last thing: reggae comes from the ghetto and lived there. here we're discussing about:
- supporting the ones who exploited and destroyed with money one of the greatest generation of artists of the 20th century
- paying to share rastafari's message
- how snob we should be on sound quality at home when music has always been the greatest way to gather people.

we have to preserve reggae from those boneheads (music business, collectors) who are trying to confiscate this culture. they don't understand it but they understood they could make money on it. supporting them / spending loads of cash for a rare record means you're part of the shitstem.

being conscious is also overstand that even this site depends of them. don't you see the irony? we'd like to keep this culture real and at the same time we are working for them and making them richer...

mp3 is just a way to spread this culture to a larger number of bredrins.

I won't encourage you to download illegal material or copy, to buy records, I just want you to be conscious.

MUSIC IS A MISSION NOT A COMPETITION
CHASE THOSE BONEHEADS OUT OF THE FORUM

[Jason Allen]

Seems like it's getting heated on this thread. Here is what I think.
I see the need for the music business to continue to make money. Business is business. It's profit-based and doesn't help the struggling man. However, without money being made artists will get NO pay. If they try to release their own music they will struggle with the promotion and distribution. The business end is really all about dollars and cents. But, then again, record producers are NOT artists and we shouldn't think they would want to behave as artists (getting out a message, promoting culture, etc).
Good music and especially Jah music NEEDS to be heard. It doesn't matter how (vinyl, CD, MP3). It just needs to reach the ears of those who are ready to listen. It is powerful and should not solely be in the possession of people willing to pay Hundreds just so they can catalogue it away and file it. This type of collecting does not bring pay to the artist and it also keeps the tunes away from those that would love to hear. It keeps it from those that really care about the music.

Artists- Create and should be paid and respected
Record Labels make the product
Collectors-Collect and care about minutiae that no one else would notice
Music Lovers-Love music
Depending on which one you mostly are you will have a different opinion on this argument

In an ideal world more labels would risk a few small investments and re-issue classic albums in small print runs, pay the artists, and get the music to the people who would be eager to purchase it.
On some scale this is starting to happen in reggae but there is a long ways to go. Unfortunately many of the artists have passed and will reap no financial reward. However, their music and their legacy will be passed on.

[Nefta]

i think that the price of some records put limits to the poor man to get good music.Looks like people who are willing to pay the most have the right to decide up to what records i can reach. I will like to make my reggae colection bigger but for sure price set limitations.What options the system left me? If there is a way to save some bucks and still get great treasures so be it.Vinyl got more qualitie allright but mp3 carry the escense and the message too.... fya burn

[Freddy C]

"Downloading saves money".

So does burglary.

Sure the economy loses out, but just a little bit. Has no-one seen that episode of South Park?! Instead of Kanye West buying that $50million house he'll have to buy that $49million house. It really makes very little difference. They'll still be extremely rich, and I'll be a little less skint. And sure I'd love to support the good artists around at the moment, but I'm sure they'll do fine without me.

Kanye is a terrible example. He sells millions. Reggae does not sell well at all!! If people genuinely love the music they should have no problem spending some of their money on it.

Sending a few CD-Rs to friends who you *know* to be music buyers ... who are likely to buy what they hear if it's available, is a reasonable level of sharing, putting entire albums (OUT OF PRINT OR NOT) up in cyberspace for *absolutely anyone* to download is NOT. Don't pretend that this supports reggae or assume that the people who download it are going to behave honourably ie go out and buy something ever - plenty will buy NOTHING.

Some people are of an age where they actually believe that music is free and others are now so well used to downloading for free that they would not bother paying for anything again.

If you've never actually bought music the industry is not losing any revenue from you but don't take the attitude that you've a right to all this stuff for free and don't put it up for others to take.

If you've stopped buying records because you can now download anything you want then that is some lost revenue for the reggae industry and a big thank you DOES NOT go out to the idiots who put in print releases online for all to take. See how much they're helping reggae now. Who knows how many lost sales. Like everything else , a little moderation and consideration helps a lot.

A simplistic notion such as "the record labels are Babylon" does NOT cut it. Some labels are dirty pirates but others support the artists financially.

[leggo rocker]

Sorry Oras but you are so wrong again.

I actually have done this test of yours and I can EASILY tell MP3, or even WAV, from vinyl. 100% pass rate. And everyman man I know who cherish vinyl over MP3 can also easily pass this test.

Have you tried the test? You might be surprised to hear the difference. And this argument, vinyl vs digital has been played out here many many times.

And these 'Bonehead' collectors are hiding their records away for none to hear eh? I guess that's why the stuff I 'collect' is available either on my live365 radio station or at my DJ gigs. And did you know that the DJs on live365 actually have to PAY several hundred dollars a year to air this stuff? So once again your reasoning is flawed and full of prejudice (born out of envy I suspect).

And I don't think you read my post properly as not once did I say hi-fi equipment has deteriorated sin ce CD and MP3. What I said was that a generation has grown used to ONLY hearing music on computer speakers.

You think sound quality doesn't matter in reggae? Tell that to Errol T or King Tubby or any engineer who did his best always to improve his sound and the equipment the sound was made on. Tell it to the bassman who would like his bass to sound tight, not flabby and distorted.

Of course rasta message doesn't need vinyl and quality hi-fi. It works perfectly well, if not best, with a gathering of idren outdoors around a fire and with singers, congo drums and an acoustic guitar.

You rattle on about babylon this and bonehead that. And yet you have not answered my question about your own personal involvement int he shitstem. Maybe you live in the Wareika hills with Countryman and yet somehow you have a computer and internet?

And I don't see anything in your last post responding to my challenge for you to provide a business model through which music can continue to be distributed and artists get paid in the future. If you think of one, get along to a record company now, they'll love to hear it because they obviously have no idea themselves how to face this future.

I also think it would be conscious of you to apologise to the creators of Roots-Archives for your earlier and unfounded accusation that this site is in the pay of the record industry. And please overstand I am only a moderator and review writer here, I have no ownership or share of this site and like the founders, everything I do here is for free, for no reward.

[Guest]

You think sound quality doesn't matter in reggae? Tell that to Errol T or King Tubby or any engineer who did his best always to improve his sound and the equipment the sound was made on. Tell it to the bassman who would like his bass to sound tight, not flabby and distorted.

I was talking about home hi-fi and music lovers who wants to hear music and dance... you answer with professionnal engineers. that's not exactly the same you know

So what is your idea of the economic model that will support the creation of music for worldwide distribution via free downloading and still being able to make the money to pay the artists, writer, publisher, studio and producer? I'd love to hear it, and I am sure so would the record industry who are scrabbling around for a way forward into this new future they face.

I'm not concerned about them and about "artists" getting money. I'm concerned about consciousLESS bredrins trying to fool us.

And you say: "I&I don't deal with capitalism" - You don't?

Then how are you making these posts? On a computer? Running Windoze probably, the product of the world's most successful capitalists.

I use computers, but I didn't pay for them

And I guess you never buy anything in a shop?

come on don't be so stupid. I told you to get conscious not to boycott every single thing.

And these 'Bonehead' collectors are hiding their records away for none to hear eh? I guess that's why the stuff I 'collect' is available either on my live365 radio station or at my DJ gigs.And did you know that the DJs on live365 actually have to PAY several hundred dollars a year to air this stuff? So once again your reasoning is flawed and full of prejudice (born out of envy I suspect).

stop this ego trip going on and on...
the way you pretend to serve the cause is giving money to some renegade selling used records or to an obscure shitty internet business? good for you!
but I'm free to NOT follow this model.

keep cool about envy and prejudice cos I don't envy you anything. entire threads about the money you spend to get records from boneheads (tu) , about advertising your performance(s) as dj (tu) , about how you cherish your records (tu) . have you heard about megalomania?

You rattle on about babylon this and bonehead that. And yet you have not answered my question about your own personal involvement int he shitstem.

first step is to be conscious next ones are about how you're living. go to step one

I also think it would be conscious of you to apologise to the creators of Roots-Archives for your earlier and unfounded accusation that this site is in the pay of the record industry.

once again you're accusing me for something I didn't do? I just asked if this site gets money from the music business? if they don't, do they get free records or free peanuts or something?

The words 'false rasta' just entered my mind for some reason...

call me false rasta whatever... judge me... I'm very honoured


DEFENDING THE MUSIC BUSINESS WHEN YOU'RE NOT A PART OF IT IS PURE MENTAL SLAVERY.
THEY'VE GOT A FULL ARMY OF LAWYERS AND COURTS TO DO THAT.

[ton1]

@oras

maybe you're living in the countryside eating fruits and vegetables you find on trees. In case not, i guess you have a job (or maybe you live thanks to public helps*), if you have a job, i'm sure your boss (or your clients if you're in freelance) will be happy to know that, for you, everything must be free (cause if not, you're supporting the system, that's not from me, that's your theory), i'm sure he'll be happy cause basically he would rather not to pay you and keep the money to take care of his family, buy records, a new BMW etc..

*in that case, you must know i'm paying taxes for you as we're living in the same country (i remember some PM talking about downloads and studio one) and i'm not happy about it, i'd rather pay for needy people.

Capitalism or not, if you don't pay (with money or anything you want) for something, don't expect to be given anything for what you do (or just kicks in your ass by some people who dislike your way of thinking)

I hope i didn't get your point, but i'm afraid i did.

Si tu as une explication, je serais curieux de l'entendre.

[Ites]

Leggo, he simply doesn't have a model to offer us, he's here to, partly, wind people up, an immature, young man's pleasure, so take it with a pinch of salt...

you have any suggestions so far, oras, how they - the artists whose music we love so much - can earn a bread from this, and continue, with people like you downloading and, oh so nicely, 'spreading it to other bredrins',or you're just empty in your head? its all right for artists to invest their own capital in a product after going independent for you to just get it for free? is that reasonable, is that how they will get back their investments, their own hard earned cash? you call that 'righteous'? will that sort of behaviour take them further? if, say, you had your own record company, would you like it the same way, would it still be acceptable after investing your own capital in it? try for once to put yourself in their place and stop being so selfish! have you talked with any artists what you're doing? i would like to see that... i'm sure it would be a pretty cosy atmosphere

[Duh !]

Im in the music business, i dont run a major label, everyone i know who is also in this music business is in similar position, none of us have an `army of lawyers`, none of us have even spoken to a lawyer, we all do our own business runnings, we all make a very average living from what we do, we pay artists to the extent that we can afford, as record sales get less then either we pay them less or we dont record them, result, no living for the artists, no more music for the public.

You bleat about conciousness, but your understanding of the livity of those in reggae music business is far from any truth, if you think reggae music is the preserve of big business man producers and record companies making $$$ off the backs off the downtrodden artist, or ripping off the poor general public, then once again you show your naivity making statements when you know nothing of this music business. Ive seen artists like Bernard Collins (Abyssinians) walking round from shop to shop with his bag of records trying to make a few sales on his music, do you think you are more concious than he, a foundation man who made some of the most concious, spiritual reggae music in history, do you think he would be happy that his music was being given away for nothing, i`m sure he`s thankful to your kind and concious thinking.