I grew up middle class and happy. We had a TV which we were only allowed to turn on once a week to watch either the Brady Bunch or My Three sons. My dad had a state of the art Sony reel to reel which we were not even allowed to touch. We also had a record player with a needle so delicate that it would scratch the vinyl if you even moved so we had to sit very still. Until this day I can't dance. When I hear great music, I just sit very still and listen – scarred from early technology.
I have such strong memories of those first few albums. Not just the music but the memory of experiencing the excitement with my family. Fighting over favorites, whose band was cooler, which song on the album was the best. It was great family time which I'll never forget.
When I was about eight my dad bought home Help by the Beatles. What a great first album, it has everything, great songs like Yesterday and Dizzy Miss Lizzy. That was the start of a lifelong obsession with good music that I now share with my kids. We had a Jonny Cash Album that was a real eye opener - Boy named Sue etc . He was a wild man and a great introduction into Country Music.
As we grew older we started hanging out with the other kids in the street – we each had to choose a band to support and having little knowledge of the world of rock, I chose deep purple because I liked thecolour purple. My brother was a Zoot fan and my friend was into the Stones. My dad was into Burt Bacharach, but he wasn't allowed to hang out with us.
Those were great times, and it might have continued that way forever if not for the dark clouds of disco...but that's another story.
Now I'm all grown up with kids, and if I had a job, we would be middle class too. When they were little, I sat them down on the couch and forced them to listen to Dark Side of the Moon. The Beatles of course form a central part of their syllabus as do some of the great Jazz musicians, also bands like Led Zeppelin and Elton John, the Beach Boys and Bowie. They love it all. My theory is that if its good, really good, it will always be good and we'll always appreciate it.
As a family we also watch TV and movies together and that's great fun too. Yet it's not the same, there's something special about the music. With TV we all sit around like zombies, but with the music there's a buzz, an excitement, its interactive and its fun. We don't just listen to the old stuff, three teenage daughters bring plenty of new music to listen to and believe me, there are plenty of great musicians like Amy Winehouse, Elliot Smith and Kanye West. There's always something new to experience
The hard thing is to do it together as a family because it's something kids usually do with their friends and it's not so cool to hang out with your parents. Still if the music is good, its good and they get it and we have fun.
With today's technology there's no excuse for listening to bad music. Computer download sites give us a huge choice - every style and every artist. We don’t even have to listens to whole albums we can pick and chose our favorite songs. Don't forget to use good speakers and download from a reputable site like this one where you can download free music.
by Gavi Eskin
Showing posts with label Free music download. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free music download. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Confessions of a free Music downloader
The problem is that I am going to go to the special level of hell reserved for child molesters,people who talk at the theater and those who download free music .
Me, and every single other teenager who has access to an over-priced MP3 player and the internet. It’s like nose-picking. Everybody does it.
I started when I was about fourteen, when my buddy called me up and said,
‘Dude, you heard the new Ashanti single?’ I said, ‘No, I was going to buy it,
but it was either that or a Legolas poster. Guess who won?’ And she said, ‘Okay, listen. I’m gonna tell you something, it’ll change your life. But keep it on the low-down, and if you get any computer viruses,tell you parents you caught your little sister looking at porn.’
‘I am positively quivering with anticipation,’ I said to my buddy. ‘Do tell!’‘Okay,’ my buddy whispered conspiratorially into the phone. ‘It’s called Kazaa.’ Well, that was just the end of me. No more browsing through hip record stores in Bondi. Good bye, future CD collection. Hello, Illegal music downloading! And I haven’t bought a CD since.
I’m going through my iTunes list, and the Top Most Played Song is a song called Orange, by the Dandy Warhols. I don’t even like that song, but someone in the family must because it’s been played like, one thousand, five hundred and three times since I downloaded it from Limewire in 2005. Along with four of their other albums.
As I write this, I’m listening to Gone For Good, by the Shins. Got all of their
albums, too. And Elliot Smith’s. And Radiohead’s. Portishead’s, Bright Eyes (don’t blame me, I was fourteen and he’s a good lyricist.) Buckley’s, Gorillaz’s… And I didn’t pay a cent. For any of it. Why should I? Music should be for free, like love. And air. And the musicians only spend the money of DRUGS, anyway. I don’t want to be supporting their drug habits, I have my own to attend to, God.
But what if, because of our financial boycott, the musicians stop taking drugs and
the quality of their music flounders in the pit of mediocrity that is the music industry? Maybe I do want to support their drug habits? Oh god. I’m starting to see the light. I should have paid my $9.99 AU for Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm three years ago. I have single-handedly destroyed Rock n’ Roll. Damn.
Special Hell, here I come.
Me, and every single other teenager who has access to an over-priced MP3 player and the internet. It’s like nose-picking. Everybody does it.
I started when I was about fourteen, when my buddy called me up and said,
‘Dude, you heard the new Ashanti single?’ I said, ‘No, I was going to buy it,
but it was either that or a Legolas poster. Guess who won?’ And she said, ‘Okay, listen. I’m gonna tell you something, it’ll change your life. But keep it on the low-down, and if you get any computer viruses,tell you parents you caught your little sister looking at porn.’
‘I am positively quivering with anticipation,’ I said to my buddy. ‘Do tell!’‘Okay,’ my buddy whispered conspiratorially into the phone. ‘It’s called Kazaa.’ Well, that was just the end of me. No more browsing through hip record stores in Bondi. Good bye, future CD collection. Hello, Illegal music downloading! And I haven’t bought a CD since.
I’m going through my iTunes list, and the Top Most Played Song is a song called Orange, by the Dandy Warhols. I don’t even like that song, but someone in the family must because it’s been played like, one thousand, five hundred and three times since I downloaded it from Limewire in 2005. Along with four of their other albums.
As I write this, I’m listening to Gone For Good, by the Shins. Got all of their
albums, too. And Elliot Smith’s. And Radiohead’s. Portishead’s, Bright Eyes (don’t blame me, I was fourteen and he’s a good lyricist.) Buckley’s, Gorillaz’s… And I didn’t pay a cent. For any of it. Why should I? Music should be for free, like love. And air. And the musicians only spend the money of DRUGS, anyway. I don’t want to be supporting their drug habits, I have my own to attend to, God.
But what if, because of our financial boycott, the musicians stop taking drugs and
the quality of their music flounders in the pit of mediocrity that is the music industry? Maybe I do want to support their drug habits? Oh god. I’m starting to see the light. I should have paid my $9.99 AU for Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm three years ago. I have single-handedly destroyed Rock n’ Roll. Damn.
Special Hell, here I come.
the File Sharing Phoenix
There was a time in our house when Kazaa was the word of the day. My teenage daughters were delirious at the thought of being able to download whatever music they wanted for free and even though we parents took the moral high ground warning that it was illegal, somewhere we were thrilled to see the power of the mighty music
industry brought down a notch or two. After all we were a generation held ransom to the ever escalating costs of CD's despite a reduction in the cost of their production.
The music industry, dominated at the time by the "big four" (Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI and Warner) watched music sales drop from approximately $38 billion in 1999 to $32 billion in 2003, during the years that peer to peer (P2P) software was launched. The artists were no-doubt affected but no-one cared all that much because ultimately we all knew it was the 'suits' that
were suffering, and we were able to access music freely, not just free of cost but free of form too.
"Music, like love" said my sixteen year old daughter, "should be free", and off she went to download the Dandy Warhols latest song. She was not alone. In a paper presented at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 2008,
Mark Cooper, Director of research presented the following idea. He suggested that the dramatic decline in record sales had perhaps less to do with piracy and more to do with the natural changes brought about by the technology , ie. Consumer demand for singles over albums - made available now by the new technology.
Prior to this revolution, consumers were dictated to by the industry who decided when and how single songs were made available. How many albums have been purchased for want of a single track. In the conclusion to his presentation, he proposes that "technological change shifts the balance of interest between private rights and social goals and frequently triggers"piracy panics," wherein the gatekeepers of content feel the financial security of their intellectual property is at risk. These panics play out in furious legal battles."
In a series of vicious legal battles between the music industry and peer to peer software companies, such as Napstar and Kazaa, the record companies supported largely by a surprisingly conservative media put themselves forward as victims of piracy. The poor record companies were losing their monopoly and they didn't know how to deal with the revolution made possible by a technology they knew
nothing about.
Now we faced a real conflict. The media, traditional supporters of the underdog had done an about face and were supporting the record industry we had pushed up against our whole life. Where was the progressive forward thinking social conscious of the day, surely not in the lapel of Sony and EMI record producing magnates?
And so we continued to download free music.
Today it seems a new story is emerging. The record companies have joined the century using the same technology that seemingly threatened its margins just a few years ago. Peer to peer software is now being developed to redirect traffic to legal music files for downloading. The legal file is available for purchase with charges billed into internet costs by way of Internet Service Providers, and everyone is happy again.
Will this stop my teens from downloading free music, probably not, but it will hopefully be used to also stop other more harmful and illicit file sharing, and for that the rejuvenation of peer to peer software, with a legal and moral backbone, and the support of the industries that tried to bring it down, must be praised. Technology moves on, reinventing itself to serve the needs of those who use it, if sharing music is one such outcome, let the world join in and sing.
industry brought down a notch or two. After all we were a generation held ransom to the ever escalating costs of CD's despite a reduction in the cost of their production.
The music industry, dominated at the time by the "big four" (Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI and Warner) watched music sales drop from approximately $38 billion in 1999 to $32 billion in 2003, during the years that peer to peer (P2P) software was launched. The artists were no-doubt affected but no-one cared all that much because ultimately we all knew it was the 'suits' that
were suffering, and we were able to access music freely, not just free of cost but free of form too.
"Music, like love" said my sixteen year old daughter, "should be free", and off she went to download the Dandy Warhols latest song. She was not alone. In a paper presented at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 2008,
Mark Cooper, Director of research presented the following idea. He suggested that the dramatic decline in record sales had perhaps less to do with piracy and more to do with the natural changes brought about by the technology , ie. Consumer demand for singles over albums - made available now by the new technology.
Prior to this revolution, consumers were dictated to by the industry who decided when and how single songs were made available. How many albums have been purchased for want of a single track. In the conclusion to his presentation, he proposes that "technological change shifts the balance of interest between private rights and social goals and frequently triggers"piracy panics," wherein the gatekeepers of content feel the financial security of their intellectual property is at risk. These panics play out in furious legal battles."
In a series of vicious legal battles between the music industry and peer to peer software companies, such as Napstar and Kazaa, the record companies supported largely by a surprisingly conservative media put themselves forward as victims of piracy. The poor record companies were losing their monopoly and they didn't know how to deal with the revolution made possible by a technology they knew
nothing about.
Now we faced a real conflict. The media, traditional supporters of the underdog had done an about face and were supporting the record industry we had pushed up against our whole life. Where was the progressive forward thinking social conscious of the day, surely not in the lapel of Sony and EMI record producing magnates?
And so we continued to download free music.
Today it seems a new story is emerging. The record companies have joined the century using the same technology that seemingly threatened its margins just a few years ago. Peer to peer software is now being developed to redirect traffic to legal music files for downloading. The legal file is available for purchase with charges billed into internet costs by way of Internet Service Providers, and everyone is happy again.
Will this stop my teens from downloading free music, probably not, but it will hopefully be used to also stop other more harmful and illicit file sharing, and for that the rejuvenation of peer to peer software, with a legal and moral backbone, and the support of the industries that tried to bring it down, must be praised. Technology moves on, reinventing itself to serve the needs of those who use it, if sharing music is one such outcome, let the world join in and sing.
Music Industry Embraces Peer To peer technology
Remember when Napstar and Kazaa were like secret words passed around in code by teens at risk of getting busted by their parents for downloading music for free online? While parents for the most part were more concerned about protecting their computers, even then we understood that file sharing was the next big thing to take
the IT world by storm and any attempts to contain it were futile.
The music industry, dominated at the time by the "big four" namely Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI and Warner accepted no such pretext as they watched music sales drop from approximately $38 billion to $32 billion over the same
three year period that P2P software was launched.
While we felt for the poor artists who were no doubt being short changed in royalties, we all knew it was the guys at the top who were suffering the most, calling foul play in the names of the musicians they represented. No one cared that much,record producing suits never impressed sixteen year olds, who just want to listen to music without having to work hard for cash that's hard to come by.
My teenage daughter shrugged her shoulders saying music like love should be free, and off she went to download her favorite song. Even though legal action was being taken against students on campus's across the states, kids and even the odd parent, continued to download music for free. As much as the cost, it was the form that was so tempting. You could download your favorite songs and not be held ransom by
the record companies packaging of single hits on expensive albums filled with songs nobody wanted to listen to.
In a paper presented at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 2008, Mark Cooper, Directorof research presented the following idea. He suggested that the dramatic decline in record sales had less to do with piracy and more to do
with the natural changes brought about by the technology ,ie. Consumer demand for singles over albums. He proposed that "technological change shifts the balance of interest between private rights and social goals and frequently triggers"piracy panics," wherein the gatekeepers of content feel the financial security
of their intellectual property is at risk. These panics play out in furious legal battles."
What followed was exactly that - a series of 'furious legal battles' between the music industry and peer to peer software companies, such as Napstar and Kazaa. What was most surprising was the media's lack of support for the technology that would ultimately be embraced. An older generation of reporters backed an even more out touch record industry who refused to acknowledge that peer to peer software was already embedded in the consumer psyche, and that no amount of money wasted in messy court cases could prevent its use.
Kids continued file sharing, new content sharing sites emerged,and even though Napstar and Kazaa lost their battle in court, the war on the frontier of technology vs piracy was won - with record companies now embracing the technology that once threatened its very existence. Peer to peer software is now being developed to
redirect traffic to legal music files for downloading.
Will my kids stop downloading music for free, probably not, but if the software proves to be able to redirect traffic from other harmful sites where illicit files are shared in the same way it redirects consumers to legal music download sites, the great battle will have been worth it. Perhaps then the media will get on board and support the inevitable fact that we have to work with what we have not against it.
download free music
the IT world by storm and any attempts to contain it were futile.
The music industry, dominated at the time by the "big four" namely Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI and Warner accepted no such pretext as they watched music sales drop from approximately $38 billion to $32 billion over the same
three year period that P2P software was launched.
While we felt for the poor artists who were no doubt being short changed in royalties, we all knew it was the guys at the top who were suffering the most, calling foul play in the names of the musicians they represented. No one cared that much,record producing suits never impressed sixteen year olds, who just want to listen to music without having to work hard for cash that's hard to come by.
My teenage daughter shrugged her shoulders saying music like love should be free, and off she went to download her favorite song. Even though legal action was being taken against students on campus's across the states, kids and even the odd parent, continued to download music for free. As much as the cost, it was the form that was so tempting. You could download your favorite songs and not be held ransom by
the record companies packaging of single hits on expensive albums filled with songs nobody wanted to listen to.
In a paper presented at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 2008, Mark Cooper, Directorof research presented the following idea. He suggested that the dramatic decline in record sales had less to do with piracy and more to do
with the natural changes brought about by the technology ,ie. Consumer demand for singles over albums. He proposed that "technological change shifts the balance of interest between private rights and social goals and frequently triggers"piracy panics," wherein the gatekeepers of content feel the financial security
of their intellectual property is at risk. These panics play out in furious legal battles."
What followed was exactly that - a series of 'furious legal battles' between the music industry and peer to peer software companies, such as Napstar and Kazaa. What was most surprising was the media's lack of support for the technology that would ultimately be embraced. An older generation of reporters backed an even more out touch record industry who refused to acknowledge that peer to peer software was already embedded in the consumer psyche, and that no amount of money wasted in messy court cases could prevent its use.
Kids continued file sharing, new content sharing sites emerged,and even though Napstar and Kazaa lost their battle in court, the war on the frontier of technology vs piracy was won - with record companies now embracing the technology that once threatened its very existence. Peer to peer software is now being developed to
redirect traffic to legal music files for downloading.
Will my kids stop downloading music for free, probably not, but if the software proves to be able to redirect traffic from other harmful sites where illicit files are shared in the same way it redirects consumers to legal music download sites, the great battle will have been worth it. Perhaps then the media will get on board and support the inevitable fact that we have to work with what we have not against it.
download free music
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