Its pretty interesting to hear all these people being exposed to this kind of music through MP3. MP3s werent around when I got into it. I could imagine how hard it is to get the" good stuff" when you live in the middle of nowhere and its not a common/popular style of music.

If anything in my opinion it helps the "little guys" get exposure without having to be taken advantage of by huge labels. More money for them and when a label does approach them they will have the upperhand because they already have a following.

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if it wasn't for napster back in the day, i probably would have never really gotten into EDM, or known much about it. i use mp3s to preview stuff before i buy it, like sure, some sites have 2 minute samples of songs on them, but when the track is like 10 minutes long, its not a really good representation of the song.

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"We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots."

I live in a small town (when im at home) where the genre I love is not very common/popular. But my story varies a bit: I got into Trance around 99/2000, from listening to the radio, Judge Jules mostly on Radio 1, and Dave Pearce! I then caught the "DJ bug" & saved up for my Techs as soon as I left school, I have never looked back

As my tastes evolved, I found it harder & harder to find "the good stuff" so the internet came into it.

It's only recently though since I got to university (fast broadband & own laptop) that I have started using mp3 a lot more. Before that it was a case of listening to the Radio, (online stations too, DI.fm/ASOT etc) or buying (decent) CDs, and browsing through online stores like Chemical Records/Juno/Promo for Vinyl.

Since having easier/faster access to the internet I have been getting into more genres because of mp3 & have now decided to make the switch from Vinyl to digital/CD, as it will save me a fortune & also give me a lot more flexability/diversity & with current technology I can do a lot more (CDJs/Serato etc) I have found myself using sites like Beatport/Audiojelly/Trackit, so on a personal level it's definatley a good thing.

In terms of the industry I think its a good thing as well, for many of the reasons given above

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel Jay all of it

I was pretty much the same

I think mp3 = choice. You can pick and choose what you want, try new stuff. Good for us. Record execs.... who cares? All they spend the money on is promo.

You won't see some little band or artist not making it cos all his hard core fans just downloaded the MP3 in stead of buying the record. For a start no one would have it online

As for the quality issue I think while yes the model used to apply the compression is constrained to home use (i.e. no designed for a club, and so kinda crap actually) when used in the home MP3 is totaly fine.

Unless you've got some valve amp setup in a lead lined room or something

eMule -> Beatport

MP3 has exposed me to music I would never have heard any other way.

As a result of this I have bought a boatload of tunes on CD and from download sites. Thus financing the artists (or the layers of dealers more likely).

MP3 and similar technologies raise the prospect of a greater proportion of the money going to the artist through a more efficient distribution system, which makes it possible increase the number of artists & variety of music. That's what might happen eventually, there does seeem to be a glut of generic tunes right now, not too many original ideas.

Last edited by tvmann on Mar-30-2006 at 20:40

I it wasn't for MP3, I would've never experienced Drum & Bass.

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OMNIFEX

Well IMHO my thesis would be along the lines of: Mp3's are the best thing that has EVER happened to music; Never has any medium made music more accessible to more people across the globe. Right now there are huge online libraries of every piece of music imagineable spread across the internet available to anybody with access to the internet.

The corporate argument that mp3's, and more specifically p2p file sharing, are detrimental to the industry is somewhat misleading. What is good for "music" and what is good for the "industry" are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum.

MP3's provide choice for people. This is exactly what the record label giants do not want. They want to be able to force-feed you their commercial garbage like a bunch of pigs at the trough. They pretty much dictate what gets played on commercial radio, which is why they'll play the same songs all day long every other hour.

As far as being financially detrimental to the artists, that's laughable. First of all, how much money do you think the artist gets from a label for every $15 cd they sell? Last I heard it averaged something like 25 cents, although I'm not positive on that. Any musician signed to a big label will tell you that the musicians interests, financial and otherwise, are at the bottom of priority list for these corporate scumbags. Secondly, how many artists actually blow up and go mainstream to the point where they can live off of their music? Your odds at winning the lottery are probably better. Don't be fooled, the only consistent financial beneficiaries of commercial music are the corporate big-wigs and large shareholders. Mp3's jeopardize their 10million dollar estates and 8-figure salaries, nothing more.

As for me I didn't get into EDM because of mp3's, however I did progress to spinning because of them. I now own about $4000 in gear, another $4000 in vinyl, and probably $500ish in digital downloads, all because mp3's allowed me the opportunity to become more exposed to the music.

So are mp3's detrimental to the big profiteers of the music industry? Absolutely. However it seems to me it makes enjoying a variety of non-commercial music a lot easier for the other 99.99% of us.

Just my 2cents, good luck on your paper.

It won't be long until everyone has the technology to carry 100s of uncompressed audio files around with them and download them as fast as we download mp3s today... ironically, as DJ technology gets to the point where by it can start to embrace the mp3, storage and communication technology reaches a point whereby they're no longer needed...

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Stu Cox |

theres an interesting discussion of the this on the Xiph website HERE

some of its on the non-openess of themp3 standard, but there are some bits relating to how the ability for artists to distribute their music without the need of a big company to publish it etc is a big concern for the industry (not for the artists themselves tho)

quote:

—and industry is the key word here. Music is no longer an expression of the soul or the work of an artist; it's a 'product' that is manufactured, packaged, catalogued, distributed, managed, regulated, and above all sold. Music is just another vehicle for maximizing profits. The RIAA, mainly a front for the recording industry that supports the status quo, trumpets loudly that the Internet is the greatest threat to artists that the world has ever known... at the same time that the RIAA is making a desperate grab to control this new distribution infrastructure. The great irony is that the Internet might indeed be an artist's worst nightmare-- if the RIAA succeeds

I have no doubt in my mind that, whilst some labels did go under and put it down illegal file sharing, the mp3 has done more beneficial things for edm that negative.

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Dave King - Tales Of The Future [Trance]
Dave King - Personal Classics
MIX ARCHIVE!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox It won't be long until everyone has the technology to carry 100s of uncompressed audio files around with them and download them as fast as we download mp3s today... ironically, as DJ technology gets to the point where by it can start to embrace the mp3, storage and communication technology reaches a point whereby they're no longer needed...

Just because mp3 is getting old does not mean that new compression technologies wont take its place. As storage and transfer capacities grow so will the size of the audio files as sample rate and sample bits are increased. Compression isnt something thats going to go away as storage increases.