Hey guys,
You ever had trouble getting into an artist because you cant find any decent songs? Well, try this, Torrent a bands live album or greatest hits album. Listen to that. Then torrent the discography. It works a wonder. Or when looking on Youtube if you dont wanna torrent anything, Just watch their music videos. It usually going to be the best songs. I've gotten into many great bands by doing that. Slipknot ( 9.0 Live ), Aerosmith ( Devils Got A New Disguise ), Asking Alexandria ( Reckless Relentless ), Duff McKagans Loaded ( Sick ) & even MCR ( New album ).

If you like heavy and hardcore shit then check out Slipknot or Stone Sour. If you like melodic stuff then try Aerosmith or if its melodic death metal then try out Dreamshade. If you like Guns but hate Chinese Democracy then tune your ears to Duff McKagans Loaded. Check out Flatline. Its amazing. Or if its Slash oriented licks and riffs then try Velvet Revolver. If you want deathcore or death metal then check out Cannibal Corpse, Annotations of an Autopsy and Asking Alexandria. Check em out guys, :) enjoy!

Well said, this is always my argument as well. I hear people all the time saying that they wont pay to download because you dont get a physical "thing" when you do. Which is a totally shit argument.

I've just checked and in the last 2 years alone, I have bought 2,982 songs from iTunes. That totals at an average of 79p per song to around £2355.78 and I would not grudge them a single penny of that. In that time I have torrented approximately....oooh 0 songs.

Well, I don't legally download music very often and I never illegally download music, I just tend to go out and buy it from the very small amount of stores left still going because I do prefer having the physical thing. I know loads of people who download music illegally and it's really frustrating, you can argue with them as much as possible but it's almost impossible to get them to change their minds the only way I think they'd stop would be if they were caught but they never seem to get caught. But yeah, I tend to agree with Gildermershina and genocidal king.

I don't really understand what you're saying at all. I'm saying the casual attitude towards the value of data (being infinitely replicable and all) is dangerous for all the media industries. People know shoplifting is a crime, because it involves a physical act, and the risk of being caught, but copyright infringement, ie. illegally downloading music, movies and games, that stuff is a click away, and the consequences in almost all cases are nil. It's convenient.

In theory art is worth what anyone is willing to pay for it, but if the art is infinitely replicable and easily shared, it becomes valueless, meaning the creators of this art have less means to create it. People love the idea of bands doing it for themselves, without major labels involved, but they don't even realise how much money it costs just to hire a decent studio. I'm saying people should think about that when they're stealing the music, and not just assume it's their right to hear and evaluate all music for free.

To be honest guys, if I like what i've downloaded I usually go out and buy most of the CD's as I have a tendency to break my computer ( Im on my 4th ). Also, if I do get into a band I will always pay to see them live and none of this sneaking in shit. I buy the merchandise that I like and then I usually review the concert in a positive light ( I do some reviews on the Metal Hammer website ) to promote the band more. At current standing I personally own nearly 200 CD's and I have various collectors items. I have ( literally ) one side of my room stacked with bookshelves full of CD's and at least half my wardrobe is full of official merchandise. The only time I ever bought bootleg merchandise was a hoodie outside a CoB gig. That was only because I'd lost mine earlier in the day ( thank you Camden ) and was left in a vest shirt when I left the concert ( I didn't buy a hoodie inside as they only had a Children of Bodom one that sucked ) and it was freezing.

Yeah the whole "I buy it if it's worth it" thing is bullshit. It leaves room for something that you like, but arbitrarily don't like enough to buy. Plus, if you're downloading whole discographies, there's no way you're ever going to keep up with that in actual purchases. It's a crass justification. The other thing is that people don't necessarily experience music on computers in the best possible way. Especially on the PC, nobody just sits and listens to music running off a PC. And they probably have shitty PC speakers, and in many cases the subwoofer is turned up too loud or there's some horrible "enhancement" going on in your player, whether that's an EQ preset or some proprietary "enhancer" multi-band compression. People listen to music on a PC while they surf and play games and write forum posts. Myself included. It seems unfair to judge things in that light, and also to judge it in the sense that you've taken it for free along with ten other albums, and you'll probably download another ten the next day, so why ever properly listen to that one thing? Why should it take more than one listen to enjoy music?

There's also an amazing tendency on the internet for new albums to be absolutely panned by apparent hardcore fans, three hours after they've gotten a leak, months before it actually comes out. Then over time some of these people come back and say "I was wrong, this album is actually great." When it takes three minutes to steal an album, why would you want to spend time listening to it more than once before spewing a knee-jerk reaction to the fact this album doesn't immediately give you the same experience a previous one gave you? I know this isn't the case with everyone who steals music, but it's a very visible side-effect of the devaluation process. It almost becomes more important to get the album as soon as possible than to actually give it the listening time it deserves. Almost more important to have heard 100 hundred different bands than to have really properly listened to 10 of them.

There's plenty albums I've owned for months before they really truly sink in, and those often tend to be the albums I have the strongest feelings about. To remove that possibility, to reduce it to "download now, rate in an hour" kind of attitude, seems like it misses the whole point of listening to music in my mind.

Edited by user 27 April 2011 22:32:18(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The steps I follow when getting into a new band are-

Listen to the first eight or so songs that come up on youtube. Generally the best/most popular
If I like that I listen to all the singles
Then the major albums
Then the rest of the discography.

I don't download anything. I do use Youtube, which I guess is unethical, even though it's only illegal for the uploader.

To most this is probably all true. Not for me though.

I can say honest to God (which means nothing to you but oh well) that I will sit here and do nothing but listen to the album I just bought/torrented on my PC with out ever clicking away from the player. My tendencies are...

Listen all the way through album while doing nothing else at all.
Listen to it in the car
Listen while doing other things on the PC
Buy actual CD
Listen to nothing but that one artist/album for about 3 months. (seriously)
Move on to next artist/album.

I agree that having no box, case to hold in your hands takes a lot of the experience out and that browsing the net while listening doesnt really count as fully listening. But even if I have the thing on cd or vinyl, I still dont just sit and listen. I'm in the car, or playing video games, or working out while I listen. Never do I just sit there other than the very first time I buy/torrent something.

If I buy the cd and dont like it, I still wont buy anything else. That has nothing to do with torrenting....duh