my thoughts on the releases

[//\/\/]

at the moment i'm precluded from "ownership" due to my home pc being busted.

i have a copy that a friend sent me out of the blue.

i only really listen to music in my car.

when my pc is up and running i will be able to buy the tunes.

i will only listen to them on a cd i burn for myself.

whilst in the past, even if i had a copy of an album i wanted on tape, i'd go out and buy it - there's an ownership issue here. now - i don't feel quite to inclined. there's not much extra bang for my buck, is there?

as an artistic experiment, i understand them wanting to do something different. as a commercial one, it seems flawed. yes, it's getting product out at a fantastic rate, without bullshit from record companies. but as far as how it's being received at our end, i'm worried. there's an element of "emperor's new clothes" about the round/square nature product up until now - but for the reasons that many people feel, i don't feel the same way about these tunes as i do about any of my uw cds. they're files. i've got no real emotional attachment to them. i got sent a copy of the files that is no worse than one i'd pay for - where's my motivation to buy if i can't even get into the shop, and even when i do, i come out with nothing new?

[jose m]

sounds like you're looking for something to fill a space in your life,some sort of emotional attachment,why not get a dog?

[Stephen]

I thought that was quite funny actually.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Must be an age thing mate.

Seriously, though - and all comment on the quality of the choons aside, which will always be a personal preference - while I can absolutely see where you are coming from on this, have you ever wondered if it is because either:

a) we are tied to CDs as being the only "valuable" format because of their very physical nature - you pay for a physical thing therefore it has more instrinsic value than something that comes out of the ether; or
b) you are so used now to getting free *cough* music in this format that it has somehow devalued the concept for you?

And, all joking apart, the age thing is not as daft as it sounds. I resisted buying a CD player for quite some time as, having witnessed the rise and fall of such things as laserdiscs, I figured it was a new geeky bit of tat that would eventually lose its charm and fade away. I eventually (thankfully) bought in to it. Perhaps the whole idea of MP3s as The Medium now just takes a little getting used to?


Food for thought. (Especially with all the Pizza, Eggs and Penne flying around )

BTW: on a side note, I paid for an extra copy of P4E to send to someone as a christmas present. Was I daft to do that, having already bought it? Maybe. Did it make me feel better having done it that way? Without a doubt. Otherwise my present would have had no value at all to me.

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

b) you are so used now to getting free *cough* music in this format that it has somehow devalued the concept for you?

if i was stealing tracks left, right and centre, then that'd be a valid point. but i'm not... that fact that technology has allowed a friend to send an exact replica of what i would have paid for takes this beyond the days of taping an album for a friend. and as i've said, i'm precluded from being able to pay; so i either listen to my copy, or fuck-off and don't listen to new tracks.

And, all joking apart, the age thing is not as daft as it sounds. I resisted buying a CD player for quite some time as, having witnessed the rise and fall of such things as laserdiscs, I figured it was a new geeky bit of tat that would eventually lose its charm and fade away. I eventually (thankfully) bought in to it. Perhaps the whole idea of MP3s as The Medium now just takes a little getting used to?

yes; it's a new medium - i'm just questioning whether this is the best way to sell it - especially when, as you point out, it's a medium that has been the domain of piracy from the word "go" my honest thought was that i'm more inclined to not pay for something from uw that i'd hitherto be straight into hmv to get my grubby mitts on. if they're talking about concepts about the shape of the music they sell, i'm talking concepts of how i approach it - and without something sitting at home, i'm more inclined to rely on my copy. that's how the experiment affects me, somebody who's very up for buying uw product.

[BeautifulBurnout]

I wasn't for a minute casting aspersions on people who download music. That's a personal choice too.

And very true - as a medium it is a pirate's dream (me hearties ). But wasnt the same true of the first cassette recorders? Jeez, when I was a teenager my saturday job money would pay for an album a week and a few cokes at the Youth Club disco if I was lucky. So everyone taped everyone elses records, and the ones we really really loved we bought with our hard-earned slave-wage cash.

In that respect I don't think much has changed other than the wider availability through P2P applications. In other words, you don't need to ask all your classmates who has got the album now. But other than that, nothing much has changed in my view.

[//\/\/]

my point is, that in the dayes of tape, you still had the option, eventually, to go out and buy the record - and you'd make sure you had the record, as you've said. a tape wasn't the same. with p2p, you had the option to go out and buy the cd - i only use p2p if i've got the cd, or the track isn't released. even then, the burned cd is lacking as a physical thing. with these releases, there's no extra option, you end up with the same thing, paid-for or not.

[jose m]

" fuck off" only trying to help,you sounded so upset? underworld let you down the bastards ! i know how it feels to be let down by them also,i'm on your side.

[//\/\/]

sounded mighty sarcy to me - but i've been up since 5.30...

i'm not upset about uw, and i don't feel like i've been let down in any way. i was just reflecting on how and why this way of releasing things has made me less inclined to buy the music. if this is a commercial experiment, then i see people like me as being a negative side of it for the reasons i've outlined. as a consumer, i just find the concept well-meaning, but also flawed...

(if i was pissed-off with them then i'd keep schtum and pirate the lot of it...)

[jose m]

agreed,english isn't my first language so i get a bit confused with grammer?