Maybe I am. ... but seriously, taking one point out of my whole post doesn't justify what you originally said, which was basically that LP are hypocrites if they were to not support illegal downloading now, which I don't agree with. As for me saying "as it's intended", could relate to a number of things, and not just exactly how you "listen" to it. The method of intent could mean waiting until release day to experience it, whether that's through CD or a paid service like iTunes. Downloading leaked versions often hinder the quality (in most cases, unless you wait for a CD / FLAC rip), and besides this you don't get the experience of holding the hard copy and looking at the effort and hard work put into the artwork etc, which a lot of the time nowadays, you even get that electronically if you buy through iTunes. Sure they're just songs, but with an artist of LP's standards, I already know I like them and will always support them if I have the chance.
word. and honestly... i love holding a real cd in my hands and looking through the booklet... reading the lyrics while listening to the music for the first time... THAT'S music experience!
All true, but who are you going to blame for piracy? Technology? It's like telling people in YouTube, "heeeey, don't post videos". Unfortunately, piracy is a world wide issue, not just here in USA or myself & even though I do appreciate art and music, we are not in the 18th Century anymore. Shit, for all we know, the whole internet is filled with piracy (illegal downloads of songs, movies, tv shows, even essays).
I know exactly what Joe is saying. A lot of early leaks or rips are of a very low quality, and often hinder the experience of listening to the song for the first time. A good example is Eminem's recent "Recovery" album. When that album leaked a few weeks prior to release, the rips that came out were very low quality and as a result I didn't enjoy the album on the first listen because the sound was muddled and I couldn't make out what Eminem was saying. Unless it's FLAC you're ALWAYS going to miss something in the music. An Mp3 is a compressed audio file, meaning that some quality was lost in the encoding. This quality can be enough to mask hidden nuances in the sound, or very light samples in the music that you would only hear if you bought the CD or had it in flac. So Joe's exactly right. If it aint the CD or FLAC, you aren't hearing it right. And seeing as 90% of modern leaks are never flac...leaks ruin the album and prevent them from being heard the way they should be. You don't have to be an label exec to know mp3s are shit.
as i'm reading this thread, i realize how damn complex this issue is... i could agree with all of you. but actually some of the opinions would be contradictions, if i put them into one post. fact is: nobody will ever be able to stop all piracy going on in the world... otherwise, we'd be all living in jail.
It helps and hinders all in one go. Music will reach people that would never get it other wise, and in turn you will get more fans. On the flip side you lose revenue and don't have an accurate representation of the public opinion. If only a medium could be found.
At the end of the day it is that simple. My analogy on this argument is this: If you walk through a hall of paintings with an option of buying whichever ones you want, you're not going to buy the paintings you don't like or the ones you think are just okay. You're going to buy the ones that move you and the pictures that make you think and feel good emotions. But when it comes down to it, that doesn't necessarily mean that the artists of each painting didn't put in equal effort.
I download all my music, only buy records from bands that are DIY as fuck. Only download FLAC nowadays, and I don't care about album art, so I'm not losing anything. If I'm into a band enough I'll go see them when they play here, and buy a tshirt if they have cool designs. The fact is, even if I couldn't download all this music, I wouldn't buy much music anyway. So no one's losing anything.
I download music, and if the music I download is great - then I will go out a buy the album even if I already have a good quality downloaded on my computer.
If I REALLY want to support an artist, I'll put money down where it will actually make a difference: merch and tickets to concerts. Here's a CD. It costs 20 dollars. Money from the CD goes to executives, producers, promotional teams, the manufacturer, and a billion in between people. How much does an artist get from one CD? A dollar. Maybe two. If that. If I go to a concert held by said band, they get significantly more. And Derek, I don't know where you get your music, but I ONLY get my music in FLAC. Always have for the past 2-3 years. And if it is mp3, it's pretty damn clear. I don't know what leaks YOU'RE listening to, but damn. Wait it out of the quality is THAT bad.
Yeah, MP3s are high quality compression, I think it would be interesting to see how many people out of a thousand or so could tell the difference between a 320kb/sec MP3 and a FLAC file. Also, wasn't the "download that shit" comment in reference to Hybrid Theory when it was already 3 or so years old and they were promoting Meteora? My memory is fuzzy, but I thought that was the timeframe. I am almost certain they were in the least already on a major label. From what I recall Mike said he disliked when a new CD (especially if unfinished) was leaked out after they put so much work into it. Not sure if that is really contradictory to his statement about how if something has already been out for years and you are a recent fan to download some of the back catalog.
Haha, I know that wasn't directed at me but I'm hardly rich as it is and I still try to pay for music where I can. I thought it was supposed to be in reference to a rarer song that wasn't actually on any of their albums. So, assuming I've got it right, if someone uses it to say that Linkin Park are pro-piracy they are basically quote mining.
I seen, it's probably been 7 years or so since I heard it on Much Music so my memory could easily be failing .