> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 15 January 2004 10:36 > > Was just wondering if anyone had used this service of warp's? > (the one where you can download a track for 99p or whatever) > > I was just wondering why anyone would? > > I mean it's just as easy to download from a peer to peer > right, and it's free.
I don't think it's as easy to be honest. If I want to own "Spanners" by the Black Dog, and start looking around on Soulseek, it's highly unlikely that I'll find someone who a) has the whole album shared, b) that I can download from (you can't d/l from everyone on Soulseek or Kazaa - only people who share your "node" or whatever) and c) that has upload slots free for me to use. What you end up with instead is a random bunch of bits from Spanners, some bits recorded from vinyl, some ripped to CD, all at different bitrates, with a lot of tracks missing, etc etc. If you make the effort over a few weeks, of course, then you'll eventually be able to piece together the entire album. OTOH you can pay Warp seven quid and then the whole thing is yours in an hour or so (based on how fast your net connection is, of course). It does make sense to me, because I think enough people will want to get certain Warp material quickly and without hassle to make it a worthwhile service for Warp to provide (this is, of course, ignoring the whole moral component of contributing financially to the music-maker, which is a meaningful one to me but I appreciate that many people are unconcerned by this). However, if you don't want to pay Warp money (or if you can't afford to pay Warp money), and you have the time on your hands, you can still scour the P2P networks and get what you want. So I think there's room in the world for both P2P and the sort of thing Warp's doing. If I wanted LFO - LFO, I probably wouldn't buy it from Warp because it'd be bloody easy to find on P2P, but if I wanted something less well-known - say, "Election" by The Horn - the convenience of just being able to get it from Warp for a quid would win out over spending an annoying few hours/days/weeks swearing at failed downloads and "remote file errors" before ending up with an mp3 that someone ripped from a mixtape. It goes without saying though that Irdial definitely have the best approach - just chuck all the mp3s out there for free... :) > so, if you were going to spend the money, surely you'd > actually buy a CD, or vinyl or whatever, using soulseek > as a try before you buy? Yeah, but what if I want "The Journey Home" by Drexciya? Or something else that's not easy to find on vinyl or CD? Brendan
