It's why I support sites like iTunes Music Store so much. You can listen to a good sized piece of the music, and you can buy one track at a time. So far it seems to be the best option.
It is the best option I have seen. Just not one that leads me to buying a lot of entire albums. I mostly use it to fill out music that I already know I like. Their snippets aren't really enough for me to decide if I like a whole album (wow, old... albums...). I don't know the tech of it at all but if they could find a way to let me download an album freely and play it for a couple of days before it self-destructs or I pay up, golden.
I loved Napster when it was out and used it to audition a lot of music and then either went out and purchased or deleted the tracks.
When it started, I downloaded like crazy. And started spending like crazy too. Alas, no interesting and useful technology goes unpunished.
OTOH, anyone finds me Peter Godwin's Images of Heaven without having to spend $50 for just the one damn song...
Apparently I have standards, but only to a certain price.
I know I usually downloaded things I would otherwise have purchased, and usually later did, but couldn't find in the small hours. Sometimes, I downloaded things I already owned, but had misplaced.
And, fine, a lot of live bootlegs of Tori Amos and Depeche Mode.
These days, I'm mostly iTuning it.
I spend a lot of money on iTunes. I adore it for the ability to grab one off tracks.
Oh yes, it is of the good. Though I have a fauxPod, so I'm spending my money on fauxTunes. And, Dell offers such a service, which is compatible with my fauxPod, but they don't offer it in Australia and I can't buy from their American site now I no longer have a US-addressed credit card. So I use an Australian site, and my fauxPod only recognises the title and not the artist. Bad fauxPod, no biscuit.
Oh, I can't sustain that, I loves my fauxPod. Don't know how I got on without it. ND! Have you bought Aperitif For Destruction yet?
More Lily pictures. We've been slacking this month.
[link]
She's gotten SO much bigger since I was there. Still painfully cute though.
Nowadays, the only music I download without paying for is either free to begin with or impossible to purchase at any price (eg: mashups).
I'm not actually going to buy something until I have heard enough to increase the liklihood that I will also actually enjoy it. It's why I really don't buy a lot of music now. The owners of the intellectual property no doubt don't care, but they would make a whole lot more money off of me if I could take their intellects for a test drive first.
As the copyright "expert" at my library, I'm pretty anal about this, but there is a good argument that downloading an entire song to determine whether or not you want to buy it is fair use, as long as you either buy or delete afterwards. Copyright holders should be treated fairly. But fair use is there for a reason, and should be used but not abused in order to avoid losing it altogether.
getting off my soapbox now.
but there is a good argument that downloading an entire song to determine whether or not you want to buy it is fair use, as long as you either buy or delete afterwards.
I potentially have actual law on my side of this rant? Huh. I feel all rightous. Thanks for the info, lib.
iTunes should really find a way to let me download a song for a couple of days before I have to shell the cash or it self-destructs. How do I know if I like something until I have commuted with it once or twice?
Ima go microwave the grain-filled thing and try to get some sleep now.
