How do you get your music?

31 risposte [Ultimo contenuto]
quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

I thought about this topic some weeks ago and now with the appearance of the movie-thread I thought it's a good moment for asking this similar question.

Though it might not be the worst decision to disobey the law and use file-sharing services, I really ask for legal ways.

At the moment, I consider downloading from youtube as the best way whenever it's possible.
In germany, this is not explicitly illegal, in special cases - the ones where the copyright holders uploaded the videos - quite the contrary: as far as I'm informed, this is a legal process.
The media you got gives you much more rights than a downloaded mp3 file from amazon: you don't have to identify yourself, there is no attached id data in the file, and you can use free formats without having to convert mp3 to ogg at first.

disadvantage: there's no easy way to donate to the artist and appreciate his work.

Concerning CDs, I might be misinformed, but I think in my country it's illegal to rip CDs you bought in the store.
I don't want to spend a lot of money, contribute to nameless music labels which only do bad and harm to the situation and after all I get criminalized for using the media I bought.
So I think this is no good solution.

Telstar
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Iscritto: 08/17/2011

I've downloaded my music from Jamendo or ccmixter and the records I get from the local record store. I've got just about 50 vinyls and almost 20 CD's. I don't care about the amount, why would I even want to own crappy music in the first place?

I have my vinyls as FLAC's on the computer, but I don't distribute them. I lend the actual record if someone wants to listen .. and those record I don't ever want to be mistreated, I invite a friend over to listen them.

jxself
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Iscritto: 09/13/2010

I buy my music used, on CD, from the local music store. It's run by these two nice guys a few blocks away from my home. It seems that most online places have it availble only as MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, or "MP3" for short. Jamendo is probably an exception but I still criticize them for not making the Vorbis options more available. By getting it on CD I don't have to worry about DRM, or even watermarks, or anything, and I can encode it into whatever format and bitrate I want.

lembas
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Iscritto: 05/13/2010

I really like https://www.jamendo.com/en/ ,the totem media player has a handy plugin for Jamendo.

In Finland we have a private copying levy system in which we may borrow a CD from e.g. a library and copy it, unless doing so would require breaking digital handcuffs. (aka digital restrictions management DRM)

Dave_Hunt

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Iscritto: 09/19/2011

Most of the music in this box is ripped from my cd collection; the rest
is from friends and sharing sites. I haven't visited one of those sites
in over a year; now, I'm scared to;; lol. I stream far more than I
download. I recently discovered jamendo, thanks to a plugin on the
exaile music player.

jamathis

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Iscritto: 04/25/2013

Buying used CDs and ripping them to FLAC and the options available in Clementine (i.e. Magnatune, Jamendo, etc.), and Bandcamp. I also buy directly from the artist a lot of times either through their website or at shows.

roboq6
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Iscritto: 05/03/2013

I downloading AMV(Anime Music Video) and trailesrs.

andermetalsh
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Iscritto: 01/04/2013

I listen to Magnatune, www.jamendo.com and libre.fm songs mainly :) Also some metal and rock "mainstram" and pretty known bands like Iron Maiden or Slayer, but I've heard them so many times I was amazed when I found NEW bands...

The libre universe made of Trisquel, GNU/FSF, GNU/Linux, Jamendo(Not fully free for commercial use, but they deserve a lot of money, they earned it) , Magnatune, Archive.org+Miro, some libre games like Nethack, Freedink, Lincity-ng, Supertux...) and specially, THIS: http://libreprojects.net/#favs=owncloud,openstreetmap,jamendo,cloud9,plos
amazed me.

bluejupiter
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Iscritto: 02/12/2011

I'm so glad you posted that link andermetalsh!! I've been looking for that for a year now! Sounds like good info too. I love Magnatune!

quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

Thank you all for recommending jamendo.
I didn't knew it yet and I love it!
Especially because I ever dreamed of making a short film with some friends it's great so many available songs for this purpose; only few of the tracks on jamendo contain a no-derivative licence.

quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

One question about jamendo:
I would like to make a donation to the artists; what is the easiest way to do so?
I don't see any easy-to-use contrib system, which is, actually, a shame..

JoyChaney
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Iscritto: 07/23/2013

In my case, I just download my music from YouTube itself. I just use www.flvto.com to convert those videos into a mp3 file format. So far, I have no issues on the conversion and the music quality is also good. I do agree that music from amazon are more likely to have future problems especially on copyrights.

quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

I think online converter tools like flvto.com are services which rms calls "service as a software substitute":
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html

Since you don't identify yourself on www.flvto.com, I think it's not a great problem using it.
But you can do the same thing easily yourself with two tools: youtube-dl and avconv.
It's in the trisquel repos.
Just type:
youtube-dl -f 35 your_youtube_video_link_here

The number "35" means that youtube-dl will search for the high quality version of the video.

You'll obtain a .flv file.
Now you can convert it to .mp3 :
avconv -i your_flv_file.flv -b 128k output_filename.mp3

I know online services which make our computing are pretty convenient, but I think it's good for us users to keep as much control as possible in our own hands.
So let's better use a free program on our own pc to do the job than some service on a foreign server.

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Iscritto: 07/24/2010

Many solution to play Flash videos allow to download them (a natural feature): ViewTube (a GreaseMonkey script), UnPlug, etc.

There are many solutions to extract the audio from a video. For instance, to get a .wav with 'mplayer':
$ mplayer -novideo -ao pcm path/to/video

But there are very user-friendly solutions too! SoundConverter is one of them. Just drag and drop any file (sound or video), click the "Convert" button and get any sound format you want at the output.

GNUser
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Iscritto: 07/17/2013

I don't want to sound "preachy" but just as a side note, the fact that a music is in youtube does not mean it's "free". Actually, sometimes youtube is forced to delete some videos because they have a non authorized soundtrack and someone noticed it.
If possible, for your own protection, just listen to the music while playing it in youtube, that way you are not really "keeping the file".
As for the site you mention, you identify yourself through your IP address, so that could be a problem if laws like PIPA, SOPA, and others even worse, came to pass.

As a suggestion, try spending some time on these websites, you might acutally find musics that you like, and artists that you identify yourself with.

www.libre.fm
www.freemusicarchive.org
www.jamendo.com

All these websites are TRULY respectful of copyrights and musicians as the creators of the music. You can have great songs, high quality audio, free licenses, and you can download them directly which is better than converting youtube.
Also, you can promote and support the artist himself, since he is the one giving you his content.

Hope it helped you in some way.
If you want, you can also have lots of free movies, without worrying about copyrights. Have a look around the forum, and if you can't find the comments where we discussed it, feel free to message me and I will give you links to free movies (as TRULY free, not "free illegal download) that suit your tastes.

BlinkingArrow

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Iscritto: 12/27/2011

Someone already mentioned this. The laws aren't the same in all countries.

Cyberhawk

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Iscritto: 07/27/2010

I usually buy music and don't download it. Music can be had very cheap if you only go for used CDs and LPs (which I mostly do, my favorite music is almost always a decade or more old).

There is one main problem with music downloaded from youtube. The quality is relatively low, at least for my expectations. .mp3 and .ogg can sound very good, if what you get is the first generation encoding from a CD. But this would either mean you download from some website that uses DRM, or you use the illegal file sharing. We all know how much sense it makes to make sharing illegal...

Downloading from youtube, in a lot of cases, means the file has undergone threefold encoding: 1. Rip the CD into an .mp3 file, 2. Put the music into a video and render it as, say, .mpeg (the audio track might get encoded again! Even though it already is lossy), 3. Upload it to youtube (more encoding and in some cases conversion is done on youtube's side).

If you find you can't hear a (relevant) difference, downloading from youtube is probably the easiest way to get music.

There are several channels on youtube, where people upload rips of vinyl records. In many cases they only encode the file once, during the video rendering step and put the video in a format that is native for youtube (thus no further encoding is done once the file is uploaded). These channels usually have a MUCH higher audio quality than anything else on youtube, easily audible difference with even relatively cheap headphones.

GNUser
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Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Well, as I have stated in another post, I don't support the "illegal sharing"/piracy of any kind of product. There are many wrong laws, and they should of course be changed, but attacking and disrespecting the laws that still protect people is not the best way.

One interesting story happened to me...
My ISP has as service that allows us to listen and download music legally for free. I used to use that for listening in the car and all.... BUt one day I asked the ISP "if I am accused of illegal downloading a music, how do I prove it was downloaded through your legal service?"
The person who was answering was a total idiot and said "you don't need to, as you can read in our service terms, our musics have no copyright!" -.- -.- -.-
IDIOT! Of course a music from Linkin Park or LotR Soundtrack has copyright! I just need a recipe or somehting that proves I downloaded the mp3 file through your service!
Well, they coulnd't help me, the ISP really doesn't know shit about what they are doing and I gave up. Also, I realised that by using their service, I was allowing them to know exactly what musics I like and don't. So I stopped using it.
Now usually in the car I just turn the radio on, lol.

However, to answer your question, I usually use VEVO youtube channels to listen to music (they are uploaded by the copyrights holders) and also I sometimes go and listen to amateur bands or new artists who put their music on their websites for free, trying to promote themselves.
I don't really listen to a lot of music, to be honest, so I can't really help a lot.... But you have this website

http://freemusicarchive.org/

it actually has a lot of musical content, and they are very respectful of copyrights, they have a lot of CC music and they work with radio stations and all.... Cool stuff. There were others but I forgot their names :S

Anyway, nowadays, you can buy any music you want for a few cents online, and amazon actually offers some free legal downloads for people. It's all a matter of whether you want just a free download or something more.

islander
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Iscritto: 05/27/2013

I support indie musicians by purchasing their CDs in bulk to give to friends and radio stations. Recently began listening to Libre FM and have discovered many excellent new (to me) musicians!
http://libre.fm/listen.php

quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

Unfortunately, the page doesn't load.
Perhaps librejs causes a problem.
Does the site require non free javascript?

megurineturilli
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Iscritto: 01/10/2012

Libre.fm uses JavaScript, but LibreJS does not recognize that the javascript is free. I also use Libre.fm.

I download my music from sites that are recommended by DefectiveByDesign.org such as Jamendo and CD Baby. CD Baby offers FLAC and MP3, so I prefer using FLAC. Then I transcode the FLAC files to Ogg Vorbis. Sometimes I listen to Jonathan Coulton, Nils Gey, and Sirgazil.

I also buy CDs, mostly at Anime Conventions. Recently I baught a limited edition of Kentai-P's album DARK;BRIGHT ELATION. As a response to Kentai-P I started writing my own songs, and publishing them on my own MediaGoblin instance: http://isengaara.de/.

GNUser
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Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Dude... I almost cry right now.... Your comment is.... an inspiration. I don't know what are your thoughts on "piracy" and "sharing" and all of that... But when I read you comment, I saw the kind of world I want to live in!
You listen to good music, which is shared by the creators themselves, who you support as you can, you have both quality and freedom with the file formats you choose (FLAC and OGG), and you create your own content which you make available using open standards. ASTONISHING!

Now someone please tell me.... would this be possible if he would instead go to some lame mp3 pirate website download illegal Lady Gaga trash? Nope.

Free licenses, free formats, open standards, creation of new things.... This is what the Free Culture was supposed to be like. This is how we should live. This is community.

hey megurineturilli, are you a girl? Can I invite you to a drink? Do you want to marry me? :P
kidding, but your comment was an inspiration for me. Thanks.

Cyberhawk

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Iscritto: 07/27/2010

I wonder if you ever heard about NixiePixel.

GNUser
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Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Nope, never heard of. Who/what is he/she/it?

ADFENO
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Iscritto: 12/31/2012

NixiePixel is the nickname of a lady (respectful meaning) which is quite popular in the open source software and in the shared culture scenarios. She has an official site [1].

Some people say that she is also popular in the free software and culture scenarios but, as far as I know, not always.

GNUser and megurineturilli, I also like Libre.fm, it's my first source of random selections of musics when I have no other musicians to look at on sites like Jamendo.com, Archive.org, FreeMusicArchive.org, and Bandcamp.com.

I've heard about other sites like Dogmazic.net (which is under maintenance) and many others, but I still need to find some good music on them.

Megurineturilli, I also love the Japanese culture, in some aspects. Regarding your MediaGoblin instance, I visited it quickly and I couldn't resist but to check out the project you mentioned in the image/article named "Open Source Miku".

I haven't tested Lauloid yet, because I'm not good as a musician, but I think that, if the developers of Lauloid try to make it free software-compliant (if they haven't yet), then they could send it to the Free Software Directory, so it could be evaluated, and considered as free software.

Addendum: The Free Software Directory does have an entry for the Lauloid project [2], but its page appears to be empty. With my limited knowledge about the Free Software Directory, I see that Lauloid was approved (because it doesn't have the "Review:" prefix, like "Preview:Lauloid"), but I can be very mistaken, of course.

[1] http://www.nixiepixel.com/
[2] http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Lauloid

Best regards, ADFENO.
Have a nice day.

GNUser
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Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Thank you so much! Very good comment and very informative!
Lol, the funny part is that I had actually watched her a few times on youtube and had NO IDEA who she was xD
Anyway, I wonder... why did Hawk asked me if I had ever heard of her? Lol, she seems to be type of girl who all nerds try to pick and she has probably already gained quite some defenses, so a newbie like me should know better than to mess with her xD
Also, I am not a gamer. :P but I took a look at her website, loved her attitude ;)
Does anyone know if she supports piracy or is against it? Just curious :P :P :P

Anyway, thanks for the reply ADFENO.

ADFENO
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Iscritto: 12/31/2012

You're welcome.

Best regards, ADFENO.
Have a nice day.

sec
sec
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Iscritto: 10/14/2012

As I wrote in another thread, Bandcamp.com is great for fans of free culture

- all downloads available in FLAC and Ogg as well as mp3 etc
- you can listen before you buy
- artists can now choose Creative Commons instead of All Rights Reserved
- it supports a "name your price" (a.k.a. "pay-what-you-want") business model, which many artists are embracing ... as well as the more usual free-download or minimum-price models
- it just makes it very easy to give money to artists. Unfortunately this still depends on PayPal, but hopefully we will have a convenient free alternative online payment system soon (Ripple?)

For getting music, I've heard good things about what.cd, but if you want to support artists too (actually making the corrupt record industry obsolete, rather than just undermining it) Bandcamp is the way forward.

(But, as I wrote on the other thread, Bandcamp listening doesn't seem to work on Abrowser, so use Midori for now...)

megurineturilli
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Iscritto: 01/10/2012

Please don't use the word "piracy" http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy , I do not attack ships.

In the case of "sharing" I quote Richard Stallman >> sharing means noncommercial redistribiution of exact copies << http://stallman.org/internet-music.html

In the scene of VOCALOID remixes are common: http://alexleavitt.com/vocaloid/
but VOCALOID is nonfree, therefore I started writing a free replacement.

oralfloss
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Iscritto: 06/20/2013

I buy CDs that I like online from whatever online store sells them cheap. Sometimes artists will have their own free downloads and I'll use those. I know buying online is technically SaaSS, but there's usually no other way, considering I can't find a single CD in one of the hundred obscure music stores in Portland.

I'll occasionally torrent a new album that seems good to see if I want to buy it, and then I will if I like it. I rip the CDs right after buying them.

quantumgravity
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Iscritto: 04/22/2013

" I know buying online is technically SaaSS"

I don't think it is SaaSS. There is no program you could install theoretically on your pc which does the job.
Buying online is just transmitting your information to the shop owner.
Maybe you are concerned with privacy issues and don't like to identify yourself? That's indeed true.

shokin
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Iscritto: 03/01/2013

I download from YouTube (and some others websites like this) with ViewTube, but also with peer-to-peer.

When I buy a music disc, I can rip it.