Dave,
Interesting point you make as it weighs heavily on my mind too. I use
Napster, and for very good reason! Being based over in South Africa, where
we have a very small aj/funk/drum 'n bass scene, I seldom get the
opportunity to purchase the music that I have been accustomed to buying
during the 4 years I spent living in London.
There is little care for the promotion of our music over here as the mass
market is more into cheesy commercial house or modern/grunge rock. My
musical survival depends on lists such as this to keep me informed and I
would say that 80% of the music discussed on this list is not readily
available over here. I can't just walk into a store and buy on a
recommendation. I would have to order it over the counter wait about 4
weeks and pay a heavy import charge.
Napster allows me to preview the tracks I like and then more often than not,
purchase the 12" or ablum online from the UK. I too believe that as a vinyl
DJ, I am getting exposure to that particular artist and would purchase vinyl
by that artist in the future. When I do play the vinyl out I like to think
that the track I picked up off the AJ list, downloaded from Napster, digged
on it, ordered it online, played it out, got people in Cape Town, South
Africa shaking some ass and talking about it, is going to lead to further
exposure of that artist in a country that they never even knew their tunes
were going down in!
My South African 2c.
Simon
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Haynes [mailto:gvcontact@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 11:57 AM
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Napster
I was wondering what everybody's views were on Napster. I have been using it
for several months. I fell a bit guilty about it because I know I'm ripping
off other people copyright. It is so useful though. If someone mentions a
tune on the list that I haven't checked out, I can just pop onto Napster,
download it and give it a listen. Then I can also see what else that artist
has done. Although not everything is on there especially vinyl only releases
- I can get most of the stuf that I want.
The thing is though that lots of people are vehemntly against this. But from
my own personal experience Napster allows me to preview tracks I may never
have heard of. I may not pay for it then but I'd say about 70% of the time I
then go onto buy the track on vinyl cos I want to play it out. I'll also go
and buy more stuff from that artist which I may never have even been aware
of before.
I'm actually doing a research project on the whole area of digital music and
was wondering what sort of views the acid jazz community had ont the
subject.
How many people are using? How many are against?
How many artists on this list mind that there stuff could be getting
downloaded without royalties being paid?
Any thoughts?
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