My first music purchase online

edited March 2008 in Music Industry 2.0
So OK, I should start out by admitting as far as music goes, I've been a bad boy, I've maybe, possibly aquired music through less than honest channels. I'll try not to excuse myself with the BS arguments pirates usually come up with. I was bad and I did it because it was just so easy to do it.

Something changed when I caught JoCo on a podcast talking about his music with the likes of Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont, basically a whole bunch of people that I totally respect and eagerly follow in RSS every day. I liked what JoCo had to say about how people get to his music and decided I'd purchase my first song from the official store.

It didn't hurt at all and somehow this one legally purchased MP3 made me feel that this is really how it should be. You buy music for a reasonable price for artists you admire/enjoy. I will purchase more from now on, I think the time is right to do it and I'm glad I gave up my legal cherry to JoCo.

[20080324: Edited, belatedly, by Bry to fix the thread category]

Comments

  • I think (read: hope) a lot of people who download music from pirate networks intend to do it to try out artists before they buy. I certainly wouldn't want to buy someone's album unless I knew I thought it was good, and to find that out I tend to download first. But I usually do go out and buy it, either as a physical CD or as a download, if I do like it.

    But anyway, congrats on picking a fine first choice to spend your money on ;)
  • BryBry
    edited March 2008
    See, kids? Ninja don't have to be pirates!

    I personally find it easier to give money to JoCo than to other artists -- not only do I like his music more, of course, but also I know he's actually getting most of the proceeds.
  • People actually buy the MP3s?

    CDs > MP3s when it comes to paying for it.

    You can't beat the feeling of looking up at a shelf full of music. Doesn't quite work the same when I look at the two 120GB drives I've got for my music.
  • Let me just get my halo on.

    I'm not personally one for pirating. I even at one point refused to go round to my brother-in-laws regular movie nights as the films were all courtesy of illegal torrents (how "holier than thou" I must have seemed). I have however, on a couple of occasions made use of less than legal methods to "try before I buy". I guess I assuage my concience that I literally do use it as a temporary trial and do pay afterwards, but it's all one and the same really?

    When I got into JoCo I used to listen to all the songs via the website regularly until I thought about it and had pity on his bandwidth costs and such, so I bought most of my favourites. I've since given copies of a few of these to friends (got him at least 3 new fans out of it though) and will pop another donation into JoCo's coffers if I can't persuade these friends to then buy all of the songs.
  • I prefer FLAC to MP3, at least for archival purposes. I can make CDs from FLACs without loss of quality. As for not owning the physical CD, I don't really care. Blanks and jewel cases are cheap.

    My preferred method of "try before you buy" is to watch music videos on YouTube. I've bought several CDs from performers I first heard on YouTube.
  • I support JoCo by purchasing his music, talking about his music (advertising), and purchasing concert tickets. I do this because I value Jonathan's work a great deal.

    Hopefully it's enough to help keep him "in studio" and away from another occupation. : )
  • I have technically pirated his songs, but as soon as I get a functioning PayPal account, I'm paying him every penny, and perhaps a little more. Unfortunately that requires waiting until I have a card which they recognise. *scowl*.
  • my understanding is that recording artists generally get only a very small portion of record sales, whilst the bulk of your cd purchase goes to the producers and the label. i have no particular desire to pay any recording company executive's salary, because i honestly can't see what service they're providing me. in a case like mr coulton here where the money goes straight to him, i'm perfectly willing to buy or donate to compensate the artist who has produced something that has value to me. otherwise, i'm not really interested in engaging with the music industry. the riaa's aggressive prosecution of file transfers is really pretty ridiculous and current copyright laws are outdated and punitive. i feel like it's time for a major paradigm shift in the way music is made and the way musicians make money, if for no other reason than that copyright laws are essentially unenforceable on a previously unprecedented scale.
  • Up until JoCo, I had never paid for music online (I'd paid for most other things I buy online). I did have a great amount of music I never had the CD for (about half my music collection was legally from my CD collection, the rest was not).

    But when I found JoCo's music I downloaded it all, liked it and listened to it so much, I donated, and subscribe financially to TAW, I bought the 2 CDs. I now have the TAW box set, even though I probably paid for it already through subcriptions, and donations.

    But I think the biggest testimate is that I have donated my time to assist JoCo. To me, my time is more valuable than money.
  • I also pirated most of JoCo's music. At the time, I had just been fired and was financially strapped. Since, I've paid for two tickets to go see him, countless downloads of songs that I already own, and have donated through the site. I also constantly upload tracks to my blog for people to download and encourage them to buy his CDs, which a number of them have.
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