With alternatives like these, who needs File-Sharing?
Samuel Van Eerden
September 20, 2006
Ever since the original Napster, conventional media—like big name record companies and (in the last few years) movie studios—have been under attack. And it’s not just the decline of the “hit” either (as documented in Chris Anderson’s excellent new book “The Long Tail”), but rather, the rise of peer-to-peer file-sharing (defined as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing). The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (http://www.ifpi.org/) reports that only one out of every forty tracks that are downloaded from the internet is purchased legally (that’s 2.5%!). Which is saying a lot, considering that online stores like iTunes and Napster are selling tracks at a record pace en route to shattering last year’s global record of 420 million tracks sold. In fact, if you look at the world’s most popular mp3 player—the iPod—you’ll find that they only contain (on average) between 20 and 25 legally downloaded songs. The rest is what the industry terms as “pirated.”
The music and film industries have done a lot to crack down on p2p file-sharing; suing the folks who download the music, shutting down websites, and forcing big p2p programs like eDonkey, Grokster, and Kazaa to settle in court, often to the tune of many millions. In eDonkey’s case (the latest of the p2p giants to get knocked down), the company had to pay out 30 million dollars, and the RIAA threatens that Limewire (the current most popular file-sharing program) is next.
The issue of piracy is certainly a big one, and the fate of huge powerhouse industries—from music to film—is at stake. The debate about the legitimacy of file-sharing is a hotly contested one, with geeky futurists and trendy magazines like Wired taking the side of (or at least defending) file-sharing. The RIAA and the MPAA, however, is vowing to see this battle out to the bitter end and is threatening anyone and everyone with dire claims to sue them for all they’re worth if they’re caught with files they didn’t pay for.
I won’t get into the debate, because the war is on so many levels—including the moral and political side—and sometimes more complex than people would have you think. (No; the choice isn’t always as cut and dried as ‘I can either download the latest Coldplay single on Limewire or I can buy it off of iTunes . . .’)
Rather, I have a different approach. I claim that file-sharing, at least on the peer-to-peer programs like Limewire and Bearshare—is obsolete. It’s unnecessary, and—in most cases—is far more pain than gain. Despite what the packaging says, the program slapped with a FREE tag (don’t get all googly-eyed now) does have a price. The price often comes in the form of dirty spyware and adware bundled in with the software, so when you download a song, you’re not just getting Billy Joe’s edgy vocals, you’re bringing a whole lot of nasty stuff to your hard drive, too.
Maybe when the original Napster craze peaked in the U.S. in 2001, file-sharing was the best thing since MTV for music geeks, but now—in the internet revolution age, with the emergence of Web 2.0 in our vision—we have alternatives.
Today I want to bring the IN-future of music to your attention; and it isn’t found on the spyware-plagued landscape of p2p programming!
1. Internet Radio Broadcasting
For the music lover who wants to branch out, there is the growing amount of online radio stations like live365.com and shoutcast.com which are mass compendiums for hundreds of music stations spanning every genre you can think of. I use www.radio-locator.com as a search engine to find broadcasts playing a specific genre. Websites like www.somafm.com appeal to the ‘underground’ music fan who likes the raw and more undeveloped sounds of the indie scene.
My favorite is the website www.pandora.com which creates quality, non-stop music stations based on your specifications. Type in ‘The Beatles,’ for example, and Pandora serves up a list of sound-alike artists. Sign up for a free account and the music goes on for forever. With an endless—and growing—amount of songs in their database, Pandora relies on over 400 qualifications FOR EVERY SONG to make sure that when you ask for a song that sounds like “With or Without You” you don’t get 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop.”
A program called Launchcast is Yahoo’s answer to Pandora, and LastFM.com is another qualified alternative with a large following.
2. MP3 search engines
Much like p2p programs, mp3 search engines allow you to find almost any song . . . if you just know where to look. Here’s a hint: don’t use altavista’s audio search feature (in fact, don’t EVER use altavista)! If I’m tired of hearing random tracks on an internet radio station, I just click over to g2p.org, which is a search engine that uses Google to find music files. For more popular songs—if you’re into the top 40 stuff (I’m not)—a site like ‘index of music’ (http://thedesignerslounge.net/music/) will usually have you covered. And if they don’t, there’s always a dozen other sites to check out. CyberWyre (http://www.cwire.org/google-search-tools/) has got a following, though the search tool can be a hassle sometimes, so there are always the sites that have a monstrous database of music hosted. 3PM (http://derek.a.coleman.googlepages.com/3pm.htm) falls into that category, as does sonicx.com. I recommend sticking with search engines, though, as you get a much wider variety of results, and have the ability to pick and choose between songs and get the ones with the best quality. The google look-alike (and sound-alike) tyoogle.com is a great choice.
3. Blog music
Bloggers like to be at the cutting edge of everything, and music is no exception. Several popular websites monitor thousands of blogs for audio links and create search results you wouldn’t find on, say, google’s search engine. The other day I found a cover of U2’s song “With or without you,” as sung by the British trio Keane. An alert blogger had captured the audio off of an England radio station and posted the mp3 to his site, where the ‘hype machine’ (http://hype.non-standard.net/) tracked it down. I doubt the song would have ever been discovered, if not for ‘hype’s’ web crawlers. Another website (which you can only access with a free membership) www.seeqpod.com does virtually the same thing but with a more comfortable interface.
4. Go to the Source!
(Surprise!) Most bands might not like you downloading their music without paying for it, but they’re happy to have you listen to their songs whenever you want on their Myspace or Purevolume.com page. Certainly all the mainstream hits are there en masse, and maybe an artist or two or two million that you’ve never even heard of. A little overwhelming isn’t it?
That’s the internet for you; and I haven’t even touched on youtube—the largest, most comprehensive video database on the internet. Think there are a lot of music videos and live performances on there? Oh yeah . . .
But half the fun is exploring, and I’ve only just begun to open the door. There are a world of alternatives to file-sharing out there; many of them safer, better, and—amazingly—legal.
So the next time you start up Limewire or Bearshare, why not direct your web browser to www.g2p.org, instead. You’ll be amazed at what you can find!
The music and film industries have done a lot to crack down on p2p file-sharing; suing the folks who download the music, shutting down websites, and forcing big p2p programs like eDonkey, Grokster, and Kazaa to settle in court, often to the tune of many millions. In eDonkey’s case (the latest of the p2p giants to get knocked down), the company had to pay out 30 million dollars, and the RIAA threatens that Limewire (the current most popular file-sharing program) is next.
The issue of piracy is certainly a big one, and the fate of huge powerhouse industries—from music to film—is at stake. The debate about the legitimacy of file-sharing is a hotly contested one, with geeky futurists and trendy magazines like Wired taking the side of (or at least defending) file-sharing. The RIAA and the MPAA, however, is vowing to see this battle out to the bitter end and is threatening anyone and everyone with dire claims to sue them for all they’re worth if they’re caught with files they didn’t pay for.
I won’t get into the debate, because the war is on so many levels—including the moral and political side—and sometimes more complex than people would have you think. (No; the choice isn’t always as cut and dried as ‘I can either download the latest Coldplay single on Limewire or I can buy it off of iTunes . . .’)
Rather, I have a different approach. I claim that file-sharing, at least on the peer-to-peer programs like Limewire and Bearshare—is obsolete. It’s unnecessary, and—in most cases—is far more pain than gain. Despite what the packaging says, the program slapped with a FREE tag (don’t get all googly-eyed now) does have a price. The price often comes in the form of dirty spyware and adware bundled in with the software, so when you download a song, you’re not just getting Billy Joe’s edgy vocals, you’re bringing a whole lot of nasty stuff to your hard drive, too.
Maybe when the original Napster craze peaked in the U.S. in 2001, file-sharing was the best thing since MTV for music geeks, but now—in the internet revolution age, with the emergence of Web 2.0 in our vision—we have alternatives.
Today I want to bring the IN-future of music to your attention; and it isn’t found on the spyware-plagued landscape of p2p programming!
1. Internet Radio Broadcasting
For the music lover who wants to branch out, there is the growing amount of online radio stations like live365.com and shoutcast.com which are mass compendiums for hundreds of music stations spanning every genre you can think of. I use www.radio-locator.com as a search engine to find broadcasts playing a specific genre. Websites like www.somafm.com appeal to the ‘underground’ music fan who likes the raw and more undeveloped sounds of the indie scene.
My favorite is the website www.pandora.com which creates quality, non-stop music stations based on your specifications. Type in ‘The Beatles,’ for example, and Pandora serves up a list of sound-alike artists. Sign up for a free account and the music goes on for forever. With an endless—and growing—amount of songs in their database, Pandora relies on over 400 qualifications FOR EVERY SONG to make sure that when you ask for a song that sounds like “With or Without You” you don’t get 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop.”
A program called Launchcast is Yahoo’s answer to Pandora, and LastFM.com is another qualified alternative with a large following.
2. MP3 search engines
Much like p2p programs, mp3 search engines allow you to find almost any song . . . if you just know where to look. Here’s a hint: don’t use altavista’s audio search feature (in fact, don’t EVER use altavista)! If I’m tired of hearing random tracks on an internet radio station, I just click over to g2p.org, which is a search engine that uses Google to find music files. For more popular songs—if you’re into the top 40 stuff (I’m not)—a site like ‘index of music’ (http://thedesignerslounge.net/music/) will usually have you covered. And if they don’t, there’s always a dozen other sites to check out. CyberWyre (http://www.cwire.org/google-search-tools/) has got a following, though the search tool can be a hassle sometimes, so there are always the sites that have a monstrous database of music hosted. 3PM (http://derek.a.coleman.googlepages.com/3pm.htm) falls into that category, as does sonicx.com. I recommend sticking with search engines, though, as you get a much wider variety of results, and have the ability to pick and choose between songs and get the ones with the best quality. The google look-alike (and sound-alike) tyoogle.com is a great choice.
3. Blog music
Bloggers like to be at the cutting edge of everything, and music is no exception. Several popular websites monitor thousands of blogs for audio links and create search results you wouldn’t find on, say, google’s search engine. The other day I found a cover of U2’s song “With or without you,” as sung by the British trio Keane. An alert blogger had captured the audio off of an England radio station and posted the mp3 to his site, where the ‘hype machine’ (http://hype.non-standard.net/) tracked it down. I doubt the song would have ever been discovered, if not for ‘hype’s’ web crawlers. Another website (which you can only access with a free membership) www.seeqpod.com does virtually the same thing but with a more comfortable interface.
4. Go to the Source!
(Surprise!) Most bands might not like you downloading their music without paying for it, but they’re happy to have you listen to their songs whenever you want on their Myspace or Purevolume.com page. Certainly all the mainstream hits are there en masse, and maybe an artist or two or two million that you’ve never even heard of. A little overwhelming isn’t it?
That’s the internet for you; and I haven’t even touched on youtube—the largest, most comprehensive video database on the internet. Think there are a lot of music videos and live performances on there? Oh yeah . . .
But half the fun is exploring, and I’ve only just begun to open the door. There are a world of alternatives to file-sharing out there; many of them safer, better, and—amazingly—legal.
So the next time you start up Limewire or Bearshare, why not direct your web browser to www.g2p.org, instead. You’ll be amazed at what you can find!
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