h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great entry btw.

I've noticed that Audiogalxy have started to use blocks on certain artists the same way as Napster did. The blocks are fairly bad though. Change the spelling a little and you onto a winner.

Yeah, liked the entry. Seems to me like Audiogalaxy is one of the biggest thingamajigs around at the mo- to my mind the best too. Bit of a shame you can't chat to the people you're downloading off like on Napster, but still... Yeah, the blocks are pretty easy to get around, but I read an article the other day (think it was on Yahoo) which said that Audiogalaxy are also getting taken to court by the record companies, and probably shut down. Shame. Get downloading now.

I reckon that the record companies should have to shell out all their money on sueing each and individual user of these programs- I'm sure they'd soon get bored of it. The progs are only providing the opportunity to share files, if people use it to share copyright stuff then the record companies should have to deal with each individual. Hehe. If they priced the CDs reasonably in the first place then people probably wouldn't bother spending hours downloading albums off the internet.



--Madmaz

Great entry!

Speaking as an original Napster user, I think what Kazaa, AG et al are doing is a very poor imitation. I'd go as far as to say I really hate them in fact, mostly because they allow such rubbish as Gator to come bundled with their software. And as someone who had to pay to get their PC fixed after trying to uninstall Gator (it took half of Windows with it, and as I bought it pre-installed I didn't have the master disk) I feel I know what I'm talking about.

I don't doubt the (il)legality of the Napster operation. On the other hand, I must agree with the previous correspondant about the pricing of CDs - if they were reasonably priced to begin with, we wouldn't go about stealing music.

I'm in total agreement, Napster was a breakthrough in access to new music and I'd say a god send to struggling artists. I have found myself downloading material from new/unheard bands and if impressed I have purchased the CD or if unimpressed have saved myself from buying a "shelf-filler". What is wrong with that?
I admit that the replacements that have appeared are quite poor i.e.
Morpheus and Audiogalaxy. Kazaa is my favourite at the moment even though the amount of failed connections can get more than annoying!

I find Kazaa the most useful and quickest. Clicking the "find more sources" can speed things up considerably. Definitely faster than Audiogalaxy and AG is massively over subscribed so quite often you can't get on at all.

I agree about CD's being overpriced. Also, file sharing can be a good way to promote new bands that aren't signed to a label, so have no other way of distributing their music.

and on that theme.......

I'm in a rock band called minusoneraver. We have our first single available from our website. Anyone can download it. I'd appreciate any feedback.

http://minusoneraver.tripod.com



Lee.

Did anyone download the file?

Yes, I did. I'm listening to it right now, and it is quite nice. Keep it up !