2398  more about free mp3s

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 23:07:57 -0700
From: Derald Boyden <deraldboyden@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: more about free mp3s

If you have never dubbed a tape, copied a CD, recorded a movie (which in
fact is all very legal, as long as it s for your private use) or wondered
how to capture mp3s on the Internet, then please do not read any further. I
do not want to annoy or corrupt any righteous, morally upstanding and
outstanding citizens who have given all the right reasons to NOT get free
mp3s from the Internet.
If on the other side, you think that you are not condemning poor artists and
barely surviving record labels to starvation, (what in deed happened at the
onset of the industrial revolution to100 thousands of weavers because of the
invention of the mechanized loom) but just cannot resist the urge to
occasionally capture a recording over the Internet that you like, here are
a couple of facts:

Fact # 1: If you can hear it on the Internet, it is possible to capture it.
Fact # 2: If you can watch it on the Internet, you can also capture it.

I m on a Mac, and I m using software that s called Hijack, and that s
exactly what it does, it hijacks everything that is played with RealAudio,
Windows Media Player, or Quicktime. I rarely use it to capture Tango songs
though, just because it s time consuming and a nuisance to open up the web
page, start the application, wait till the song finishes, stop the
application, look for the copied song on my hard drive, switch to the music
library application , write down all the information, and make sure you ll
find it again in the big vault that is called iTunes library folder in my
case. And if you want to turn it into an audio CD, you have to change the
file format again with a different application, collect all the songs and
then you can finally burn it - and hopefully during this process no file has
become corrupted because then you got to toss the CD away and start again...
You get the picture - not worth my time. I do use it though to capture hour
long shows like NPR s Fresh Air, or anything that s archived on the Internet
that I find of interest, or capture hours of life radio programs from all
over the world while I m doing something else. I then download it to my mp3
player and listen to it when I m in a traffic jam, jog or got to drive
another 300 miles...It frees me from having to listen to the crap on main
stream media and I choose when and what I want to hear. It makes no sense
whatsoever for me anymore to burn CDs - if I can carry around literally a
week s time worth of recordings (books, music, comedy etc) on a credit card
sized device, why waste any more precious natural resources necessary to
produce CDs, wrapping plastic, fuel to mail and ship it etc.
I have designed about 100 CD covers professionally for a recording company
- if you are paying more than a couple of dollars (including the design) for
even a limited production of 1000 CDs, then your company is doing something
wrong. You can do the math yourself and figure out, how much companies
earn that produce 100 000 and more CDs. Quite frankly, I m more concerned
that a company like Clear Channel already owns 1200 radio stations in the US
and the resulting manipulation of public opinion, than making an occasional
copy of a 50 year old tango recording.
As a bloody beginner in this dance I took a class a little while back from a
professional B.A. teacher whose name is known to everyone on this list. At
the end of the private she offered to sell a must have CD, which would help
me progress immensely - being this bloody beginner I did buy it. Well, it
was obviously home made, the worst sound quality one could expect and I bet
she did not get permission from any of the original artist s record
companies to do this.

Derald