I've been pondering this question for awhile. I own CD's but why do the record companies not want it electronically. I don't trade them. I want to have my music collection available on my computer. Why do some places offer you free streams of the CD when you preorder it?? And if I take those streams and record them, is it illegal?? I have a feeling that it is. The most obvious is that I haven't paid for it YET. I stress the yet part because I have placed an order (let's consider it a contract) but the store will not deliver the physical CD until later in May. I have no intentions of cancelling the order. Some people may figure that they have the contents of the CD so why pay for it, but I realize that these people make a living on their music and should get paid. I think that is the problem with most people who are trading music illegally online. One example is someone I worked on a project with. He was that I have a RioVolt and asked how much music of it was my own. I told him that all the music on the MP3 CD were cd's that I own. (I must confess, there are maybe 6 or 7 cds that I haven't paid for). He was amazed and stopped short of calling me stupid for paying for CD's when I can download them. He went on to say that 90% of the music he listens to was downloaded. His rationale for this was that it was underground hip hop so it didn't matter. I didn't point out that the small labels and underground acts are the ones who are losing out on the illegal music. These artists who may only sell a handful of discs will be hurt by just 1 person not buying a CD, 1 CD to a small label has a larger affect than 1 CD on a large label. That's just what I think. I think the record industry needs to look at what the people want. People do not want to rent their music (in the case of some online music sites), you pay a fee to be able to download music, but the minute you cancel your subscription you can no longer listen to the music you downloaded. I want an electronic version of a CD. I want to be able to use it where and when I please.
Sorry. This has all come up because I ordered the new Moby album, 18, from Amazon.com. When you placed the order for the album they allow you to stream the entire CD. I found a program called TotalRecorder that allows you to record any sound your computer plays. One night I started the album stream and turned on the recorder. An hour and ten minutes laters I have an MP3 of the album. The only problem is that it is one single MP3 that is an hour and ten minutes long. This is where another program steps in MP3DirectCut. I listened to the long MP3 once and wrote down at what times the tracks changed, went into MP3DirectCut typed in the times and saved the files. I burned it to CDRW, so I have enjoyed the new Moby CD for the past couple days. Is what I did illegal?? I'm guessing yes.
