MP3 raers - do they exist?
whatwhat
89 Posts
I`m in school these days, studying to become an archivist, hoping to land a job archiving digital curtural media.
i was wondering, are there rare MP3s? I don`t mean stuff that was originally issued on another format and is hard to find digitally, but stuff that was originally issued digitally and is now hard to find. I`m imagining a scenario like an artist puts up a demo, and then takes it down when they score a record deal, or when the site goes down or something like that.
Got any MP3 grails? What`s the story?
i was wondering, are there rare MP3s? I don`t mean stuff that was originally issued on another format and is hard to find digitally, but stuff that was originally issued digitally and is now hard to find. I`m imagining a scenario like an artist puts up a demo, and then takes it down when they score a record deal, or when the site goes down or something like that.
Got any MP3 grails? What`s the story?
Comments
Bel??m do Par??, in northern Brazil, has the technobrega scene that's all based around sharing mp3s and remixing. Bands see their music as advertising for their shows more than anything else, so they make everything available. Gaby Amarantos, the biggest singer in that scene, posts not just her albums, but also vocals and instrumentals, to be downloaded for free. You can end up with endless versions of some songs, in various DJ mixes, and that stuff is impossible to track down, maybe existing only in a mixtape. No one claims ownership to anything, sometimes because samples haven't been cleared, but usually because all they care about is having the mix out there with the name of the band, DJ or sound system that put it out.
I'm sure there's a lot of rare mp3s that came from bands that set up on myspace or something and then took it down later, but there's also a lot of local music scenes now that do their file sharing more locally - not just those I mentioned, but baile funk in Rio & S??o Paulo, cumbia villera in Buenos Aires, cumbia tribal in Monterrey/northern Mexico, shangaan electro in South Africa, etc...
I'm sure in a couple of decades there will be hard drive diggers scavenging around for old music on broken computers, since small bands nowadays rarely put out anything on physical media...
somewhat related: I once had a roommate who used to make not-so-good synth pop in his bedroom. He would work on a few songs for several months and then delete them once they were done, only to start again on some new material, and he never played out anywhere. I'm sure there's a friend of his somewhere with the only existing copies of the music he used to make.
I am guessing most of that 'Jerkin' rap music only existed on mp3 too, i contacted an artist to get a track from him and it turned out he had only ever saved it as a 128kbps mp3 after making it.
I must admit, that is pretty smart. Anyone can sound the exact same now a'days...with or without skill; it's easier than ever to fake it. Having some 'sclusive shit is probably the only thing that separates certain circles of DJ's.
I feel like this could happen more and more since it is almost impossible to keep music out of the free torrent buffet once it becomes digital.
go to any thrift store or swap meet in america and you will find dvd's and cd's for sale.
these forms of media are one step away from digital but can be sold.???
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/04/02/u-s-court-says-no-garage-sales-for-digital-content/
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan delivered a ruling that favored Capitol Records in a case against MP3 digital music re-seller ReDigi. The case may be used as precedent in the future for other digital contents, including e-books, digital magazines, digital movies, digital TV shows, and apps. In his ruling Judge Sullivan says that it is illegal to re-sell digital MP3s???as the case pertains???and that in doing so, ReDigi is violating current copyright laws.
ReDigi is a startup service that had attempted to create a second-hand marketplace for unwanted digital MP3s that users may have purchased through services like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Rhapsody, and others. The idea is that if the license owner bought the song or digital album and no longer wants it, those tracks can be re-sold to another party and the original MP3 copy must be deleted.
Citing the ???first sale doctrine,??? ReDigi says that it is entirely within its legal rights for people to re-sell what they don???t want, use, or need. It???s the same principle that Netflix uses to stream and rent content, and it???s the same doctrine that allows people to buy and re-sale physical albums and songs in the forms of records, cassettes, CDs, and DVDs.
However, the court disagreed. ???The court grants Capitol???s motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi???s direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights,??? Sullivan wrote in his decision. ???The court also denies ReDigi???s motion in its entirety.???
The problem with ReDigi???s business model is that there is no way to tell that the original MP3 track or album was deleted from the original purchaser???s computer or storage drive after that same song has been re-sold on ReDigi???s marketplace. According to the company, the ruling affects mostly the ReDigi 1.0 business model and the company intends on keeping ReDigi 2.0 going.
Various other players are beginning to broach the idea of the second-hand digital marketplace. Most recently, Amazon and Apple, both with large digital storefronts, have explored the idea through various patent filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, that attaches a type of DRM to help control and thwart unauthorized access to the content by the original purchaser once it has been re-sold to a secondary buyer.
And aside from the secondary market, there are other implications to the legal precedent set in this case. As our needs and use for technology has shifted to the cloud, there have been questions on how to bequeath one???s digital possessions to a surviving relative or friend after death. With a physical DVD or CD, that???s easy, but laws surrounding digital licenses and ownership are often more complex.
Maybe mp3's with ReDigi metadata attached will be the new raer!
It's funny to watch knee jerk attempts to stop the unavoidable fact that once anything can be converted to 1's and 0's (digitized) there really is no stopping it from going wherever the fuck people want it to.
I wonder if ReDigi has a way to prevent multiple sales of the same track via the same user. They seem to admit that they can't ensure that the track is deleted from the users' computer...but they could create some type of list for each user that details each sale they've made and prevent a user from selling the same track more than once. Sure, all of that could be circumvented multiple times by people who want to scam it but I wonder if ReDigi ever thought about posing that as a solution to avoid the ruling...or, if they already claim to do something like that.
There was an interview that I knew I wanted to sample, but never got around to it, on youtube. Once I actually got around to record it, I found the youtube account had been shut down! I actually found it on a myspace page (!) but it got me thinking that certain things may be lost forever if the youtube page is deleted. Might have to hook some kind of download plugin up and start archiving my favourite youtubes...
Funny you mention this. A big part of what we discuss in archiving is how to determine what`s the OG.
Things get way more problematic when it comes to digital.
it seems rediculous now to talk about OG MP3s, but I`m sure it won`t seem so crazy a few years from now.
Peeps will be checking the digital signature of their MP3s, just like we check the pressing for vinyl.
Lots of good stuff in this thread! Looks like the answer to the question is yes, or probably yes.
Once the legal issues of re-selling MP3s get sorted, I would not be surprised to see MP3 raers sellers start popping up.
Got any more digital grails?