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Did you know Napster turned 10 this year? Yes, that iconic website from the era when copyright was something you idly wondered about and music, like all good things in life, was thought to be free.
A decade is a long time. Much has changed since then. What was once thought to be mischief is now a crime — so downloading music could get you into serious trouble if you do it from the wrong site. From musicians to record labels, vigilance is being stepped up.
But don’t despair. It’s not like free lunches are entirely a thing of the past. There are online music stores, mobile phone music services, and free offerings from various artistes’ and bands’ websites. There are even web-radios offering music that’s less expensive and less fraught with danger. Just make sure that you read through the fine print to protect yourself.
It’s just that the music industry is tired of taking hits. Napster and its clones have gone through a battery of lawsuits and they aren’t the freewheeling sites they once were; copyright violators too are being sued for big bucks. And amidst all this, new web-based music services have come up and swapping has become the game for the cool people.
So build up your music stash, but surf around a bit first, invest some time in researching what’s available on the Internet and you may just find yourself pleasantly surprised. In this day and age, it pays to play safe.
Suit yourself
Just to give you a perspective on things, let’s rehash some recent history. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) received a landmark judgment in its favour this June. The RIAA was awarded $1.92 million as damages to be paid by Jamie Thomas-Rasset, the first person to be sued for illegal filesharing and copyright violation for 24 songs.
Along with the Thomas-Rasset case, the spotlight has turned on Joel Tenenbaum, another user being sued for illegal file sharing. For a reported number of seven songs downloaded and shared from a file-sharing network, Tenenbaum may have to pay up to over a million dollars in damage.
Crucially, both Thomas-Rasset and Tenenbaum used legal file-sharing networks to swap files that resulted in violation of copyright. So even when you’re using a network that you believe is popular and safe, make sure that the content that you download is legal. And if you’re sharing, ensure that it’s a legal swap.
If that has you breaking out in a cold sweat, you’d be happy to hear that the RIAA website actually gives you a list of legal websites, that you can camp out on.
Share tips
Peer-to-peer sharing services have long been the mainstay of music buffs. Just to give you a sample, let’s take two popular peer-to-peer sharing (P2P) websites that do have the hallowed RIAA approval — iMesh and BearShare.
iMesh claims to be the first company to offer authorised file sharing for free. The file-sharing service is free and there’s free content. Of course if you pay for the privilege of being a subscriber, you get a load of goodies (read 15 million tracks). All the content on iMesh is claimed to be legal and there’s definitely some cool stuff if you’re looking for freebies. Copyrighted tracks are marked accordingly, available for unlimited download by subscribers or for $0.99 for individual downloads. You really can’t plead ignorance if you choose to misuse them. No, not really.
BearShare operates on similar lines. Musiclab (which also owns iMesh) gave a fresh lease of life to BearShare after its 2006 takeover. However the BearShare service runs independent of iMesh. Once you download the Bearshare software, you have access to millions of authorised tracks and premium (pay-to-use) content is marked for subscribers. You can listen to, download or buy music.
LimeWire — another hot favourite of users — claims to be the fastest P2P service on the planet. But you should give a close glance at its legal disclaimer before you become a convert. Its music store is ready to make an honest customer out of you only if you reside in the US. And as far as sharing goes, here’s what is on the website. “To use LimeWire legally, you must have the permission of the owner of the copyright rights in the file for each file in your LimeWire shared Library.”
Fresh from the oven
Before you embark on that massive search, do try to log on to the website of your favourite band. Many bands upload their numbers or even entire albums on their websites and it’s always a nice thing to browse through your favourite artistes online den, innit?
Let’s start with Wilco, which stood the whole idea of ‘free music eating into sales’ on its head. One of the first few to stream its music online, Wilco first put it 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on the web and then proceeded to make it a runaway hit with more than 590,000 copies sold.
Same with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, the American industrial rock group. Last year The Slip was released digitally (the second to be released so) and made available for free online before the hard copies hit the stores. The website even allows you to send the album electronically to friends via an e-mail with the free download link.
Then there’s Coldplay’s latest, Left Right Left Right Left, which has been available for free download from their website since May. Free music is their gesture of support for fans hit by these hard times, they say.
On the Indian scene, bands like Parikrama and Indian Ocean have been putting their stuff online for a long time now. And if you don’t get full versions, you at least get album previews for others like Euphoria and Jalebee Cartel. Says Subir Malik of Parikrama: “We at Parikrama have put up music for free download since 1997, and in the last 12 years, at least 11 million downloads have been made from www.parikrama.com. When we started off, there was no way we could charge money for our music, since CDs were quite expensive back then for the general public (especially college and school students). We want our music to be easily accessible for everyone — we want to spread our music.”
Store credit
Unfortunately, the biggies like Napster, iTunes etc don’t extend their services to India. So, keeping that in mind, how easy is it to stay on the right track if you’re looking for music? Well, it can be tough. This is not to say, ripping is encouraged or endorsed in any way, but the reality is that there are not too many options for the buyer from India.
Apart from old favourites like Raaga.com, there are stray niche sites like Mysticamusic.com that cater to some classical and mostly sufi kind of music.
Saregama’s HamaraCD.com is a website worth spending some time on. You can actually customise your CD and get it delivered to your doorstep. You mix your own choice of music from Saregama’s archives and they promise 76 minutes of listening for Rs 275. If only the service were not limited to Indian songs, it would be perfect.
For Bollywood music, Yash Raj Films, unfortunately has stopped making its music available for online buyers. But Eros Entertainment provides a service to buy single DRM-protected (with protected digital rights, which means you can’t just use it on your mp3 player) tracks online at Rs 19 a number and their albums at about Rs 59. But it is restricted to only the movies Eros is associated with.
If you can stand the wait, try Amazon. Though people do crib about the fact that you have to get the entire CD instead of a single track you may have been eyeing. And getting your stuff shipped to India can take anywhere from two days to up to a month.
Of course the international recording labels have their own stores too and if Virgin-Universal join forces — as reported — to come up with an online store, things could hot up well and truly in this segment. The only thing to see is if the services are extended to Indian listeners as well.
Radio gaga
Now if you want to listen while you make up your mind, (yes, don’t we all need that taste of things to come) then there are quite a few hot sites. Many even offer a forum, aka P2P sites, where you can trade musical opinions and keep up with the latest goss. Just make sure you don’t do what you are told not to.
Yahoo Music and AOL provide a stash of music videos to kill time and they have the RIAA approval. There’s always mp3hungama. com, musicindiaonline.com, emp3finder.com and songs. pk and bollyfm.net if it’s the more Indianised play list you’re looking for. But do take a moment to read through the fine print before you decide to do anything more than listen.
Last but not the least, an honourable mention must be made of last.fm. From an exhaustive web radio service to free downloads, (yes they’re truly free and download without any hitch), an opportunity for new musicians to make some money out of their new tracks (you get paid for people listening to your music) and informed recommendations — there’s a whole host of services for you. You can’t purchase CDs or music tracks, though you are given the link to associates who do sell. One more thing, all the music available for free download is provided by artists and labels concerned.
So here’s to keeping scores.
What’s the buzz?
Some of the Indian music-makers hold forth and frank on their take on free downloads and file-sharing:
Bickram Ghosh, percussionist
I don’t support illegal free downloads. People should pay for everything. Films, books, music. I hardly spend time online and so I don’t really use any P2P services. And I do not buy music online. I prefer going to a store and getting my own CDs. The tangibility of it appeals to me. The quality of music is much better. But yes, I do object to music being available for free online — for if even one person decides to make do with that, it means a drop in sales.
Shibani Kashyap, musician
As a musician my views are very clear. There should not be any free music downloads. It’s a waste of money and effort. The artist, the composer, everyone spends so much on creating a track, people should just not download it for free. If you like the music enough, then you should go and buy the CD... As for P2P services, I feel it’s good to the extent people get to listen to the music of their choice, but they shouldn’t download stuff and make copies.
Subir Malik, manager and keyboardist, Parikrama
I personally do not support piracy and illegal downloads from the Internet. In fact, I don’t even know how to download music from the Web. I don’t support stealing/copying any artist’s copyrighted music or property.
If an artist wants to put his music on the Internet for free downloads, then it’s fine. Also, P2P sharing is not that commendable, since you’re sharing illegally downloaded music with more people. Unfortunately, it’s a vicious circle that can not be brought to justice, since almost everyone is party to illegal downloads.
I do not buy music off the net either — from iTunes or anywhere else. I only buy CDs and LPs — in fact, I have a collection of nearly 7,000 CDs. I prefer listening to music on CDs rather than on my iPod.
Palash Sen, vocalist, Euphoria
The problem of illegal downloads in India has deeper roots. The entire music business here, I feel, is not organised in a very legal manner. If the music companies paid due royalties, if artists were paid their dues every time a track was played on air, on TV or even on just neighbourhood programmes, then we could object to other people making use of free music. Since we don’t get paid for the same, I don’t see how a free download makes any difference. In India, we need music for every occasion — from birth to death. Yet I’ve come to realise that nobody pays the respect due to music and musicians. Unless we change the way we think about them, this problem is going to persist.
Euphoria has been putting their tracks on the website. We are primarily a live band. More than CD sales, I feel if my music reaches a larger audience and people want us to perform live for them, my purpose is served. I personally don’t support illegal downloads and I don’t use any P2P services either. I go out and buy my own CDs the old-fashioned way. I feel music should be listened to properly. And the CD experience can’t be replicated just so.
