Things not to feel guilty about...
Mar. 28th, 2003 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsLike a lot of people, I'm ambiguous about pirated music. I don't have pirated copies of things I can readily acquire, things the RIAA will sell me willingly. Most of what I do pull down off the Internet is stuff I can't readily get, such as obscure Korean and Japanese bands that I like, stuff like that.
But, today, someone posted a bootleg copy of Music For Supermarkets. And bootleg it is. The quality is not what we've come to expect from MP3. And I snagged it instantly. Because MFS is considered the most collectible album in the world. Only one copy exists. The last time it went up for auction, it was bought for 10,000£ by an anonymous collector.
He put together an experimental album, let the critics hear it on-site, allowed it to be played once on a Dutch radio station, and then destroyed every existing copy. He also gave everyone who wanted a copy ample time to set up their recording equipment and hook it up to the radio so they could bootleg it. Jarre is a publicity hound, and this was a publicity stunt. He produced the album for an art show, also called "Music for Supermarkets" (apparently a term similar to the U.S. phrase "elevator music") and, like most art pieces, sold the only existing copy.
Having heard it now, I can say that most of what's on it has been heard since-- much of what he did was remastered and appeared on Zoolook (his only popular failure), Rendezvous, and others.
But it's nice to hear what he was doing before those albums came out. And I don't feel guilty about it. Especially not since the artist, in a fit of pique at the suits who wanted to make more profit off the album than just one copy's worth, told people to bootleg the album if they could.
Sigh And I just saw TATU's recent performance on on Spain's Yes! Music show. Those girls couldn't have been less convincing, or looked more bored. It's time they took the money and ran.
The flipside to the whole "pirated music" scene is that there's so much good music flowing out of places like India and Korea and Vietnam and even in English via MP3.com that, until the RIAA offers all of it at a reasonable price and without restrictions on my utility of it or conditions like the price of my anonymity, there's enough new music to keep me happy for a long time to come.
Of course, this is a classic disconnect. There's always a big difference between what the suits tell us we should be listening to, and what we really want to hear.
But, today, someone posted a bootleg copy of Music For Supermarkets. And bootleg it is. The quality is not what we've come to expect from MP3. And I snagged it instantly. Because MFS is considered the most collectible album in the world. Only one copy exists. The last time it went up for auction, it was bought for 10,000£ by an anonymous collector.
He put together an experimental album, let the critics hear it on-site, allowed it to be played once on a Dutch radio station, and then destroyed every existing copy. He also gave everyone who wanted a copy ample time to set up their recording equipment and hook it up to the radio so they could bootleg it. Jarre is a publicity hound, and this was a publicity stunt. He produced the album for an art show, also called "Music for Supermarkets" (apparently a term similar to the U.S. phrase "elevator music") and, like most art pieces, sold the only existing copy.
Having heard it now, I can say that most of what's on it has been heard since-- much of what he did was remastered and appeared on Zoolook (his only popular failure), Rendezvous, and others.
But it's nice to hear what he was doing before those albums came out. And I don't feel guilty about it. Especially not since the artist, in a fit of pique at the suits who wanted to make more profit off the album than just one copy's worth, told people to bootleg the album if they could.
Sigh And I just saw TATU's recent performance on on Spain's Yes! Music show. Those girls couldn't have been less convincing, or looked more bored. It's time they took the money and ran.
The flipside to the whole "pirated music" scene is that there's so much good music flowing out of places like India and Korea and Vietnam and even in English via MP3.com that, until the RIAA offers all of it at a reasonable price and without restrictions on my utility of it or conditions like the price of my anonymity, there's enough new music to keep me happy for a long time to come.
Of course, this is a classic disconnect. There's always a big difference between what the suits tell us we should be listening to, and what we really want to hear.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-03-28 06:47 pm (UTC)