Hey all, we know that the weekends can sometimes be slow on AP.net, so we're going to try to get more discussion/activity by moving the Thursday discussion question to Saturday. Let's see how it goes.

Yeah, this is going to be a big argument about Strikegently, isn't it?

Wow, this could get heated.

Yes I support them. It kind of turns into an addiction once you keep doing it after awhile. But when you're broke, jobless, and trying to pay off rent. That's that. Plus I'm actually a happier person because of this, I love music and I get to hear everything that I love. I can't even tell you how many artists I've found through downloading, then went to their show and had a blast. It's the best feeling. I'm going to be leaking my bands new EP soon too. So stoked about that.

haha... this comes after Boys Like Girls' album got fully leaked. I don't support it though. Trials are bullshit.

Originally Posted by RyanFTW

Yeah, this is going to be a big argument about Strikegently, isn't it?

It's going to be all about SG.

what even happened to strikegently? i know it was down and now its back, that was all over tumblr. but what happened?

I stream pretty much everything I listen to on napster. Only CD i've bought so far this year is As Cities Burn, but I think i'm going to go pick up the new Mew cd eventually.

Although I'm not proud of it, I do use sites like this.
Even though these kinds of sites claim that they are only offering the albums to download, listen, and delete, I think they know full well that a majority of the people who download them DO NOT do this, yet continue to post them.
Even though I wish the possibility of any band's album leaking at all would disappear, I feel that if sites like these didn't exist, it would be more difficult for people to find the leaks and therefore have less of a negative effect on the bands.

In an ideal world, music blogs would only serve to introduce music listeners to new bands. Kinda like an online version of the little spoons you use to sample ice cream at Baskin Robins. You download a song, and subsequently buy the album if you like it. I guess you can say I support these sites because that's exactly how I use them.

Unfortunately, this isn't an ideal world, and the fact that these songs are so readily available, and that sometimes music blogs cross the line into posting whole albums, makes it all too tempting to download them.

As for leaks, I don't think any snot-nosed kid should feel like he has the divine right to release material the way a band didn't intend it to just because he's good with computers, and I don't think music blogs have any right to post full album leaks.

/captainobvious

The whole 24 hour trial thing is a joke obviously. I'd rather just hear samples to decide if I want an album. The problem these days is that kids don't respect music as something worth value. It's just a free file on the internet. I'm always disappointed to see a link to download a new album by a band i like, it just doesn't seem fair to anyone. Especially when bands put their new albums up for streaming all the time.

Actually, a better question would be, do you support sites like this AP? After all, you're one of them.

I'm fully support them. Being a 13 year old kid with parents that don't trust buying things from the internet, it's kinda hard to get music and pay for it without going to Best Buy or something. I download about 3-4 albums a week purely because I love music, especially new music. Yeah, I'm planning on buying my favorites sooner or later and I'm planning on going to more shows to support bands, but until then, I'll rely on music sharing/leaking sites.

Here is how I feel:

Either they exist, or we have internet police in which case we'd have no idea how far the policing would go or where the line would be drawn.

I am a fan of SG...sure I dont support everything he posts or all of his opinions but if you are having a slow day it's a great spot for streaming movies/tv and of course the music.

I use sites like these as a tool. If there is an album I'm interested in, I download it, and the purchase it if I enjoy it.