Trouble with MP3s

from the how-not-to-do-it dept

These are the type of articles I love. A reporter for Fortune writes about his (admittedly bad) experiences trying to find an MP3 file on the internet and concludes the whole downloadable music/MP3 concept is overhype. I really enjoy how these folks think beyond the simple task that they're trying to accomplish and decide that an entire concept is a dud due to one simple point of failure.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Sean Hammons, 15 Sep 1999 @ 7:56pm

    This guys an idiot

    Yah, I agree that mp3's have gotten a lot harder in the past 6 months to find, if you're trying to pirate, but he makes it sound like much harder than it is. Besides, anyone who knows anything would generally use hotline, not the web, to find pirated music, or software if desired.


    mp3's aren't all about piracy anyway. Almost every single CD that i own, i have encoded. This makes for the awesome 70 hour playlist I have, which is a great thing that no CD player could ever offer. And I'm sure there's lots of people who have many more mp3's than I do.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    GC, 16 Sep 1999 @ 9:08am

    Silly Billy

    Well,

    It seems to me that at work he is using an http proxy and hence can't download files anyway. This is quite common at corporate sites, all our users only have native (by proxy) http access. (except for a select few, heh heh :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Todd, 16 Sep 1999 @ 10:02am

    Re: This guys an idiot

    I agree, Mike, the reporters' bias is: hey, I'm a high-tech guy, if I can't figure it out, it must be impossible for the average guy and likely to be a dud for everyone. EARTH TO REPORTERS -- YOU ARE DINOSAURS. MOST 3RD GRADERS KNOW MORE ABOUT THE NET. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, THIS INCLUDES YOU, TOO.

    Sean, my 300 disc player can play for about 400 hours...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    mgallagher, 16 Sep 1999 @ 10:51am

    The MP3 experience

    Ok so this guy doesn't have a clue when it comes to getting free MP3s. You can't really suppose that his experience is unique either, which really get to the point of the article: That MP3s are going to change everything from your underwear to copyright law is, well, a bit of an overstatement.

    CD are easy consumer product, you buy one more or less the same way you buy a candy bar, bring it home, and then all you really need to know is how to push the "eject" and "play" buttons.

    Sean H. really hits this on the head when he writes "anyone who knows anything would generally use hotline". Precisely, true, ground shaking, mass market, change the world products don't usually require people to anything too special to use them.

    MP3 will get easier to find/get/use over time, but until then, this guy probably should keep buying CDs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Mike (profile), 16 Sep 1999 @ 11:38am

    Re: The MP3 experience

    My point in complaining about the article wasn't that people should be able to figure out how to use this stuff... they shouldn't be expected to. My point was that MP3 means a lot more than just being able to download any music you want for free. That's what's scary to the record industry. Whole new models of doing business. This guy goes and assumes since he can't figure out how to download one song he wants, that there's no possibility for MP3's *anywhere*. The fact is, MP3 or something like it certainly has the potential to change the industry in MANY ways, and just because the guy can't find one song doesn't mean it's a dud.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    dave, 29 Sep 1999 @ 6:13pm

    mp3's

    thanx for this article
    now i don't feel like a fucking moron
    excuse the profanity but i have been trying this stupid,goddamn,motherfuckin,son-of-a-bitch,cock-suckin,waste-of-my-time,fuckin',bullshit,lame-assed, worthless,stupid-as-fuck,shity,steaming-crock-of-shit,ball-suckin'cock-lickin' mp3
    concept and i think it eats cock!!!!!!!!!!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!!@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.