# Music download sites - pros and cons



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

This thread is meant for exchanging knowledge and experiences with music download sites. We could talk about the kind of music sites offer, the quality of the downloads (bitrates), (il)legitamy and other pros and cons.

I've found some sites that compare downloading websites:
http://www.comparedandreviewed.com/music-downloads#explained
http://www.mp3obsession.com/reviews/
and a site that lists 'genuine sites':
https://www.getitrightfromagenuinesite.org/genuine-sites/music/

From this I've first made a list of music downloading sites that offer music very cheap but seem to be illegitimate (I have no personal experience with any of them):
-	Soundike (Cyprus - Russian law - Russian IP-address)
-	Mp3million (Cyprus - Ukrainian law - Russian IP-address)
-	Mp3va (Ukranian law - Russian IP-address)
-	Mp3Caprice (Ukranian law - Ukrainian IP-address)
-	MelodiShop (Ukranian law - American IP-address (San Francisco))
-	PayPlay.fm (Ukranian law - American IP-address (New York))
-	Mediasack (unclear probably Russian (law) - American IP-address (San Francisco))

So the villains are where you would expect them to be :lol:

More interesting of course is the other side of the spectrum. Haven't had no time for that yet. Leading question might be: what legit sites offer interesting music in good quality for reasonable, preferably low prices? I know about Qobuz and am somewhat tempted to take a subscription. It's high-res quality but not cheap.

Another question might be: why would we download music if we can also buy cd's or vinyl? For me personally there would have to be a substantial difference in prize or quality. Is there?


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Um, is there any reason you didn't mention the well known sites with track records andthat are known to be legal? iTunes, Amazon, classical, HD Tracks, Presto, Pristine Audio, Naxos....
I'd be afraid to open up my computer to some of the ones that you have identified.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

This is an interesting review of high resolution audio downloading & streaming sites:

http://www.whathifi.com/advice/high-resolution-audio-everything-you-need-to-know


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Triplets said:


> Um, is there any reason you didn't mention the well known sites with track records andthat are known to be legal? iTunes, Amazon, classical, HD Tracks, Presto, Pristine Audio, Naxos....
> I'd be afraid to open up my computer to some of the ones that you have identified.


I hadn't reached that point yet. The thread started from Barblebleu 'advertizing' soundike.com in The Jazz Hole-thread. At first it was not so clear how to judge that site. So I first mainly investigated from that aspect by checking the 'Legal Notice' on these websites and then checking where the IP-adresses of these sites are located. (As some of these sites want us to believe they are from Cyprus).

So I didn't mention the well known sites because I had no time to investigate into them yet and have no personal experience with downloading music. Maybe you can tell us some more about the well-known sites?


----------



## MJongo (Aug 6, 2011)

My favorites:
*Classical:* Presto Classical: www.prestoclassical.co.uk
*Electronic:* Bleep: www.bleep.com
*Independent artists:* Bandcamp: www.bandcamp.com
*Everything else:* 7digital: www.7digital.com

Things I value in a digital music store, in order of preference:
1. Ability to redownload purchased music with no restrictions (I won't even consider purchasing music from a site that doesn't offer this feature if I can get it from a site that does).
2. No download manager / extra software required.
3. Availability of lossless formats such as FLAC or WAV.


----------



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Members are reminded of the importance of copyright.

If any breach of copyright occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. Talk Classical shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.

Anyone proceeding to any of these websites, either by clicking on a link or searching for the website, must assume full responsibility and liability for their actions.

Talk Classical can not be held liable for content of other websites.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

On the rare occasions I do music downloads I like it to be easy. I found Amazon was very difficult, always trying to get you to keep it on their cloud, and you had to go through a lot of hoops to actually download the music to your computer. Worse, after I switched to Linux there was not even a way to download from Amazon anymore as they had instituted a download software you had to use and it was not compatable with Linux. 

My last download was a single track from PrestoClassical.co.uk and that was nice and easy. Just a click and it was on my desktop.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> I hadn't reached that point yet. The thread started from Barblebleu 'advertizing' soundike.com in The Jazz Hole-thread. At first it was not so clear how to judge that site. So I first mainly investigated from that aspect by checking the 'Legal Notice' on these websites and then checking where the IP-adresses of these sites are located. (As some of these sites want us to believe they are from Cyprus).
> 
> So I didn't mention the well known sites because I had no time to investigate into them yet and have no personal experience with downloading music. Maybe you can tell us some more about the well-known sites?


I was not 'advertising' or advocating the use of this site as you put it. Starthrower mentioned a John Abecrombie cd that was out of print and I drew its availability to his attention. I am not best pleased by your inference that I am touting for business for this site.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Taggart said:


> Members are reminded of the importance of copyright.
> 
> If any breach of copyright occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. Talk Classical shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.
> 
> ...


I draw your attention to post#4 and my response in post #8. Thank you.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Barbebleu said:


> I was not 'advertising' or advocating the use of this site as you put it. Starthrower mentioned a John Abecrombie cd that was out of print and I drew its availability to his attention. I am not best pleased by your inference that I am touting for business for this site.


Sorry Barbebleu, I did not intend to do that. I apologize. I tried to explain to Triplets why I started with these illegitimate sites instead of the well known sites. I put 'advertizing' between brackets to indicate that it wasn't exactly advertizing but I should have used a different word. Maybe because English is not my native tongue I couldn't think of one at that moment. I will be pleased to edit my post. Shall I change 'advertize' in 'mention'?


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> Sorry Barbebleu, I did not intend to do that. I apologize. I tried to explain to Triplets why I started with these illegitimate sites instead of the well known sites. I put 'advertizing' between brackets to indicate that it wasn't exactly advertizing but I should have used a different word. Maybe because English is not my native tongue I couldn't think of one at that moment. I will be pleased to edit my post. Shall I change 'advertize' in 'mention'?


Thank you Casebearer. Apology accepted. I probably took it too much to heart. I daresay my Dutch would be even less correct! I would appreciate the change from advertise to mention.


----------



## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

What format do these d/l sites offer? I reckon most would be mp3 if so ok for i phones and suchlike but for serious listening flac codec or similar is a must IMHO


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I don't seem to be able to edit anymore. I can't click on 'edit' on the same line where I find 'reply' and reply with quote'.
Is it too old or something to be edited? Is there another way?


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> I don't seem to be able to edit anymore. I can't click on 'edit' on the same line where I find 'reply' and reply with quote'.
> Is it too old or something to be edited? Is there another way?


Don't worry about it. Its probably past the time limit for editing. It's really not that important.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I feel the need to explain in more detail why I started this and how I proceeded.

The reason I started this thread is to have an exchange about these sites and be better informed about them. Especially because I myself and probably others are not into the habit of downloading music. Legitimacy is an important aspect of this. Also important is knowing which ones are legitimate and which ones are not and for what reason. So discussing this is in no way meant to advocate or advertize sites that violate copyright, it is meant to become more informed on the subject myself, to inform people about what I found out and to have an exchange about downloading music.

Barbebleu mentioned Soundike in another thread and it was not so clear at first glance if this was a legitimate site. So we had some exchange on that and then I decided to investigate this more deeply. So my first post was step 1 in a personal investigation into these - and other - sites that I wanted to share and have exchange about.

First I wanted to know about soundike and therefore I checked several review sites on it. Many of them were not clear on its status and did not warn visitors about it. So it seemed to be not that clearcut to many. It is for instance listed in a top 10 between 9 seemingly legitimate sites (iTunes etc.). It was also mentioned on another comparison site that primarily seemed to list not well known (probably illegal) sites. This comparison site surprisingly *does* warn visitors to do business with soundike but not for legal reasons. So at that point it was still by no means clear what its status was.

To find out even more I looked at the Legal Information/Legal Notice on all probably illegitimate sites to find out what they state about legal aspects of their business. They all claim to be legitimate and work under some license of Russian or Ukranian collective copyright organizations (ROMS and Avtor). As I'm not a lawyer it's impossible for me to assess the legal value of those claims but of course I'm aware in general that it's wise to be somewhat suspicious of Russia and Ukraine and these claims might not hold in the context of international law. (If there is international law on copyrights.)

Another aspect I looked into is where these sites/companies are based. Some of these sites claim they are Cyprus-based or run by a Cyprus-based company probably to give it a more legit aura. Well, Cyprus is part of the European Union so that might change things. To find out I checked where these websites are hosted/located. None of them are located in Cyprus. To my surprise they were not only located in Russia and the Ukraine but in the USA also.

So the world behind these sites is quite complex (EU and USA play a role also) and it is at this point impossible for me, as a regular person that wants to inform himself, to draw a sound conclusion on a factual basis. I think it would be interesting to have the legal aspects cleared up more.

To stay on the safe side and because some review sites are more pertinent in their opinion on soundike, my conclusion for the present was it is not recommendable to buy with soundike or the other sites I mentioned and likely to be illegitimate.

And then I shifted my attention to the other side of the spectrum...


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Taggart said:


> Members are reminded of the importance of copyright.
> 
> If any breach of copyright occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. Talk Classical shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.
> 
> ...


I understand of course that TC wants to make clear it doesn't accept any liability for members breaching copyright. The same goes for me by the way. I'm not posting on this to solicit traffic to illegal sites or encourage people to buy there. Nevertheless your post also raises several questions:
-	Is posting on TC on downloadsites that might or might not be illegitimate a violation of copyright laws?
-	Is the poster responsible for consequent actions of members that read those posts?
-	Was I breaching copyright laws by investigating into these sites and reporting back my findings on this forum?
-	Is the act of clicking a link or searching for a website something that makes people liable in any way under copyright laws?

This all would seem very farfetched to me. I can understand people can violate copyright laws by buying music from an illegitimate website. I might also understand that advertizing for those sites might be a violation of some law. The rest I don't understand.

From my investigation into soundike I learned it is not always so clear cut and easy to know when you might breach copyright. It took me two hours to find out more and even then I could not come to a sound conclusion based on factual knowledge of all that pertains to it. Before I was a complete nitwit on the subject because it doesn't apply to my behavior at all. Now I have dug into it a small bit I find the subject raises a whole lot of questions as soon as you want to step beyond 'common knowledge'. From a 'common knowledge' perspective it is simple: you either don't download or you do from well known sites. But as soon as you want to dig deeper you end up with more questions than answers on this subject.

To prevent breaking a law first thing is that you (are able to) know what exactly you violate against under what jurisdiction and in what ways you can violate, etc. I've learned that is much more complicated than it seems.


----------

