Update...

Hello everybody !


My apologies for not updating, I've not felt the desire to peck out a few words or upload music. 

The big news from my own point of view is the closure of Megaupload, and the resulting fallout. Though I was a member and paid for a subscription, I always knew that it wouldn't last forever, but when it was shut down- it came as a surprise. I used Megavideo a lot for TV shows in the main but I also used the service for personal storage, though I never had anything stored on there that I didn't back up.


The piracy argument is very complex, I couldn't possibly make much sense on the topic in the narrow confines of a post on a blog that hardly anybody reads. I came to own a computer in order to record my records. I bought my first Computer with an IDE  CD writer back in 1999. Within a couple of days of buying it I'd joined the Library, and was taking out CD's to copy for my own use. I didn't even consider if this was wrong, for me it seemed perfectly natural. I quickly learned that my CD copies were pretty inferior, and that a lot of Music I'd thought about buying wasn't worth it. I kept going to the Library though because the excitement of getting hold of music this way was compelling. At the time I didn't see the copies as free, I'd bought a computer, blank CD's were expensive, and often the whole process took quite a bit of time. 


12 or so years later I came across blogs who used "one click webhosting" for whole CD's and welcomed them. Some blogs in particular changed my outlook on music, Soulmate, Lord Black, Quiet Storm, Wilforall and many others added so much value to my listening. It was more than simply going to a library and choosing stuff to copy, these people had knowledge and taste beyond mine. In time I had my own Rapidshare Account and was uploading recordings of Radio Shows to it. Many of these uploads got 500 downloads which is incredible seeing as I didn't go crazy advertising the links.


The question is was it right for me to download all this music for free ?


From my own viewpoint I'd say that I've never made a single penny from downloading music. I've never been asked to DJ, do a Radio Show, or been approached to sell a CDR. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who have specifically asked me for copies of anything, so I'm hardly likely to have made much money selling pirate CD's. For all the hours I've spent downloading listening and writing about music (albeit in this cack handed manner) I've hardly cemented my reputation as an expert. I'd like to think I've given some exposure to tracks that wouldn't have got much, but I'm not really certain I've done that. All I can say for sure is that I've wasted a lot of time amusing myself.


Megaupload is gone but I'm still watching US TV the day after it's broadcast and I'm still able to get hold of a few new CD's via one click webhosters. Nobody can truly stem that flow. 


The closure had made me stop and think though, should I switch to mixcloud and do mixes rather than reflect tracks randomly as I do in this blog ?


I'd welcome some views on this topic.