what can you do and what can't you do in regards to downloading music? That's a question and a half. In this country it is illegal to download music from peer-to-peer files although many people do this on a daily basis. In Canada, however, this is legal but uploading music to these files is illegal. America is the strictest of all. The U.S. Code protects copyright owners from the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound recordings, as well as certain digital performances to the public. In more general terms, it is considered legal for you to purchase a music CD and (rip) it to MP3 files for your own use. You can however download whole albums legally from websites such as i tunes from the date that the album is released in the shops. The develpoment of the illegal technologies (peer-to-peer) has caused a 20% drop in profits for the music industry since 1999. Serious stuff, especially when you consider the ultimate effects that this may have on the music industry.

Elton john- Tiny Dancerhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=_O80b002XT0 .........great musician.

Hello? Is this thing on? by !!! (Chk Chik Chick): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDWlAxF4W_A and The heart of hearts by !!! (Chk Chik Chick): http://brainwashed.com/!!!/.

Black label society- concrete jungle: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xp5TNBRWNs0 Joanna Newsom- the book of right on:http://youtube.com/watch?v=fDQIGraR3aI. Pantera- Domination (live):http://youtube.com/watch?v=C5XfyPFfBqMand one of my favourite songs of all time..... Dream theater- the glass prison:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7o8mEbgBCc&NR=1...............enjoy!

File sharing- legality: File sharing is not necessarily illegal. Some artists choose to support freeware, shareware, open source, or anti-copyright, and advocate the use of file sharing as a free promotional tool. Nearly all shareware, freeware, and open source software may be shared as much as the user wishes, depending on the user disclaimer for that specific piece of software. Other non-software related intellectual property may be shared legally in any way the user desires. Content of websites such as youtube and other similar sites may be freely shared amongst the public. Ethics: For the most part there is nothing non ethical about sharing music files over the internet as long as it is done via websites and software that were created for that purpose and tha music has been paid for otherwise the artsits could stand to lose hundreds of thousands maybe millions of pounds as a result.

The past recedes by John Frusciante:http://youtube.com/watch?v=IIvzwjVFvqk and going inside by John Frusciante:http://youtube.com/watch?v=59w815fJjYw.
and a cover of 'maybe' live at slane castle:http://youtube.com/watch?v=-3Q_6I0018c and a cover of Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer':
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8ztPRFN3hXA four great examples of the brilliance of websites such as youtube that allow anyone and everyone to broadcast whatever thaey want to a worldwide audience............... I love John Frusciante.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jp-ER5TvMSE. I know it's got nothing to do with the subject but it's brilliant.

This is a picture of 'the will to death' by John Frusciante. What it also is is the best album I own and quite possibly am ever likely to own (other works by John Frusciante excepted.) It is also an album that i bought on the basis of things that i read and sections of it that I heard on the Internet. Proves that online music is good.

www.reginaspektor.com. Great website. I have never come across a website that has allowed you to listen to the entirety of an artists album. This website, however, gives access to FOUR albums. Does this limit the sales of these albums? i can't speak for everyone (obviously) but I have bought those albums as a result of listening to them on the website. would you buy them or would you be content with just listening to them on the web. this raises the previous issues of taking the soul out of music listening. I am much more satisfied with listening to the CD's than I was listening to them on the internet. Does this apply to you or am i in a minority?

I have just discovered a great website for discovering new bands and have decided to put it on the blog for others to use- www.rock.discogs.com. this website will provide information on quite literally every single band ever to have existed!!!!!!! yet another triumph for online music.

Just a quick thought that occured to me yesterday whilst in HMV. which would you prefer to do? sit in front of a screen and get your music or go to a record store and just have a look around for a CD that looks interesting and hopefully discover a band that you've never heard of but absolutely love.

Broadcast yourself. This is the tagline for www.youtube.com. This is the perfect example of the positive results of online music. This website allows anyone to upload footage of themselves onto the website, therefore allowing bands/musicians/singers to get their music out to a worldwide audience without getting a record deal. This is clearly a good thing. This technology is not always a good thing though. Recently it was advertised that every single Red hot chili peppers music video is available to view on Youtube through fans uploading the videos illegally onto the Internet. This is a good thing for the public. It is not a good thing, however, for the artists themselves and their record company who are loosing profit as a result. Should this technology be banned or is this actually helping the artists to get their music to a wider audience and therefore increasing record sales.

Today, as with most new media technology, music is becoming more and more of a portable media- I-pods, mobile phones featuring MP3 players and of course the new i-phone. The trouble until now with portable music players is that the quality of sound has been compromised in order to increase portability. With the arrival of the i-phone, however, and the dozens of copy-cat phone designers who will surely mimic this new i-phone means that fairly soon everyone will have a mobile phone with an MP3 built in that does not compromise sound quality. Will this new development render the old fashioned passtime of sitting at home and listening to a CD or, dare i say it, an LP obsolete? This is yet another of the numerous new music technologies that is sucking the soul out of the music industry.

Independent record companies. This could be seen from two angles. The optimistic among you may argue that the online music revolution is a great chance for independent record companies to get their artists noticed. The pessimistic among you, however, could argue that these companies are going to get put out of business by these new musical technologies as it is a lot easier to download a song/album of a more obscure and less famous band than to go out and search for it. This, therefore will effectively put independent and minor record companies such as 4AD, asthmatic kitty and sounds familyre out of business leaving only the giants such as EMI and Universal with a chance of competing..........but that's only if you want to be pessimistic as i am more than willing to go out and search for the albums of more obscure bands.

for an example of the sheer power that the media of music downloads posesses look at 'crazy' by Gnarls Barkley. This single reached the top of the singles chart through download sales alone as the single wasn't even available in the shops when it reached number 1. Is this just a freak occurance brought on by peoples insatiable appetite for an incredibly catchy song and inability to wait for it to be released in CD format or a look into a future that has no place for the CD and Where music has become almost entirely an online media. I am hoping for the former.

best thing about online music

this link to www.last.fm is one of the good things about online music. It generates a radio station based on your favourite band which allows you to discover new bands. This type of online music technology allows the public access to a much larger range of bands/musicians therefore taking away a certain amount of power from record company executives in regards to what we listen to as 20/30 years ago what we listened to had a lot less to do with us than it does today.

The general feeling amongst people today seems to be that the relatively new media of online music is a good thing. Personally i am not a believer in downloading music as opposed to actually buying a CD or an LP. One of the main reasons for this opinion is that eventually it could greatly decrease the size of the music industry and the amount of bands around as profit from CD's is one of the main things financially allowing them to create this music and without that income there may not be any more music created by any of your favourite bands.Another reason for this opinion is that by downloading music you miss out on some of the things that makes music so great-having a tangible record collection as opposed to something stored somewhere in the hard drive of your computer.