Prog-Sphere forums

hey - nobody's hating anyone! I promise

I don't know, I run a forum with a section devoted to downloading music and I'd say a majority of folks who really like an album will go out and buy it, especially if it is from an active band trying to make ends meat.  Lots of people like having a physical copy for the sound quality, convenience, album art, etc.  Also have to factor in the exposure a band gets from it and the subsequent concert tickets and merchandise sold, which I assume is a bigger cash cow than cd sales.

Finally there is no chance in hell someone from northern Canada like me would have heard of some obscure  Swedish prog band if not for the downloading music.  This worldly audience expands the market base significantly.  I have showed pals Beardfish who have in turn bought concert tickets to see them (for progressive nations but still), and today I walked into my buddy's room who was playing The Hunter on youtube and said to me "I really got to buy some of their albums, Beardfish is awesome."  This is just cause he heard them playing in my car.  None of this would have happened had I not downloaded some albums way back when and fallen in love.

So sure there are some bastards who never give back to artists but I think on the whole downloading is a good thing.

Oh, and read reviews, many reviews.
I started reading the Gibraltar Encyclopedia and moved from there. Itsa simple!

Ese sitio no esta disponible en mi país y aunque quisiera comprar los discos tampoco podría porque no se editan aqui. Lo siento mucho pero tuve que descargar todas sus canciones, ójala algún día firmen contrato con una disquera internacional y vengan hasta acá a dar conciertos, ¡sería excelente!

translation added by Steve...

This site is not available in my country and although I could not buy CDs because they are published here. Sorry but I had to download all your songs, hopefully one day sign a contract with international label and come out here to give concerts, it would be great!

Last edited by SteveA (2009-08-15 18:33:10)

Just to add, of those mentioned in my previous post, I proudly own Tangent's Not As Good As the Book, Karmakanic's Boss in the Factory, Tomas Bodin's IAM and PoS' BE.