strathspey@strathspey.org:27674

Martin.Sheffield

RE: MP3 idea

Oct. 2, 2001, 11:12 a.m. (Message 27674, in reply to message 27630)

At 13:51 01/10/01 -0700, you wrote:
>
>... I feel we as dancers must support our 
>musicians by buying their CDs.

Total agreement (even if I have to admit owning one or two pirated
cassettes -- given by well-meaning friends rather than solicited), and I
usually say so when, after a workshop with newcomers, someone asks me for
the pieces of music used for dances taught. Trouble is, when you have
taught a handful of dances with music from the same number of different
CDs, what do you say? "Go and order 120 euros worth of CDs, just to get the
few tracks you want to listen to or use" ? (I think we have to pay rather
more in Europe than you do outre-Atlantique).
The price is definitely a disincentive, and only the hard-bitten like
ourselves are willing to pay for hundreds of tracks although we'll never
use more than a quarter of them.
I used to buy every CD that came out, but now that I have 5 Follow me
homes, 5 or more 80-bar reels, innumerable too-slow speys and too-fast
jigs, not to mention Eightsome reels galore, I'm getting wary about what I
order. 
The track-sharing idea is becoming attractive, whatever the ethics of the
question, and I certainly like Oberdan's suggestion of a public pool of
out-of-print material. After all, if a piece of music is widely appreciated
but unavailable commercially, there will be plenty of private copying going
on anyway. Having a centralized source of unscratched, unfaded music would
suit me well.
Martin,
 in Grenoble, France.

 http://perso.wanadoo.fr/scots.in.france/scd.htm
              (dance groups,  events,  some new dances ...)