Subcultureoftwo_small
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Album-only songs: why do they do this?

One of the things I loved about Napster (waaaay back in the day) was being able to download the ONE song I wanted off an album in which I was 95% uninterested. Nowadays, I've transferred that love to companies like Apple and Amazon. I hear a song I like, and I go online and buy THAT SONG, without having to invest in an albumful of other music I don't want.

However, I've gotten increasingly frustrated with the practice of releasing certain songs as "Album Only." You can download certain songs individually, but other songs, invariably including the one I want, can only be obtained by buying the whole shebang, citizen.

I hate this. Why do they do this? I can't justify paying $10 for one song, so it's not like they're rewarded with my money...they get no money from me, and I get no song, and I sit in my chair and sulk, listening to the 30-second preview over and over or listening to the music video on YouTube to get my fix.

It used to be that sometimes, if that particular song was locked up on a soundtrack/compilation album, I could manage to get the song individually on the artist's own page. However, that's becoming increasingly rare.

Argh argh argh. Any way around this? Anybody I should complain to?

(current example: "Black Sheep," by Metric.)

Sacrelicious asked in Music/Bands/Venues about 1 year ago | Report

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4 Answers

  • Icon_small
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    they do that because people [such as yourself] often refuse to buy albums otherwise, and they make more money off of album sales than they do off of individual song sales. it's a pretty straight-forward concept.

    mmmcheezy answered in Music/Bands/Venues about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Medium_2868373187_b2c11c89cf_o_small
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    1. http://www.ehow.com/how_2222354_use-torrents.html

    2. http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Emily-Haines-and-Metric-Discography/4358e05662c69d62938308f59f692b0038c3d984b1a4

    Basil answered in Music/Bands/Venues about 1 year ago | Report
    2 comments by Sacrelicious and Basil…
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  • Outpast1_small
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    If you're only looking for one song, I would used beemp3.com or just Google the song with mp3 and usually you can find something.

    Mister Cagro answered in Music/Bands/Venues about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Min-wage_small
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    If I'm just looking to sample a song, I usually go to Hype machine (www.hypem.com). You can often find mp3s for download on some of the music blogs - if you do that, and like the artist/song, you should definitely support them by buying t-shirts or see them live as basil suggested. I think they (the artists) get more money that way than if you buy the album online anyways.

    asteria answered in Music/Bands/Venues about 1 year ago | Report
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