Synth Motion

Posts Tagged ‘Digital Music’

Since everybody seems to be looking for free music to listen to these days, you need to make sure you don’t get slapped with a law suite while you listen to music free online. Thats why I thought it would be a good idea to write an informative article addressing this issue before it’s too late.

If you do a quick search on your favorite search engine for “music download websites”, you’ll notice that the top 10 results will probably bring out music sites that claim to help you listen to free music legally. But it’s in your best interest to make sure that the music on those sites is legal and doesn’t have viruses on it, otherwise you’ll be in for a rough ride.

The best way to go about this is to look at the “terms of use” agreement on each of these web sites. This will give you a clear understanding about what those sites are really about. Music download review sites like ours help to make this process easier for you because we sift through all the sites that let you listen to free music online, and only list the best digital services with free music to listen to.

After you find a good site that will let you listen to free online music and download it, you might be asked to pay a small set up fee to access to that companies’ music software at some point. It’s a good idea to do this because you could get in trouble for using services that are illegal.

We know forking up a couple of dollars for music can be a pain, but doing this will help ensure that you get to listen to free music and download mp3 tracks from high quality sites that won’t place viruses on your computer.

There have been questions arising lately as to whether or not websites should be allowed to host lyrics and tablature from copyrighted music. Website owners and internet users have joined forces in claiming that they should have access to this content- while the music industry is holding fast to their copyrights.

The Debate: Should Lyrics and Tablature Be Publicly Available?

Depending on whom you ask the answer to the lyrics debate will be different. The music industry claims their copyrighted material is being violated. The industry claims that those who buy music in stores will have access to the lyrics, so there is no need for them to be publicly available. As for tablature rights, the industry claims that tablature books have lost sales due to the surge in publicly shared tabs.

But where does the digital music downloads fit in? If a user downloads a single song, shouldn’t they be entitled to the lyrics? In this instance, the publicly available lyrics are helping the consumer, and in no way harming the music industry. Sadly, many music services don’t offer lyrics with downloads- which has led to the creation of services such as pearLyrics.

A cease and desist letter was sent to the creator of pearLyrics, which functions to find lyrics based on tracks playing in iTunes. The creator, Walter Ritter, was forced to remove his freeware module. The module in question grabbed the lyrics from public domains on the internet- meaning the module in question wasn’t exactly illegal. Nevertheless, the music industry shut it down without hesitation.

Loopholes to the Lyric Dilemma

Despite the massive amount of cease and desist letters handed out, we all know that there are hundreds of sources to find lyrics online. This is largely due in part to the fact that many countries outside the United States do not pursue the supposed violators. The result: many lyrics websites are being outsourced to foreign countries.

If the lyrics website in question is hosted in the United States, there is a good chance the music industry has its eye on it. Nevertheless, many US-based lyrics sites have survived and continue to grow. Some lyric sites attempt to barter with the music industry or artists- while others are simply offering lyrics to public domain music.

The Future of Lyric Resources

Lyric resources are here to stay for now. Much like the VCR had caused turmoil among the film industry- the internet is just a new method to simplify life, regardless of what the industry tries to hold onto. We see the VCR as a household item- in time we will most likely see the same outcome with lyrics and the internet.

Logically, the music industry can’t keep up with every lyric website that springs up. Trying to shutdown foreign websites has also become quite a problem for the music industry. Instead of raising controversy, perhaps a more sensible solution should be called for. Compromises will have to be made- and several lyrics websites have already begun attempted negations with the music industry.

It will be interesting to see how the debate develops as time moves on. As for the rest of us, we can still enjoy the freedom to enjoy lyrics to our favorite songs; it doesn’t look like this fact will change anytime in the near future.