AzNxHIPhop's Realm...

Should MP3s and VQFs Be Legal To Distibute Freely?

Everyone already knows what MP3s (MPEG Layer 3) and VQFs are. They're CD quality audio, compressed enough to distribute online. It is legal to have the MP3s and VQFs of songs that you bought and own yourself, but not if you don't. Yet it is still distributed by many sites online.

Since I found out about MP3s, I have been downloading them all the time. Most sites put up the "Delete After 24 hrs." warning but I'm sure that anyone who does download the MP3s, keep em for themselves. After all, why buy a CD when you can have it on your computer?

The answer: You can't carry it around unless you have a burner (CD writer) which costs a lot in itself (around $250 to $600). Of course there are external MP3 players... but those are expensive too (the only legal one in the U.S. is $250) and hold only about 1 hour of music when CDs can hold about 125% of that (74 minutes).

MP3s have been around for a while I think, and VQFs may replace em in a year or so (I think I have the first site to offer hip hop VQFs), but the sales of CDs still seem to go to the millions. R Kelly's new album is already triple platinum after a few weeks of sales. The Beastie Boys are back at music, going triple platinum with their latest album, Hello Nasty. I've seen MP3s for these artists' songs and still their albums are selling. So does the distribution of MP3s really hurt sales?

Actually, it kinda does. Even though some CDs sell alot, some don't and most do not sell as good as they would have a while back (in a time without MP3s). So in short, MP3s and VQFs really don't hurt nobody, but should not really be legal to distribute, without the "Delete after 24 hrs." warning!