> From a producer's point of view, MP3.Com doesn't help me much as it
doesn't
> recodnise the files I tried sending. So much for that.

Are you encoding them at 128, in stereo MP3 format? I don't think you
can do anything else unless you're a "paying customer" as it were.


> From a consumer's point of view, I'm disappointed at the limit on
pages. I
> used to love spending hours downloading whole albums of stuff I
never heard
> before.

I was just starting to enjoy that aspect myself last fall. I did
manage to write two articles before that element went away, but I was
planning to do a lot more.

Like, I found a bunch of bands from Iceland and downloaded everything
I could get. Then I did the same thing with Russia. I was planning on
doing things like reviewing a bunch of bands with words like Fire and
Blood in their names. Or maybe a ground-level drum 'n' bass roundup!
That would've been fun too.

I suppose that could still work on a smaller scale. Three songs at a
time still gives you an idea. Well, in some cases.

Devilcake has two albums worth of material up, so the three songs
currently on our page are indicative of the band, the style, the
sound etc.

But my own Ian C Stewart page has several hundred songs, which have
little in common, stylistically. So who knows. It's not like people
are lining up to download it either way in that case.



> Just about what Ian's been writing about distributing his own
stuff - I
> think the main thing is just the act of creation, the recording and
enjoying
> your own music.

Definitely.

>There's such a saturation of people putting out their own
> stuff now that you know you'll never get loads of people listening
to your
> own music without some outside muscle helping you out. But I always
enjoyed
> the personal communication side of the home-recording movement,
rather than
> any ideas of wider acceptance. Statistics usually are against us,
but if
> your proud of what you do, that should be enough.

I guess I sort of agree with that. It should be enough to be proud of
your own work. But is that really enough? Just to go "okay, I just
made the greatest album ever recorded. I feel good now. I wonder
what's on tv?"

I don't know. I'd certainly want to have as many people hear my stuff
as possible. But, unfortunately, it's hard to keep working toward
that end sometimes.