May 1, 2010 by alunparry
Pirate Me! Full Album Free For Ogg Camp
In order to celebrate Ogg Camp being in Liverpool this weekend, I’m giving away the entire We Can Make The World Stop album away via download absolutely free.
But in OGG format, not MP3. Ogg is is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.
This is not me doing an empty gesture by chucking an old album at you. This is my latest album that I am currently selling at gigs and in the High Street stores.
So right click the files to download them. And if you like what you hear, please join my newsletter.
The excellent VLC Media Player will happily play OGG files. It is open source (so it’s free of viruses and other such cack), available for Ubuntu and Windows and Mac. And is free. You can get it here.
1 – Alun Parry – We Can Make The World Stop
2 – Alun Parry – Run Patsy Run
3 – Alun Parry – The Limerick Soviet
5 – Alun Parry – Princess Deborah
6 – Alun Parry – Waiting For The Lovers
7 – Alun Parry – John Lennon Said
8 – Alun Parry – Hello Barren Desert
9 – Alun Parry – Any Change At All
10 – Alun Parry – Chasing Yourself
11 – Alun Parry -Take The Mother’s Name
12 – Alun Parry – All Hail To The Market
Why?
I’m doing this to try to promote the open source software movement which, with co-operation and openness, outdoes the big private software corporations by providing free, safe, robust software.
Capitalism and the information economy are not happy bedfellows. The Digital Economy Act is an attempt to criminalise people for sharing information like music.
So I say plainly this: PIRATE ME!
Share my music and my message. Pass them on without fear.
Ok, don’t profit from me and don’t exploit me. But share my music for free in the way that the open source software coders share their software for free and you have my total blessing.
And while you’re at it, find out more about the open source software movement and why Ubuntu is better than Windows.
madbouncydogs.com">Nigel Paice - May 1, 2010 @ 9:15 pm
Alun,
Absolutely brilliant!!!
What more can I say. You have once again shown that you are a man of action rather that empty words and promises. It is because of people like you that The Digital Economy Bill will be shown to be the pile of poo that it really is. The music industry as it stands is an almost extinct monolith that refuses to accept that ‘the times they are a changin” and is desperately clinging on to outmoded and frankly abusive business models.
If I was a betting man I would wager that that this act of selflessness will not only gain you many many more fans (and hence more people paying to be at your shows if you hadn’t given up ‘live’) but I would suggest that you will now sell more back catalogue as a result. I would be interested in seeing how this pans out for you. Please let me know.
alunparry - May 1, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
hi nigel, thanks for the blog comment. i agree re the digital economy act. but then that’s how these things work. the old regimes try to bind up the new with archane legalisms.
yet knowledge has a life of its own and is meant to be unfettered. enjoy the tunes
al
madbouncydogs.com">Nigel Paice - May 2, 2010 @ 11:30 am
Alun,
To my mind the DE Act fails because the Government do not understand the technology. Calling an IP address an ‘intellectual property’ address in a debate is nothing short of scandalous. They assume that anyone sharing music or movies is a criminal when obviously they are not always. I move a lot of ordinarily copyrighted music about in the course of my business with the permission of rights holders but should I be ‘caught’ doing this, my internet would be shut off affecting my children’s education and my wife’s job. A tough price to pay for acting legally. Also they think that tracking an IP address is an effective way to catch those that are illegally sharing copyrighted material. It’s SO easy to mask an IP and hardcore pirates have been doing it for years. All this act has done is show the guy who downloads Dr. Who because he forgot to set his Sky Plus timer how to cover his tracks in the future and may even move on to download even more illegally obtained content now having that knowledge.
I am against copyright theft as much as anyone but there has to be systems in place to allow fair use, format and time shifting. The closest anyone has come to a near perfect solution for music is Spotify. Imagine if the BBC did the same with video content as part of the licence fee?
We need to take a long hard look at copyright law on a global level and set an easy to understand and consistent law.
If I go to work and write a report, it is right and fair that I get paid for doing it. I don’t expect to get paid when the 20 or so directors of the company read it later, or it’s sent to everyone in the company attached to a memo. Sure, if I’m asked to do a lecture tour based on it’s content there should be some payment involved as it’s more work and time for me. I could equate that last bit to a musical artist touring.
I would suggest reducing copyright to either 10 years generally which could be renewed. Then 1 year after any piece of media becomes unavailable via back catalogue or out of print it becomes public domain. This would allow artists to remix and develop older works, perhaps even bringing the original work back into the public conciousness. It also furthers the creative ‘debate’ in the same way that academics has draw on past research to substantiate or refute their own. Big businesses are sitting on hundreds of thousands of pieces of creative work that haven’t seen the light of day for decades. What harm has a mash up or fan fiction ever done anyone?
Sorry for the rant, but this is an issue really close to me and I’m even considering spoiling my ballot paper as NO PPC in my constituancy has bothered to answer my questions except my old Labour MP who voted FOR the bill.
it’s either that or vote LibDem !
identi.ca/jontheniceguy">JonTheNiceGuy - May 4, 2010 @ 12:35 pm
Hi Alun,
Wow! Thanks for sharing this album with us – as soon as I’ve finished downloading the tracks, I’ll give it a listen! Are you licensing this music under any of the CC licenses, or is it more like the WTFPL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTFPL) :)
Also, have you considered adding these tracks together as a ZIP file, so we’re only making one request against your server, rather than 12? ;)
All the best,
Jon “The Nice Guy” Spriggs
ps. Were you there this weekend, and if so, I hope I was able to speak to you… although my memory for names is worse than .. erm that thing, with holes in… that you … do erm, stuff with it…. One of them. :D
twitter.com/mikethebee">MikeTheBee - May 9, 2010 @ 3:36 pm
Hello Alun,
Well done you on offering such gr8 tracks for OGGcamp fans. Although I wasn’t able to make the event itself, I have followed OGGCamp over the past few months, and done my bit to pass on the news.
I have taken you at your word and featured ‘We Can Make The World Stop’ in my podcast show “Mike’s Take on Homecamp” ep:21 available on iTunes (search for Homecamp) and for streaming at http://hcpodcast.mevio.com
Hoping you approve of this use and sending best wishes for the future,
Mike.
alunparry - May 13, 2010 @ 9:06 am
Hi Jon and Mike
Thanks for the kind words. It’s offered on a Creative Commons License.
I tried the zip file route but hit a prob in terms of the size of upload I was allowed to do with my server.
I was there at the Ogg Camp weekend Jon yes but we didn’t get to chat. Hopefully another time!
Enjoy the tunes!
Al 8-)