I’ve noticed that a number of other oldskool related blogs have popped up since this one started and most of them embed youtube videos in lieu of posting actual downloadable mp3s.
I’ve posted links to youtube tracks on rare occasions in the past, but am wondering if I should be doing that more often. Either in addition to, or instead of full mp3 posts….what do you all think?
The way I see it, here are the pros + cons of youtube posting:
PRO:
- Way faster and easier to post… I could be posting several tracks a day instead of taking time to rip every single track from vinyl.
- Wouldn’t be constrained by the records I actually own (this hasn’t been a problem so far, but eventually may be… only so many records in my collection)
- Legal fears assuaged a bit … i try to keep a certain level of obscurity in the releases I choose to post so that nothing will be for sale digitally, but you never know who might pop up annoyed…
- Easier for other people to contribute / guest posts.
- Makes it tougher for people to spin out or use the content posted for self-promotional purposes… obviously I’m happy when people download and enjoy the tracks here, but the notion of giving away tracks which people could put in a mix or spin at a club is a bit of a mixed blessing in my eyes since I’m such a vinyl purist when it comes to oldskool. Not saying everyone has to care about that, but I do and I’m the one posting all this content 🙂 Youtube posts sidestep this issue altogether and let me live in my weird hypocritical state of being a vinyl nerd who shares mp3s but secretly hopes people will still track down the records like he does.
- Might prompt me to share some top top secret favorites (I already post lots of favorites but, you know.. my “secret stash”) if I knew I wasn’t giving away a high quality spinnable rip every time.
CON:
- People seem to like the download option.
- Less Committal… anyone can get into a “youtube hole” sitting there digging through tons of obscure tracks without actually owning a single oldskool record, without having ever dug for tunes in a grimey uk record store basement, without having even gone to a real rave.
- Youtube hosting the videos – youtube cancels accounts all the time, people close their own accounts all the time, and when that happens all videos uploaded by that user get removed. So I could end up with pages full of dead links, articles with no music. Right now I host everything myself, rip everything straight from vinyl so short of a global website takedown notice this content isn’t gong anywhere.
- Quality on youtube can sometimes be crap. This is better now with higher quality video modes + I think they got rid of the forced audio normalization, but still..
- Linking to other people’s content – when people host tunes, they can choose to disable embedding, or change it at any time.
- Having to rip the tunes gets me more “in touch” with my collection and makes me dig for b sides of records I already have, instead of just grabbing endless new obscure record a-sides on youtube.
So I guess the options are:
- Keep it the way it is now – almost always just mp3s
- Keep posting mp3s but also post youtube clips every day or so… put a different tag or category on them so people can choose what content they want
- Switch primarily to youtube posts
- Keep only mp3s on this site, create a twitter account to post youtube links regularly
IF you care about this at all, leave a comment below with your vote 1-4 and a quick explanation if anything you say isn’t captured above.
I vote for n° 1
yr blog changed my life!
Just mp3’s all the way…. 😉
#2.
Since 2 years when I stumbled onto your blog, I’ve been able to get a LOT of tracks that I can’t find anywhere else… and I love playing them in the car on my mp3 player.
Although, you could do some songs as youtube only, if there’s a definite legal concern over the track.
If someone does contact you and say “you can’t offer our mp3 of that song for free or we’ll sue you”, then you can still edit the blog post to have the youtube vid & a link to where one can buy the mp3.
Now that I think about it, I’ve actually bought a lot more music since I found this blog. You’ve helped me find a lot of old jungle groups I never heard of (growing up in a small upstate NY town didn’t give me much opportunity for jungle beyond Prodigy & a few others in ’92-’95).
Definately keep posting MP3’s, they are much appreciated. Youtube posts would be good for when you have a song on your mind and you think we might enjoy it but you don’t want to do much work. A twitter account could work but it would be better to have you posting here.
mp3 when possible. There’s nothing worse than listening to a great tune at a poor bit rate.
I’m for number 1. More environmentally friendly too – all those streaming servers!
#2.
So many unknown gems still to be found from youtube and even better when they’re available as downloadable/buyable file .
And if you opt into using short messages, instead of twitter I’d recommend having a look at status.net , http://identi.ca/
#2.
So many unknown gems still to be found from youtube and even better when they’re available as downloadable/buyable file .
And if you opt into using short messages, instead of twitter I’d recommend having a look at status.net , http://identi.ca/
(Having troubles getting this comment posted)
More of everything! 😀 The awesome obscure mp3s are great and I’d love to see more links to legal stores because there seems to be quite a bit of old skool to buy in digital formats now but finding the jems is tricky… did anyone else see this?
http://www.junodownload.com/products/poor-girl-waiting-for-u/1695760-02/
3
Encourage people to go out and busy the tunes
thanks for all the feedback everyone… looking like starting to post youtube clips will be good, but people still want the mp3s on occasion like right now.
Tim: wow WTF is that record??!! First track is the ed rush track I posted up here, plus released tracks by the other artists?! So weird, you can hear the record crackling so it’s clearly either a boot or at least a megadodgy release.
1
I do not see any benefit in Youtube except for poor bitrate.
I am interested in the tunes, therefore your mp3s serve me well.
Please do not change anything !
I vote for #1! And if I can make a request, it would be great to have a full mix of some of these obscure old skool gems. 😀
no. 1 – at the end of the day, they are nice vinyl rips – not exactly preferable to your OWN vinyl copy, OR a digital remaster mp3/flac/wav etc..
So please don’t do youtube.. I wouldnt come back I don’t think (I NEVER stream anything, have no time/space for it, I download and listen and delete what I dont like).
This blog has helped me heaps get back to my roots! I haven’t bought anything specifically that has been provided, but I would like to eventually for a few tunes that really get me excited. Mostly however I love to hear stuff I won’t otherwise.. so that I can at least make the call.
So far, ‘Eye Of The Dinosaur remix’ by Mole The Dipper is my favourite post – I will def buy this as soon as I can afford / can find 🙂
I asked Mole on his youtube also to do 2011 remix or new tunes, but he hasn’t got his old samples handy hehehe.. someone else please poke him to do more 🙂 need old school 90s back!! Time for the 2011 jungle revival.. and you are helping it..
Love your blog and option 1 is the number 1 🙂
Pete: I have no idea, and now it’s been taken down – a pity cause even if it’s a booty I wanted a decent rip of that Omni Trio track. Doh!!!
i vote for no.2 there are so many obscure jems on you tube that we can all share.please keep posting the mp3s as they are top quality rips.another section i would like to see is links to buy oldskool as like someone has already said they are hard to track down.ive been grabbing some 99p bargains from juno lately,full eps too
I vote for n° 1 too 🙂
I think one of the great things about your site is that you post stuff that cant be found on youtube or anywhere else. You could do the same thing by posting youtube vids of tunes instead of MP3s. You’ld still have to rip the tune, but then of course you’ld also have to make it into a vid and upload it to youtube.
Id say do both…
MP3 ! If I can’t place a track, I’ll give it a listen on youtube to see if it’s worth a download
just keep it like it is with proper rips and a few yuoutube bits everynow and again
#1. For reals
Big big fan of the site, a refreshing change to a lot of other old skool websites out there with no pretentious bull sh*t here just a love of the music!
I really appreciate the option to download an mp3 rip which I can then listen to in the car, it makes my journeys to and from work so much better!
I can’t speak for anyone one else but I can honestly say that having heard a number of tracks via your site (some of which I had always remembered but never knew the track id of until hearing them again on here) I’ve actively sought them out and bought them on vinyl.
Keep up the good work and please don’t change the site!
# 1
and keep up doin a great job :0)
please leave it as mp3’s,just want to say this is the best old skool blog around thx so much
mp3 only is my choice
also did you check out that ‘partners in crime – gotham city (club mix)’ tune on youtube i mentioned in an email a couple months back mate?
i ripped it from vinyl a couple weeks ago , if you want i can send you the 320 to post here.it’s impossible to find on soulseek on any higher than 128.
””””””’Less Committal… anyone can get into a “youtube hole” sitting there digging through tons of obscure tracks without actually owning a single oldskool record, without having ever dug for tunes in a grimey uk record store basement, without having even gone to a real rave. ””””””””””””’
discrimination.
MP3! AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!
I’d say the mp3’s are nicer. Everyone wants to own a piece of musical history. YouTube videos are nice too, HD sound and all that. I guess the only advantage to posting YouTube videos is that, as a blogger, you’re not going to get into trouble for posting mp3’s or have posts mysteriously dissappear.
Side note: Love the blog!!
I got warned on my youtube channel and had the video deleted about a year back , it was for an obscure SY & Unknown track from 1995.I would advise against posting anything from SY & Unknown either on youtube or as an MP3 download.
I really like the blog the way it is. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. However, you could start a sister site to post youtube videos on.
#1 Good how it is..
#1,
i use to listen the tracks in my car
amazing work,
amazing collection
1 – I love this place exactly how it is.
#1
Thanks for the great music.
#1
I personally dont mint the od Youtube vid now & again (if its a rare unknown track & not someting thats been played to death a million times before) but a large amount of the vids on Youtube we’ve seen a lot of them before. The mp3’s you post on hear some of them arent on Youtube:) So that makes youre blog stand out from the rest that just post Youtube vids all the time on there blog.
Keep up the good work:D
#1 definitely. The selective format of you putting up (and describing) only what you rip makes it feel very personal, even if it is time consuming for you.
That and the bit-rate issue. I DL a good proportion of what you post for personal listening, and really can’t stand the quality level of most youtube rips – which is better for just a quick reference.
#1! quality control!! (your blog is the best, much appreciated from a 22 year old in brooklyn!!)
1
#1, don’t mess with a good thing. If you’re just posting youtube vids, there’s no risk that you’ll have to take your blog down.
#1
Def option 1.
😉
DJ OD
Option 1
Sounds like the peoples champioooooooonnnnn…
Leave the Blogness Alone,
And don’t forget your condom
Now who could argue with that? Eh?
hahaha, words of wisdom! Yeah sticking with #1 for now as that seems the winner and it fits nicely with my “lazy bastard” ethos. Still hoping to revamp it visually at some point, just need to dig into blog customization / jquery a bit
late getting back but agree with the consensus
#1 it aint broke, dont fix it
“Less Committal… anyone can get into a “youtube hole” sitting there digging through tons of obscure tracks without actually owning a single oldskool record, without having ever dug for tunes in a grimey uk record store basement, without having even gone to a real rave.”
I think that this also applies to mp3s. There are even a couple of posts here that give me the impression that some just download it because it is there, and also some oddly contradictory replies regarding the use of the blog and mp3s.
“I think this also applies to mp3s” possibly for people checking the site, but I was talking about the commitment level for me running the site…. ripping vinyl from my collection track-by-track versus going on youtube, finding tracks and embedding them here. I realize it’s not any more work for someone to click “download” than it is for them to check a clip on youtube 🙂
not sure about the contradictory replies, I’ve probably contradicted myself about the whole mp3/blog thing since I think it’s a mixed blessing and I’ve got nuff cognitive dissonance about it