Where to get LEGAL Paid Disco MP3 downloads?

[Tim Tam]

Hi,

I am getting a bit sick of buying Disco Compilations for only one or two tracks. Are there any sites that can be recommended where I can get LEGAL downloads of the likes of Joe Thomas "Plato's Retreat" and Gregg Diamond's Star Cruiser "Star Cruisin" album. Those are the ones I am after at the moment but any site with lots of Disco stuff would be welcome.

As I am an Aussie, Amazon is no good to me as it only allows U.S buyers to download. They have some good stuff otherwise.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Cdnbob]

I've been wondering this too as I don't find iTunes that great either.

[Graham_Start]

AFAIK, much of this material has never made it to download stores and isn't likely to either, due to the usual reasons of legal wrangling, lost master tapes, record company indifference, and lack of demand. The few times that Gregg Diamond's stuff has actually made it to legit CD release, the recordings were sourced from vinyl anyway (specifically, I'm thinking of the Discotech compilation and the version of "Danger" on the "Best Disco Album In The Universe" series).

[FunkyChris]

Dance mp3 & WAVs: over 550,000 dance music tracks at Juno Download - Juno Download (lossless + mp3)
MusicGiants VideoGiants - High Definition Entertainment (lossless)
Apple - iTunes - iTunes Overview (aac)

[DonaldCleveland]

Originally Posted by Graham_Start

AFAIK, much of this material has never made it to download stores and isn't likely to either, due to the usual reasons of legal wrangling, lost master tapes, record company indifference, and lack of demand. The few times that Gregg Diamond's stuff has actually made it to legit CD release, the recordings were sourced from vinyl anyway (specifically, I'm thinking of the Discotech compilation and the version of "Danger" on the "Best Disco Album In The Universe" series).

I can tell you the master tapes are NOT lost.
I can factually state that ALL the tracks were transferred from either the 12" single master tapes or the LP master tapes. But you were correct when you stated "indifference" as a reason. About 7 years ago Brian Chin produced a Gregg Diamond compilation for Universal. There was cross label licensed material (Andrea True, Starcriuser) that was PAID FOR. Liner notes were written.....and then the sales department KILLED the project for lack of projected sales. BUMMER.

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by DonaldCleveland

I can tell you the master tapes are NOT lost.
I can factually state that ALL the tracks were transferred from either the 12" single master tapes or the LP master tapes. But you were correct when you stated "indifference" as a reason. About 7 years ago Brian Chin produced a Gregg Diamond compilation for Universal. There was cross label licensed material (Andrea True, Starcriuser) that was PAID FOR. Liner notes were written.....and then the sales department KILLED the project for lack of projected sales. BUMMER.

When the companies expect sales, what are they looking at? 10,000 copies? If they do a limited release of 5,000 to 10,000 is that economical for them?

Disco Funk

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

Hi,

I am getting a bit sick of buying Disco Compilations for only one or two tracks. Are there any sites that can be recommended where I can get LEGAL downloads of the likes of Joe Thomas "Plato's Retreat" and Gregg Diamond's Star Cruiser "Star Cruisin" album. Those are the ones I am after at the moment but any site with lots of Disco stuff would be welcome.

As I am an Aussie, Amazon is no good to me as it only allows U.S buyers to download. They have some good stuff otherwise.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Tim Tam

There's no guarantee what you are downloading is from original source master tapes. I downloaded stuff from West End Records website, only to discover that a lot of the material sounded like they were taken from vinyl sources. I've come across stuff on iTunes that sounded like they were already taken from compressed sources. Unfortunately, listening to an audio sample isn't good enough, especially when they provide a sample that's at a much lower bit rate than the actual file.

Edit: I should add that the music companies also win on the fact that even though they might be selling you a poor quality product, you can't return it. At least with CDs, if you weren't satisfied, it could be sent back to the store. Try sending back a file you downloaded off of iTunes for your money back. Good luck!

Disco Funk

[DonaldCleveland]

Originally Posted by Disco Funk

When the companies expect sales, what are they looking at? 10,000 copies? If they do a limited release of 5,000 to 10,000 is that economical for them?

Disco Funk

I wish it were that simple, or that the "rules" were that evenly applied. If only math were involved you would see more stuff we wanted. However, "Feelings" are involved. "Knowledge" is involved. "Demographics" are involved.
After all, if the sales department doesn't know who Bionic Boogie is...how can they sell it? Eddie Kendricks? Who is he?
You would be amazed at how many weak reasons I've heard that sales departments turn down projects.

As one example:
A MAJOR company refused to issue any solo CDs by a Superstar singer from a Superstar FAMILY. The singer has reinvented himself as an actor, TV host and general media atrraction. He does oldies tours. He asked the label to release his CDs. They said no. They looked at the numbers of his last CD (which was a licensed project) and after determining that it only sold 12,000 copies, decided that was too low a number. The thing is MORE THAN ONE outside label has CDs on this singer and his family. And if you ADD the numbers for the 25-30 individual discs, spread out among 9 or 10 companies both large and small....you come out with a cumulative 11 MILLION sold.

But they dont know how to check the numbers you see?

And when you point the correct methodology out to them....?
YOU become the problem.

And it made NO sense...but they have done silly things like this everyday for the past few years. The music industry has NOT been dying for ONE reason only. It kills itself with a series of errors like this one on a consistent basis. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

[Graham_Start]

Originally Posted by DonaldCleveland

I can tell you the master tapes are NOT lost.

Maybe not for Gregg Diamond, but I was speaking in general terms.

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by DonaldCleveland

I wish it were that simple, or that the "rules" were that evenly applied. If only math were involved you would see more stuff we wanted. However, "Feelings" are involved. "Knowledge" is involved. "Demographics" are involved.
After all, if the sales department doesn't know who Bionic Boogie is...how can they sell it? Eddie Kendricks? Who is he?
You would be amazed at how many weak reasons I've heard that sales departments turn down projects.

As one example:
A MAJOR company refused to issue any solo CDs by a Superstar singer from a Superstar FAMILY. The singer has reinvented himself as an actor, TV host and general media atrraction. He does oldies tours. He asked the label to release his CDs. They said no. They looked at the numbers of his last CD (which was a licensed project) and after determining that it only sold 12,000 copies, decided that was too low a number. The thing is MORE THAN ONE outside label has CDs on this singer and his family. And if you ADD the numbers for the 25-30 individual discs, spread out among 9 or 10 companies both large and small....you come out with a cumulative 11 MILLION sold.

But they dont know how to check the numbers you see?

And when you point the correct methodology out to them....?
YOU become the problem.

And it made NO sense...but they have done silly things like this everyday for the past few years. The music industry has NOT been dying for ONE reason only. It kills itself with a series of errors like this one on a consistent basis. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I agree. But when will it change? Probably never. That's why people are buying up vinyl so eagerly. They're tired of waiting for corporations to give them what they want.

I've never felt sorry for the companies, even when they were claiming that illegal downloads were damaging music sales. They're just bloated bureaucracies that are only interested in push marketing of the tone deaf, new garbage they invested lots of money in.

Disco Funk

[Tim Tam]

Originally Posted by FunkyChris

Dance mp3 & WAVs: over 550,000 dance music tracks at Juno Download - Juno Download (lossless + mp3)
MusicGiants VideoGiants - High Definition Entertainment (lossless)
Apple - iTunes - iTunes Overview (aac)

Thanks FunkyChris.

The Juno site looks very promising. They have quite a bit of Disco listed. I can see myself spending some money there.

I actually bit the bullet and ordered the Star Cruiser LP from Amazon. What chance a 12" bit of vinyl will make it from the U.S to Australia in one piece?
Maybe 15-20% I am guessing. Luckily it wasn't too expensive.
The thing that I found strange was that the LP was listed as new. Surely they all must be used/second hand?

I was a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the Russian download sites. They are, it seems, quasi-legal although I note that U.S and Canada buyers must use Paypal as the credit companies will not allow the use of their cards.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Graham_Start]

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

I actually bit the bullet and ordered the Star Cruiser LP from Amazon. What chance a 12" bit of vinyl will make it from the U.S to Australia in one piece?

I order stuff from all around the world, and I've only had one thing damaged once (warped well beyond the point of no return). It was a new-old-stock sealed LP, so the damage might've happened before it was shipped to me.

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

Maybe 15-20% I am guessing. Luckily it wasn't too expensive.
The thing that I found strange was that the LP was listed as new. Surely they all must be used/second hand?

Maybe not. A few years ago, I could easily pick up sealed copies of stuff on TK that had been gathering dust for ~20 years.

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

I was a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the Russian download sites. They are, it seems, quasi-legal although I note that U.S and Canada buyers must use Paypal as the credit companies will not allow the use of their cards.

They are "legal" only in the sense that copyright enforcement in Russia is nil. Don't bother with Russian sites: they're just using needle drops or whatever MP3s that they found on the net, and the artist/copyright holder is getting zero compensation for it. Those places are, in effect, selling stolen goods. You might as well just take them from whatever P2P network people are using these days.

[dhwm]

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

Hi,

I am getting a bit sick of buying Disco Compilations for only one or two tracks. Are there any sites that can be recommended where I can get LEGAL downloads of the likes of Joe Thomas "Plato's Retreat" and Gregg Diamond's Star Cruiser "Star Cruisin" album. Those are the ones I am after at the moment but any site with lots of Disco stuff would be welcome.

As I am an Aussie, Amazon is no good to me as it only allows U.S buyers to download. They have some good stuff otherwise.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Tim Tam

ITunes has Joe Thomas' Plato's Retreat. That's where I downloaded it from.

[Tim Tam]

Originally Posted by Graham_Start

I order stuff from all around the world, and I've only had one thing damaged once (warped well beyond the point of no return). It was a new-old-stock sealed LP, so the damage might've happened before it was shipped to me.


Maybe not. A few years ago, I could easily pick up sealed copies of stuff on TK that had been gathering dust for ~20 years.

Hi Graham,

thanks for the reassurance.

I hope I have the same experience you have had with the LPs through the mail. I am a pessimist by nature and the vinyl seems so fragile.
At least half the CDs I have bought have had some damage to the jewel case.

I still think it is kind of amazing that there might still be new/old copies of Disco vinyl out there. You would have thought they would have been thrown away after the Disco craze died down. We should be grateful that there are people out there who cannot bare to throw anything away.

Thanks also to dwhm for the tip about Joe Thomas on ITunes.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Graham_Start]

Originally Posted by Tim Tam

I still think it is kind of amazing that there might still be new/old copies of Disco vinyl out there. You would have thought they would have been thrown away after the Disco craze died down.

I'm assuming that TK overpressed a lot of their product and the stuff just sat in warehouses for decades, because it's often stuff on that label that I could still find sealed (and US copies at that, not Canadian which is obviously what I would normally find up here). Even a couple of years ago, a nearby store had sealed copies of the "Danger" 12" single.

Having said that, *some* of the sealed vinyl out there is counterfeit, like the Lowrell LP I found a while back (horrible sound, like it had been mastered from an ancient cassette), or the copies of Kraftwerk's Autobahn that are supposedly UK pressings on Vertigo.