More sad news: music samples limit

[Nano]

If you went to AllMusic.com today, you may have noticed all the blue links to CDNow changed to red... and now they link to Barnes&Noble. I usually try to find songs listening to these music samples, so I went to B&N's links and there's the same material than Amazon has (which is poor). I then typed the CDNow address... I found myself in Amazon!
After checking all these addresses, I conclude this:
a) CDNow no longer exists (apparently was absorbed by Amazon).
b) There's a new limit to music samples, at least in both Amazon and Barnes&Noble. All pages contains music samples of the 5 first songs only.
c) All music samples are in RealPlayer format. No more .wmv sound archives (is this a war on Bill Gates' Windows Media Player?).
d) The www have become, again, a little less free than before. I wonder how much time will pass til these sites stop selling music altogether (don't think many people will like to buy online if they can't listen to the records).

Another battle in the labels vs. MP3 war? Make your own conclusions. I'm just sad; for me, the Internet is a vehicle for information before anything else.

[NickNack]

CDNOW sent out a short, very bland email informing it's members of it's "Alliance" with Amazon.com as of December 4. It looks like the so-called alliance is more a takeover by Amazon. Sad for me as I always preferred CDNOW over Amazon. In fairness, Amazon does seem to have a better selection of import items. Just have to see what happens. And I agree with you, it does look like the cut way back on the sound samples.

[QUINNY]

Surprise, surprise. Latest figures state that internet sales of music have taken a huge dive over the last 9 months, whereas virtually every other category has shown increases.
I guess people have got fed up waiting for non-existant CDs to arrive, or to be told they are no longer available. Even more consolidation is bound to take place. That's the way of the world, eh?

[nrgbeat]

Surprise, surprise. Latest figures state that internet sales of music have taken a huge dive over the last 9 months, whereas virtually every other category has shown increases.
I guess people have got fed up waiting for non-existant CDs to arrive, or to be told they are no longer available. Even more consolidation is bound to take place. That's the way of the world, eh?

Just one more reason to download.

[Funky Dude]

FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP :x , HAVEN'T THESE MONGRELS DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE AS IT IS :x ??? STOPPING MP3 SHARING IS ONE THING BUT WIPING OUT SOUND SAMPLES, NOW COME ON :x :x :x !!!!! HOW THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE SUPPOSE TO KNOW IF AN ALBUM SOUNDS GOOD OR BUMCRAP IF THERE'S HARDLY ANY SOUND SAMPLES TO TEST THE ALBUMS :evil: :evil: :evil: ??? PEOPLE AREN'T GOING TO WANT TO BLINDLY BUY CDs AND FIND OUT THAT THEY ARE **** BORING OR SOUND TOTALLY CRAP ARE THEY??? THIS IS ONLY GOING TO HURT THE RECORD COMPANIES EVEN MORE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED!!!

DOES IT REALLY HURT THE RECORD COMPANIES TO HAVE 30 SECOND SOUND SAMPLES OF SONGS??? DO THESE COMPANIES THINK THAT PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO "YAAAAY, I'VE GOT 30 SECOND SOUND CLIPS FOR FREE" I DON'T THINK SO :evil: . PEOPLE WANT THE FULL SONG AND AREN'T GOING TO GET OFF ON 30 SECOND SOUND CLIPS SO WHY WIPE OUT 30 SECOND CLIPS??? THEY ARE EVIL, EVIL I TELL YA, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLL LLLLLLLLLL :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

AS DON MCLEAN SAYS THIS IS "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED" (ONLINE THAT IS):
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good 'ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singing "This will be the day that I die",
"This will be the day that I die."

[Nano]

You know, this reminds me a bit of the old days... In my city most record stores put strict limits with teenagers about hearing their records. The best one had some old booths to listen to them in private, so you managed the turntable yourself. But the owner warned us: "if you want to listen, you have to buy". So, anytime I or a friend of mine would buy a record, we called each other and went there in number of 3 or 5 people, so we could all listen to them. You could listen to 2 or 3 records and then choose which one you would buy. So let's say you already knew what you wanted to buy (say, the last Stones record), you would "choose" anyway 2 other records to listen to in the booth... Ah, the past was always better! Or is this the future? :roll: