since setting up a navidrome server, i’ve been working through our record collection trying to find online download codes to get digital copies of our music that we own (should have been done previously, but now is better than never)–and i’ve run into issues where the downloadable copies are no longer available screen shot of https://beggars.com/codes/ which show a patronizing message that says : "The Beggars Group vinyl download codes have been discontinued. It is possible that you have purchased a sealed copy of an old record with a download coupon inside, but due to a very low redemption rate, we stopped including the coupons years ago and we are no longer able to provide a download. Sorry about that" after seeing this i promptly sailed the high seas to acquire a flac copy of the album (and will continue to seed). similarly i’ve had records include codes to low quality mp3 downloads. i’ve also noticed a lot of albums purchased on bandcamp are no longer available for download.

i hope more people start moving to mp3 players or maaaybe selfhosting and that purchasing high quality music is a bit more normal in the coming years. but as i am still quite happy with bandcamp after being bought out, i don’t have a lot of hope that it will be around forever as it had seen layoffs. fingers crossed though.

anyways, go to shows, support your local band, cancel your subscriptions, and if you can’t buy (due to lack of funds, or availability) download and seed.

  • coltn@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    31·
    22 hours ago

    true. but in my experience, most code redemption downloads don’t require info though… besides the usual collection of your data via fingerprinting and cookies.

    where do you source most of your music? for music i really only pirate large artists/bands, so torrenting is pretty easy. i haven’t bothered with soulseek–a centralized network doesn’t appeal that much, and i’m not desperate. if i really need something, and can’t find it, i just use yt-dlp.