Honestly I didn't expect this to be controversial, but if the mods think I've breached the wonderful privilege as a member of this amazing sub, feel free to take the link down. And I'm typing as things come out of my mind. So its all here and there, just try to stay with me. Here's what I have to say.
In my books sharing music is super cool. Almost all of these are my personal purchase. So as per xkathmandus’ logic I "supported" these artists? Well, personally I don’t really care about artists/bands, I care about art/music more than the people who created these cause you never know if they are genuinely nice peps or not. And, what’s wrong with sharing music with people you love (yes, i love you guys)? You think its hard to make a living as a musician just in Nepal, let me spoil this for you: its hard everywhere. Buying music might help a bit, going to shows/buying merch even better. You should def help artists you love in any way possible no questions asked, but what if you don’t have the means to acquire music? Should you just avoid then, not look for means to get it?
idk about you guys, but Im a big connoisseur of western(American, European, etc.) and eastern (South Asia, Japan, AUS etc.) independent music and unlike "mainstream" music these are not readily available for free downloads on the piratebay so your best bet for obtaining these music would be blogs dedicated to such art or music forums. I have no shame in stealing music for free from these artist cause there is no way I could buy every single records that I love! I'm so thankful to people who put their time and effort into sharing these stuff with less fortunate people like me.
Prior to me buying Nepali music, I looked upon the interwebz to find albums and every time I did it would be in such poor form (super low bitrate/jpt tags) and this really frustrated me and got me into thinking- why can't we Nepalis just have proper music for free downloads just like everyone else? Why don’t anyone do that? Then I thought maybe it was people like me who should do it. Over the years I met couple of really nice Nepali guys who live aboard (US, different EU countries) on the internet (god bless!) who were into music as much as I was and then we started sharing whatever we had. They purchased online (itunes, Bandcamp etc.) I mostly shared my CD purchases, and also bandcamp stuff sometimes. We are now homies for lyfe (would take bullet for/10) and this happened cause of our common love for music (I love you fam :’-) <333).
Potato, even some of these CD "master" files are not perfect! I do spectral analysis after I rip CDs and I can tell for sure these are just poorly recorded music- bad master files itself. I bet the quality on iTunes/Amazon store for the same record on CD would be lower cause Apple/Amazon store only offer lossly music and most probably were encoded with older technologies when they were first uploaded online. Even some of the CDs I've bought (new ones) have no track on them, skips the part, song glitches and whatnot, like 1 in 10 would have such problems.
You know I'd go arms and length in order to obtain music. I have approached with some random Nepalis online on fb, emails etc. who own the records I want, but these people aka scumbags didn't share those music with me. Two things I make of them:
I just checked what I've upped, most of these are "underground" bands so no copyright issue. You should "support" these guys by downloading their music and listening to them. On top of that these are some of the best artist Nepal has to offer. I'm not obliged to say this just cause they are genuinely nice people, but they also make some of the best Nepali music ever.
Albatross (this ones tricky, idk what they'd think lol) Bipul Chettri (he seemed like a super nice guy when I saw him on jan 1st, might not vouch for album share tho) Andazification (defunct) Binaash (underground, Ramailo DM) Dewdrop (poppunk, on hiatus) Diwas Gurung (I told him on email once that I shared his album with my homies and he replied me saying he was cool with that) Haami (free on SoundCloud, I just made comprehensive zip for you!) Sangharsha (Nepali sludge/hc via NYC, bunch of cool cats!) Squirt Guns (hardcore punk, their latest album rules!) Topi (free on cdbabay, comprehensive zip!) Tumbleweed Inc (ex-The Axe guitarist's band!) Zero Transition (defunct) Zombie X Incest (First Nepali PV band) Ugra Karma (dont think they actually care, I'm seeing them later this month!)
On which albums do you guys think I'd have "copyright issues"? my picks: 1974 AD, Ambar Gurung, Cobweb, Kutumba, Nepathya, Narayan Gopal.
I am just glad my collection found a new home . I hope you enjoy the music, potato and anyone else who downloaded. Also, I'd love to hear from you guys what you loved the most from my collection? what you think was weird or didn't really expect? Sorry for some of the artwork being bit crappy- I did my best to find a better artwork, but no luck of some of the albums. I have more Nepathya, Narayan Gopal, Kutumba and some more stuff which I'll PM you, potato. Dont expect me to get you right away tho.
Here is what I really have to say regarding piracy and why I choose to share:
I am sharing these music in good faith in hopes that in the future by any chance if I lost my copy one of you guys would be there to hook me up. Honestly, I will cry for weeks if I lost my music forreal haha
I want these artist to get bigger reach. Does sharing these music change your perspective on buying music? Will you go and get these records? Probably not, or maybe. Whatever the case, you will now at least listen to them. Who gained here? Don't you think an artist just got a new listener? And, is that not the whole point of making music in the first place?
And, guess what? Some of these music CDs were the last rem copies in the store where I picked these from. Once these are gone they are gone. Do you know how many of old record company that produced these albums are still in operation? None! So that makes these stuff out of print material. Hopefully some 20 years later some young guy like me decides to explore Nepali albums and find these links. How beautiful would that be? Awww!
Privacy and sharing are completely two different things!
I intestinally avoided couple of artist whose music I own but don’t like their music (then why did you buy it in the first place, idiot?) well, I didn’t know they made bad music and these guys were jerks haha.
Finally to conclude,
Do you think Nepali musician would lurk this sub and get mad to know someone was sharing their music lol? Unless someone from here was a snitch and that'd truly break my heart and faith on you guys :( But from this point on-wards I'll enact to send dl links via PM.
I might sound a little off and rude (?) idk. But, i just wanted to let you all know that I love you all. I have been lurking on this sub for like a year and i thought it was so rad. I only wanted to come in here to talk/share about Nepali music cause that what I'm good at. But, lack of music discussion deterred me to hop on board right away. But, I’m here to stay. This sub is a hidden Nepali gem on the internet. When I first discovered this thread that was what I thought about r/nepal.
Much Love, glitchXgaze <3 <3 <3