Christians are burning.

April 29, 2002 2:35 PM

Christians are burning. News.com has a story on the latest plan by Liquid Audio & EMI to allow users to burn CDs of Christian music from net downloads. Are Christians less likely to re-rip the CDs and post them for P2P sharing?
posted by Argyle (18 comments total)

You mean there's enough Christian music worth burning onto a CD? *rimshot*

Actually, I'm not Christian but I did download the latest ZAO album before its release and burned it. I also threw it onto my FTP and so-forth. Yeah, that doesn't answer the question you asked, but I think the principle is the same.
posted by Dark Messiah at 2:40 PM on April 29, 2002

Thou shalt not steal :)
posted by UncleFes at 2:44 PM on April 29, 2002

Somehow I think the title of this post will attract a lot of Metafites.
posted by aaronshaf at 3:05 PM on April 29, 2002

Yes! Stryper CDs for everyone!
posted by RylandDotNet at 3:18 PM on April 29, 2002

Ryland: is that your idea of penance?!
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:38 PM on April 29, 2002

You mean this is a story of the Internet being used to target people who are interested in specific subgenres and offer them a service that would be much more difficult offline! No!!!! Cynicism. Must. Win...
posted by nedrichards at 4:43 PM on April 29, 2002

This sounds like another venn diagram that doesn't overlap, ala the issue with Mac users and copy protected Celine Dion CDs.
posted by machaus at 4:48 PM on April 29, 2002

Christians are a more honest lot, really. I think history has proven that. Although I can't imagine why there would be any demand for say, steven curtis chapman or the newsboys, I'm sure this is good news for those that like Christian music softer than Zao.
posted by ddmmyyyy at 5:18 PM on April 29, 2002

I think what I was getting at was more about the fact that mainstream pay download music sites like Pressplay and Musicnet make it impossible or difficult to actually burn CDs form the music you buy & download. If you look at Burn it first, the complete focus is on burning CDs.

I'm suggesting that the companies think Christian music buyers are less likely to make naughty with the music they buy.
posted by Argyle at 5:35 PM on April 29, 2002

I'm suggesting that the companies think Christian music buyers are less likely to make naughty with the music they buy.

They're absolutely right. Christians never do anything naughty.
posted by chuq at 5:51 PM on April 29, 2002

The (serious) Christian music scene has more cause than even the indies to support real P2P like Napster and Gnutella and disavow the RIAA. The major labels now control most major religious music releases and treat it like a niche market sideshow, content to give the world a constant drone of sanitized pop. If you look on MP3.com, you can find many major Christian acts like Daniel Amos, Undercover and the 77s. There's much, much more to Christian music than the AC fluff that gets played on the radio.
posted by Iberaband at 6:32 PM on April 29, 2002

I think they're right, only because Christian music doesn't have THAT much demand for it. Obviously there is demand, but it's slightly-less-than the demand for, say, the next Korn record. (Comments aside, Korn commands a lot of sales.)

ZAO has soft tunes too... One or two, anyway :) "Witchhunter" is really creepy.
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:32 PM on April 29, 2002

What is interesting is that at the same time that plans for legal digital music downloads are underway, the Christian Music Industry is revisiting the old guitar tab issue (you'll remember when OLGA had to run for her life back in 1996).

Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing Inc. has flexed their muscles at at least two Christian guitar tab sites (1 | 2) and forced them to remove tab from their archives.

The Man giveth and The Man taketh away.
posted by iceberg273 at 6:49 PM on April 29, 2002

plottomakeonebuyblankcd's
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 PM on April 29, 2002

From the article: Liquid Audio said subscribers will be able to burn a song to a CD up to three times

Just wondering, once you've burned a song once, what's preventing you from ripping it in to an MP3, and then burning it as often as you like?
posted by epimorph at 11:12 PM on April 29, 2002

Growing up, Christian kids traded their fair share of mix tapes. Christian music, on average, is much more expensive than the secular kind. That, and a whole bunch of one-hit-wonders, help rationalize the guilt of a little piracy.
posted by Gary at 12:09 AM on April 30, 2002

All of these points are true, actually I'm really looking forward to the new all star united album (i'll get it at their gig though to be indie and cool!). It's good to see people promoting sane things like burning and actually trusting people.
posted by nedrichards at 4:26 AM on April 30, 2002

"Christians are a more honest lot, really."

And more partotic, tollerant and intelligent too.

Sorry... just couldn't help myself.
posted by wfrgms at 9:19 AM on April 30, 2002