I’d like to get an idea of how many of our readers would support a few changes to our chart system. I’ve spoken with Tim about this and we’re gonna run a poll to get a better idea. As it stands, there is a kind of legal “grey area” when it comes to sharing mixes online. As a promotional tool, it’s become the preferred platform to share music on the Internet without disrespecting the artists, their labels, or infringing copyright laws.
Your opinion on modifications to chart system?
- 128kbps versions (current) (73%, 138 Votes)
- a mix (17%, 32 Votes)
- shortened audioclips (10%, 18 Votes)
Total Voters: 188
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The function of this blog is also to promote the music we love; however, there are many people – including some artists, label owners, lawyers, and industry professionals that disagree with file sharing. Personally, I don’t believe 10 downloads = 10 lost sales. There is sufficient evidence on both sides to support either claim. The argument becomes more of a debate centered around the ethics of file sharing as opposed to which approach is a more effective promotional tool. Without delving further into this tiring endless debate, I’d like to disregard the ethics and look at something more tangible. Let’s see if we can’t find an even playing field for the end user, the consumer, and the producer.
Re-encoding tracks to low bitrate mp3s, and honoring our promise to the labels, to have any offending content removed on request, has been our approach. Although this does nothing to stop piracy on a larger scale, it’s our own way of expressing our concerns for the artists, and their property. This has proved to be fairly effective for us, and we haven’t received many complaints; However, the main issue for me in regards to the monthly charts is that many of those tunes are usually brand new, and much of the revenue generated from sales are within the initial period of their release.
This has been very stressful for me because there are loads of tunes I purchase that are omitted because I believe artists deserve a fair chance at maximizing revenue generated in that crucial initial period of it’s release. The most important factor in deciding which tunes are going into the charts is how available they are elsewhere on the net. My efforts have been to keep the focus on sharing new quality tunes that aren’t already propagated throughout the blogosphere.
A couple of idea’s dawned on me while I was listening to my favourite radio shows and podcasts on how I could maintain my principles, without changing the way I’ve done the charts in the past. I realized that in the mixes I was listening to that I was hearing large unmixed portions of new tunes. This is obviously how many rips of unreleased material pop up on the net. No one fusses about bloggers sharing radio rips, and no one (hopefully) is stupid enough to use a radio rip in their mixes. It was finally clear to me how I could overcome the negative connotations and inevitable guilt associated with file sharing, and still share and promote the music I love. This isn’t an absolute truth or final solution, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.
I’d like to present two different idea’s to the way we can approach this. The first option would be the tried and tested mix format. This seems to be the most popular and accepted way to go about it. My second idea is approach it more like a radio rip. The changes would be made to the lengths of the tracks, shortening them to 2-3 minute preview clips. This would be easier for us than making mixes, but who knows, maybe we should just try both and see which works best. We’ll start with the clips just cause it’s easiest.
#chart#
Exodub – It’s Alright (Original Mix) / Breath Out / Rest In Beats
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 It's Alright.mp3]
Martyn – Seventy Four (Redshape Remix) / Hear Me bw Seventy Four / 3024 Records
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 Seventy Four (Redshape Mix).mp3]
Binary Sequence – Arc (Original Mix) (streaming only) / 66/31 / Dark Arx
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 Arc.mp3]
Smokin Jo – Simsime (Original Mix) / Umona / Area Remote
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/01 Simsime (Original).mp3]
Frozen Border – 4.01 (Original Mix) / Frozen Border 04 / Frozen Border Records
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/01 4.01.mp3]
Loops Haunt – Joplin (Original Mix) / Impact Omnihammer bw Joplin / Black Acre
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 Joplin.mp3]
Planetary Assault Systems – X Speaks To X (Al Tourettes & Appleblim Remix) / Planetary Assault System Remixes / Ostgut Ton
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/01 X Speaks To X (Al Tourettes & App.mp3]
James Fox – Put It Back (Ramadanman Refix) / Put It Back / Take Records
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 Put It Back (Ramadanman Refix).mp3]
i3i3 – Rock & Groove It (Original Mix) / Explosion Mind bw Rock & Groove It / Eight:FX
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/02 Rock & Groove It.mp3]
Tickles – Fallout (Mentalic’s Edit) / Freirausch / Ipoly Music
[audio:2010/0110/Clips/03 Fallout (Mentalic's Edit).mp3]
P.S. Please do comment and share your thoughts. These charts usually take me a fair bit of time to compile – It takes you about 5 seconds to simply say “thank you” and show appreciation.
TicketNetwork has a great selection of concert tickets, including 
some really good points here, its hard to find that balance between sharing high quality tracks with people, which to a certain extent keeps people coming back to a blog, with respecting artists work. i think youre doing a pretty good job at the moment, i come on this blog over others because some real thought has been put into the selection and new artists are promoted. compared to some which are literally a link to something that shouldnt be shared with the description literally something like “good”
Personally I think mixes are a bad way to go, because if people just want to listen to a certain tune by a certain artist, they’ll look elsewhere. Low quality rips, clips, etc. seem to be the best middle ground, although I think there’s an argument for all three options.
Cheers for the hard work, as well! I know it can take ages to knock up a blog post.
GOOD JOB !!!
Do you think, you can post the song
Darling Farah – Hell (Original Mix) for download ???
Is fucking wicked tune man !!!
Cheer´s Marvin
Very nice, enjoyable mix. Thank you very much for putting this together.
What up, T-Har?
First off, I love the new design for Phase 02. I normally follow via RSS, and this is the first time clicked into the site in a while.
Since I also write a music blog, I share some of your ethical pain.
However, I’m finding that more and more artists (particularly the forward thinking ones) are sending me their high-quality tracks for posting on my site.
My main goal is to share music that I like with readers so that they can listen to it – if an artist doesn’t want to provide me with their tracks, then I won’t post it. Similarly, if an artist provides me with their tracks and I don’t like the music, then I won’t post about them.
Really ace tracks. And I do prefer clips or low-bitrate tracks to mixes anytime, easier to sort things I like to a folder and purchase everything inside that folder later on. I also think that mixing tracks up will alter the perception of tunes, a track might sound quite different in a mix.
Also, this blog is a godsend for a recently converted dub-friend like me. Keep it up.
As founder of phase02 I just have to give my opinion on this one.
First of all, Tony is probably the best thing that happend to phase02 so far. He has increased our post quality significantly. Keep it up tony! Love ya!
Now about the file sharing. If we get the mp3 in 320kbps from the record label / artist or promo agency … and we like it. We just post it in 320. Simple as that. Of course this is about the chart which is slightly different from our regular posts.
I’d definitely go for 128. If there are any complaint from artist/label or promo agency we take it off immediately. But of course I’d want to avoid that. But if the artists of today know their world sharing one track of their whole ep in high quality is only a good thing for their sales. They need to count that promo track in. Or you find a nice unsigned artist to make a remix to promote that particular ep. Today’s producers or record labels should calculate one free track in their budget to share for promotional use to gain more sales and to decrease piracy.
That’s my opinion about this matter. thanks all for the comments. please feel free to join the discussion. This is what we are aiming for. A blog with interaction and a community feeling…
Kepe it up tony! Again amazing post!
cheers,
thanks for the feedback guys, it does make a big difference to us. tim and i are really pushing to make this an interactive platform – a place to share thoughts, as well as music.
Hey: can’t upload that one, sorry. darling is planning on releasing it as an EP soon with some remixes of hell / stash. you can try asking him yourself though, just send him a message on myspace. who knows, he might sort you out.
@DC: point taken. the end result maybe a mixture of clips and low quality mp3s being that doing mixes aren’t as popular as i thought.
Well i dont really know what to say but thanks again tony for an outstanding chart!! I totally understand the headaches that come when trying to please all sides of the industry, its not an easy chair to sit in. I personally would actually prefer to hear a quality mix done by Tony or Timic on the tracks they would like to share, it kinda gives us as readers i feel a chance to get even more close to them as artists them selves. The opportunity to hear how they feel a mix should flow. As long as a track list is in place im all good. Music is ment to flow, why not flow into another song, instead of the stop this track start the next.
On a side note, Marvin Hey, Darling Farah is an outstanding young producer, hell is a preview of a track on his new ep, wait for it, then buy it, support the music brother. We all want those tracks haha
: you’ve supported me from day and been a true friend to me, i love u man. maybe in the future tim and i will hop on a back 2 back ‘in the mix’ session after we get a few more installments in.
tony man, i luv you to brother!! and yes, i would love that more than anything, maybe hear some tony timic originals
lol *hump hump* so much love! cyberlove!
haha. Yeah… a back 2 back mix … would be cool live, problem though. I’m a belgian, tony is canadian 
It might work mixing a track or two and send it through … and so on … that’d actually by cool with a lot more djs :p
timic dont think i dont got love for you to man, you started the future of being in the know of everything beautiful in music and design!! if you and tony both made your own chart mixes that would be sick, no land barrier troubles anymore haha
An example of a producer who understands the power of getting the music to the people who listen to and mix it is what happened with earmilk and LMFAO’s Shots, which earmilk was allowed to post in low quality about a wek before the album hit shelves. That posting in now way impacted future sales of the album or single.
: Yeah of course. definitely when other bloggers read it and post it again and so it start wandering around in the blogosphere, creating a buzz among all the readers. It can have a huge effect. I can think of at least 20 other dj/producers who uses the modern media including the blogworld in their advantage.
thanks
great taste Tony!
thanx for mentioning Loops Haunt, Ramadanman & Redshape remixes! love them!
-The Wicked Bass
as always, excellent selection. keep up the great work
When I find a song in 128 kbps and I like it, I mostly end up buying it. 128 versions have the advantage over shortened audioclips of being able to preview the entire song (which you can’t on Beatport etc.) and definitely have the advantage over mixes, although they can be quite enjoyable.
So I’d say 128 versions are the way to go. But mixes are always welcome for our entertainment.
128kbps !
nice charts !
the biggest shit is that you can search and find all the stuff in 320 the same day it was released.
or even earlier through the scene releases, waffles and what.cd
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Bonjour, my absolute favourite belgians!
I am a huge fan of your blog and your monthly charts. Therefore, I hope you won’t change too much. Those record companies will soon embrace blogs as another way to advertise for their artists. They must. It’s practically free, and especially in the less-exposed genres word-on-the-street is actually word-on-the-blog. They should be grateful for getting some publicity on competent medias like this one!
Keep bloggin’ hard
blogs are a ammazing way of getting artist heard and making me want to buy there 320s
i went out and bought most of these (the ones i could find)
thanks awesome chart!!!
: not many people understand, or are aware of 0day. it isn’t something new but i know what you’re saying. for this reason, i think it’s best to support the vinyl releases. i think artists might get a larger percentage of revenue from hard copy sales as well.
@Nis: it will be still sometime until the music industry remodels itself into something competent. certainly unsigned artists have embraced the power of blogging – which is why you tend to see the same artist’s doing circles ’round the blogosphere.
my hopes is that more grounded established communities with signed artists see the potential to increase their awareness through blogging. some have, like some labels have just made their own blogs or whatever – but it’s more about virility of the internet and how quickly things spread.
: cheers mate. i’ve included all the purchase links beside the downloads for convenience.
IF you begin posting anything other than 320/128 songs, such as mixes or shortened clips you will lose many everyday visitors, such as myself.
AND you will be de-moted from the 5/5 stars to 3/5 stars
YOU WILL become a “whatever” blog
I think this is common sense, I’m pretty sure you already know this but I thought I’d put it out in the open.
: these changes would only affect the charts i do once a month. nothing is going to change in terms of what we post day to day.
it is my hope (as well as Tim) i imagine, that people visit phase02 for more than a quick download. as ‘Noizar’ pointed out, full quality releases are very accessible elsewhere on the net – but that is not what we’re here to provide.
: are you serious brother?
: I think he is. And he’s honest, but it seems he visit blogs to make his music collection as big as possible.
But 5/5 to 3/5 star … for that? that’s bullsh*t. thank god my job is basically internet and I know what I’m talking about
But we won’t stop it anyway … if we get permission we post it, duh!
No worries. It’s only about the chart!
thanks for postin the tunes, I’ll check em out when I get home
just keep doin what you’re doing!
Thank you all for your feedback! This is the most popular post on phase02 so far. I hope we can keep this interaction going, could be fun. Stay tuned for more posts.
cheers,
320 kbps !
nice chart!
I think you should leave it like it is now with the 128kbps versions
Hello Phase02! I am a longtime fellow following you straight outta dallas tx, usa. And I just want to say thank you for taking time out of your day to feed us all these bumpin’ beats! I love hearing mixes but I just always get your 128kbps’! Although it discourages me to play these songs live due to some of the quality it does make me go out and buy it! But hearing the whole song first really helps!!! —- hope this is of some help! but whatever you do, keep up the amazing work!!
Thanks a lot B3. That’s really nice to hear. Appreciate it