Netlabels and Open Content

Posted on 2020-02-05 by dimi

Another one I found going trough 15-year-old e-mails: Netlabels and Open Content (PDF). You might think netlabels aren’t relevant anymore now that streaming services have become ubiquitous, but I would argue that they are even more relevant. In a landscape dominated by a few massive, global players, small and independent online record labels are independent distribution channels. Back in 2005 when this was written, the writer positioned Netlabels versus P2P-networks. Peer to peer not just as a technology, but as a philosophical or political statement really got me excited back then.

#P2P #netlabels #paper

Lobit music

Posted on 2020-02-05 by dimi

I was going through some old e-mails (like from 2006) and found this list of lo-bit labels I shared with a friend back then. I was pleasantly surprised that some of them are still online:

I tried finding the Wikipedia entry on it, but it looks like there isn’t any, but there is a Wikiola entry on low bit.
Basically lobit is defined as music encoded with extremely low bitrate MP3 (like 20kbps, where regular high-quality MP3s are upwards of 192kbps), which not only results in super small files but noticeable audio artifacts.

The above labels’ names refer to this: Floppy Swop contains releases that are small enough to fit on an oldskool floppy disk, so 1.44MB or smaller. That includes artwork, so this is also encoded in super low-resolution gif for instance. The 20kbps label brings out MP3s encoded in that bitrate.

All of the music is available free for download, so check it out. And let me know in the comments if you know any other cool lobit labels or artists.

#lobit #netlabels #music #free #download