I keep reading your posts in Jimmy's voice. It's not great.
NRN, are you saying that the original poster got his intentions wrong when he started this thread? That he should have just asked for the names of good bands instead of where he could find free and interesting music? Because that's really strange. And there's no reason why we can't derail this thread with the merits and disadvantages of downloading music. I already touched upon it briefly on the first page.
I think it's excusable when you're 14 and you don't know what you like. At that age, you're going to be listening to and filtering a LOT of music. If every 14 year old paid for all the music they downloaded and didn't like, they'd have to be earning more than the average QC forum user. When you 'settle' into a comfortable place, that's when you should start spending and supporting bands you like.
After this, if you like a band, support them. That's pretty simple and easy. I don't think people have it in them to really care about more than a dozen releases per year anyway. I think our brains are too small for it. If you can't afford the c10 a month to buy a new release, you probably shouldn't be spending money, because that's just c2.50 a week. All you have to do is skip the morning coffee or drink one less pint a few times a month. Not a difficult task by any stretch of the imagination.
This next thing is more of a pet peeve than anything relevant to the discussion, but when a band somebody is only passingly familiar with is rolling through town, people'll go and download their discography. To see if the band is worth seeing. Nobody needs to hear an entire album, let alone several, before they decide if a band is worth seeing live. Just check out their myspace page, it's all that you need to know. If you hate it, skip the band. If you're feeling indifferent, see them anyway.
