MP3 of the Month FAQ: Policies and Red Tape We All Hate!
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Why the FAQ?
The MP3 of the Month FAQ comes about due to an overwhelming response to the MP3 of the Month feature that is on this site. People mainly have questions about these two issues -- how to download the MP3 and how to get past MP3s of the Month -- and I will try to answer these two questions and more if there are any.

Please e-mail me with any further questions that may not be answered here.

Firstly, the intention of the MP3 of the Month originally was to post only from bootleg recordings. Sure, rare recordings from time to time for you folks who want to listen to stuff that isn't easy to find, but as of late, people have been going NUTS with the MP3 rarities, no offense. On both SloanNet and the official messageboard, which seem to be the two major forums for Sloan fans, people have been going CRAZY over the MP3s.

Now, you may think it's easy for me to say since I have a lot of the rarities, but I guess obtaining these MP3s is like buying scalped tickets... better not to be done publicly, but that the transaction is private and low-profile. I'm sure you guys would love to hear At the Edge of the Scene as an MP3 of the Month, but Sloan had records to make and money to earn! I'd hate to be adding to the material online available as far as MP3s are concerned, but I guess it happens.

Anyway, I personally would prefer posting bootlegs because in all honesty, that's the stuff that should be circulating for free. The band can't really benefit from (no offense, 'cause even I bootleg) sub-standard recordings. It's something a fan does for his own sake and for other fans. That's the root of it. Now, the reason I put up these MP3s of the Month if they're rarities is because I feel that they've been around long enough or are pretty much available if you looked hard enough.

If my logic seems twisted, just e-mail me!

I hope this clarifies my standpoint on rare Sloan MP3s. A rarities album is due out, and publicly hounding after the MP3s seems a little crazed even for the biggest Sloan fan! I'm not the authority on what a fan is, but well, I think I've said what I needed to. Anyway...

Where Can I Download Past MP3s of the Month?
My short explanation and my long rant...

The Bottom Line: Nope, I can't provide the MP3 of the Month for those who have missed it because (a) I don't have the space and (b) I would only like to provide the MP3 for a period that is pretty long... one month.

At this time, I can't really offer that service to you folks. I know that I can't stand it when a site only offers certain things such as media files like these or just info and pictures in general for a short time. I'm sorry for that because Tripod seems to be the only place that I can realistically pop up this site with free service space and little hassle.

In any case, I used to try to hook up people with FTP access to my computer so that they could get the files that way, but:

So that's kinda why I don't do that anymore. Besides, the few people that I did give FTP access to didn't really take advantage of it, so no one gained a substantial amount from this offer. Now, I do give out the FTP to those who trade stuff, especially bootlegs, but I don't wanna make that public...oops. Well, I'll revise this later when I'm edit-ready.

Anyway, my whole idea behind MP3 of the Month is 28, 29, 30, or 31 days of giving you the ability to download and listen to some song Sloan hasn't popped onto a major release. That's all it's there for. I know that a lot of people are just finding this site either from being a new fan or just finding a link here, but I don't have any control over who comes in here, and thus I can't really make a great effort to accomodate for it.

Even if I had the server space to leave these MP3s up here, I probably wouldn't because I love Sloan, and the last thing they need is for me to screw them on one song ALL YEAR. Well, maybe it doesn't, but I feel really bad if I'm putting up an MP3 from something that could very well be heard on a rarities album. I don't have too many bootlegs besides the ones that are out there, so I try to pick songs that again, aren't too hard to find if you looked hard enough.

Am I on Napster? The Sloan MP3s you're looking for are there, but not all of 'em 'cause that's just a piece of it. Plus, I don't use Napster too often.

Anyway, I wrote a little too much for this question, so...

Question 2: How Do I Download the MP3?
Another short explanation and then my incompetent instructions...

The Bottom Line: You have to make sure you browser can download the files and not just open them from my site. That is the key. Many programs like Winamp, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and Quicktime try to be your default viewer for these files, which really screws up defaults for downloading and opening files.

If I get the chance, I'll have some corresponding pictures of how you do this. I'm a little behind on browser junk, so I use IE 5.0 and Netscape 4.5.

DISCLAIMER: These explanations really SUCK, so beware! And if you can explain it better, by all means, help me out!!!

Here's the first method which usually works for me. I'm no computer expert, just instructing you from my own common sense. Use Netscape. If you don't have it, go down further to my really screwed up instructions.

Here's the screwy method that probably won't even answer your question.

  • Click on the link
  • You'll most likely get the Tripod page with the link that tells you (well not directly) that this file is pretty sketchy media.
  • Click on that link
  • If the file is opening itself to a player, something is a little screwy for your MP3 defaults. This you can take care of if you're an experienced computer user by going to Windows Explorer -> View -> Folder Options -> File Types and mess around with the defaults.
  • Why do this? If you have RealPlayer, Winamp, Windows Media Player, and Quicktime, they ALL want to be your default player for something...
  • If you didn't understand a word I said, call a computer literate friend! I don't want to tell you how to do any of that stuff.
  • Hopefully by messing around, you'll be able to have the choice to save the MP3. Especially on IE, you want to get the choice to "Open from current location" and "Save file to disk." In my opinion, that is key stuff.
  • This way you'll be able to save the files, or at least have that choice. One other suggestion I have is to uninstall and reinstall all those media programs, but that takes a lot of time, so it's probably not the best idea...
  • I know this didn't help at all, but what can you do?

If this didn't help, I'm really sorry! It's very late, and this all sounds a little bit clear in my head. Oh well...


Poor Answers to Simple Questions