Downloading Music
 

I'm considering buying one of the music download things (like napster) for a few days (or month) just to get a lot of songs that I want that I haven't gotten since I stopped using them... Anybody have any experience in terms of which way to go is the cheapest? How do these pay ones work now? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

I have heard, though I do not know this for sure, that Napster's music expires when you cancel your subscription with them. Meaning you can no longer play the music after you cancel. I would look for that type of stuff when checking out a potential site.

FWIW, I love iTunes.

I've heard the same thing about Napster as MJ4H. Once you stop paying for the service, you can no longer play the music. And you can't burn any of the songs you get from Napster on to cd's, as I believe they are in their own format.

I signed up for a trail for Napster after seeing their unlimited downloads commerical scheme. Everytime I tried to look up an album they wanted $14.95 more for it.

allofmp3.com

For the majority of the albums they have, you can pick the quality you want and they'll encode the mp3 on the fly. You pay based on file size and at 192 kbps, I can typically get an album for $1.50

And don't worry, the Russian Mafia is far too ethical to use your credit card info for evil!

;)

Rhapsody is $10/mo and it works really well. I've had it for over two years now. I've had Napster, too. I like it better, for say, downloading music and burning it. But that's really all it's good for. Rhapsody is great for streaming, creating playlists and stuff and making CDs too, because it has a deep catalog. Napster has newer stuff, but often times doesn't make it all available for streaming.

Rhapsody almost always has stuff online for streaming, but it might not be available for burning.

Yahoo's service is cheaper than Napster's, with pretty much the same terms. I believe it is $6.99/month for month-to-month service or $4.99/month if you pay for a year.

I've been using this site and love it! I've made a number of deposits via my debit card - never more than $10 or $15 and have had no problems. They just started a bonus where once you have deposited $50 (cumulative) you start getting a percentage of your deposits as bonus...it's small, maybe 1 or 2 percent, but it's better than nothing! The songs are easy to download and easy to import into iTunes...no problems playing them on my iPod either!

Russian.

See if any of the artists or labels have been paid by allofmp3.com.

Does that make it any more or less legal in Russia?


P.S. - Note I said legal and not moral. The morality of this is an entirely different issue.

I've used AllofMP3 in the past - and occasionally do so now.

The prices are nice - there's no doubt about that. But that's not the primary reason I use(d) it. I checked out many other US-based online sites and all of them restricted my ability to use the music I purchased or were outrageous in price.

For example, you lose the right to play the music you purchased with Napster. Other online systems restrict or prevent the ability to code music to the MP3 format or burn it to personal CDs. I have a built-in CD/MP3 player in my car which is where I listen to my music, so that doesn't work for me. Restricting my personal of music that I purchase isn't the solution for me. Others are so absurdly priced that it can cost you more to buy an album online than at the local Best Buy.

Gee I wonder if the fact that it is 10 times cheaper than any American site means anything. I can also pick up copies of any movie currently in the theater in China for a couple of bucks. Why does anyone shop at US stores?

If you BUY a song from Napster, it's yours forever once you burn it to CD. You only lose the right to play a Napster song if you RENT a song.

As to the Russian site, while it may very well be legal in Russia, there are questions of whether an American using the site is legal. That site has stuff by the Beatles, Madonna, Garth Brooks, and others that hasn't been authorized for download here. That alone should raise eyebrows. That doesn't mean I haven't used the site, but I would be a little weary. It's probably no more/less legal than Kazaa, iMesh, LimeWire, or BitTorrent. However, it's probably much harder to track and prosecute, plus you probably have less risk for virus.

I'd like to learn more about this.

1) When obtaining a song from Napster, you actually have the option to "rent" instead of "buy?" Is it a different price? Is the legal agreement different? Different formats?

2) Does Napster make it an easy option to burn their music to CD and make it clear in their terms of service that you can burn your music to CD to get around the expiring license?

It's definitely legal in Russia.

Okay, somewhere in all the info, I think I got lost.

Here's what might interest me, somebody highlight the best option or two.
1) Legal ...
2)Buy & d'load in format easily burned to CD (no Ipod, no interest in one)
3) Minimal software to install. I just want the files available, not looking for a 24/7 program that tries to run constantly or spyware or anything other than access to the files
4) Reasonably priced

Basically, I want to end up with CD's of artists-with-one-song-I-like or perhaps the occasional inconvienient to find album, listened to 99.9% of the time in the car, virtually no other use of them.

Does anything actually fit those requirements?

No, AllofMP3 is significantly different than Kazaa and the rest. The difference is that this site has been ruled legal in Russia. I also pay for my music (unlike it being free with Kazaa).

So there's little difference in going to Russia and buying the CD or downloading it from AllofMP3. And last time I checked, it's not illegal to bring non-bootleg imports back into the USA.

Why does anyone use pay services, there are some great free programs that will allow you to get double the selection of the pay services for FREE. Im sure you all already know this, I just dont understand why people are so uptight about using p2p services. When I lived at home my mother banned me from downloading music as she said it was stealing and illegal. I just dont care its music with existing programs to obtain it, its not me breaking into a car and taking it.

It's actually no different at all, and you're nothing more than a damned pathetic thief.

Nice to see what wonderful material our universities have to work with these days.

Tool.

Ok JohninMiddleGa play the holier than thou role.... You dont know me or how I operate other than I use P2p programs to get music. There is a difference between law and morality, and although I know what I do is against the law I dont feel its immoral for me to obtain music, movies, etc... thats shared with me. I just dont feel like Im going to go to hell for downloading the latest Jay-Z album on Mirc....

What about music downloaded from indie labels? It's the principle.

Didn't say anything about Hell ... prison is where you belong.

And if there's one dime of government money being used in your pursuit of education, and one moment of government provided bandwidth used in your criminal pursuits, then perhaps Federal prison at that.

Yes I need to be in federal prison for using a p2p program to get music.....pfffttt... and I admitted Im breaking the law but jail...come on man you do know there are murderers and rapists running around? I dont give a f*ck about the law as it concerns p2p sharing.

Please then, do us a favor -- share your real name & student ID with us -- there are a few people who might be interested to have it.

Let's try not to threadjack. Downloading copyrighted music without proper permission is against the law. For a reason. So there's the answer to your question why people are so uptight about downloading music using p2p software.

JimGA:

iTunes allows you to make CDs directly from the same software which you browse, sample, purchase, and download music (usually 99c per song). It is extremely easy to burn CDs of downloaded music immediately. iTunes is also a very good music organizational tool. This is one of the things that makes the iPod so attractive (its interface with iTunes). But even not regarding the iPod in the equation, iTunes is an extremely attractive package. That's my recommendation for you.

Ok johnInMiddleGA saving the world from those damn music thiefs...I laugh at you because you take youself and this situation a little too seriously. Sure Ill give you my student id and full name, that would be smart.

Ignore John. He's not happy unless the USA becomes a facist dictatorship.

Thanks Matt, I was (once again) genuinely getting lost in all the options, and wanted somebody to just match my priorities against them (I've looked at the various sites several times each since they started appearing, never really developed any feeling I really understood them for sure).

Jon--I second the rec. of iTunes. It's big (should not go away any time soon) and very easy to use. It works great with iPod, but I used it for a while even before I got my iPod.

No problem. I use iTunes extensively these days, if you need any guidance with it or have more questions about what it can do and do easily before you decide to try it (which is free, of course) just shoot me a PM or here in this thread.

Just ignore Blackie, he's just upset because he can't find a socialist paradise that survives.

Well, it was worth a try, I figured it was about a 50/50 shot.

Failing that, I think we can still probably arrange to have OSU decide this particular site should be blocked from access, since it's being apparently being used by a student to advocate criminal activity.

Firstly Im on summer break, secondly what is your problem? Do you have anything better to do with your life?

With iTunes you have to buy the service, and then buy each song individually?

So, here's what I've figured out so far ...
1) I would d'load their software
2) The software lets me browse their catalog, see their titles, pricing, etc.

Q1 -- if I install the software, it's inactive unless I choose to open the program (or can easily reset any autorun/autoload settings)?
Q2 -- It appears that iTunes is strictly pay-as-you-go -- No monthly or subscription fees, no deposit to make, just pay for what you want & pay for it at the time you want it. Right?
Q3 -- Basically, if I install the software & then decide for some reason that it isn't for me, I'm out nothing but a little time?

Hmm - would you listen to music at home, at all ? I realize its not what you mentioned, but I love Rhapsody, because it streams the music onto your music at a high bitrate(no downloading of it - you pay a $10 monthly charge), and charges only 79 cents per song if you wish to download and burn to a CD. Also, if you're a subscriber, I believe you can download 25 free songs a month to your hard drive (As opposed to having it streaming) and then burn those- but i'm not certain on that.

Anything I can do to disrupt an admitted criminal is time well spent AFAIC.
You're the one who came into this thread shooting off their mouth like some sort of juvenile delinquent, it might be worthwhile that you learn a lesson or two from it. And if not, it'd still be quite fun.

It'd be fairly rare -- among other things, I tend to like my music loud, and that's not real conducive to domestic harmony (i.e. my wife would go insane at a fairly rapid pace).

You don't have to buy the service. But you can buy songs invividually or by albums.

Get JohninMiddleGa a life Stat!!!

all correct.

I'm doing okay, thanks. I'm making enough to pay for your "education", that ought to be enough to satisfy you. Maybe we should see if your Mom knows the sort of things you post online, maybe it's time for another home-based banning.

And btw, did you clean your room yet?

I dont remember saying anything about how much money you make. I said you need to get a life, as you seem to be overly concerned with hunting down vicious internet music sharing thiefs. Im thinking if you had a life maybe you could use that time to take a lady out or talk to some friends.

You can't be serious.

I actually think he is

ok... hopefully the last question... i went with iTunes... now I have a song in an M4P format, how do I convert that to something I can play in a cd player?

If you mean burning it to disc, itunes has a built-in burner. AFAIK, the only way to convert an itunes file to an MP3 is to burn it to disc in itunes, then rip it back as an MP3.

ok, but the built in burner will convert it to a file that i can play in a regular player, or my car etc...? thanks again for all of your help.