Recommendations please for downloading music files

[PineRidge]

What and where do you all recommend a green-horn like me go to download music files for an MP3 player? Are there any services that are easier to use for obtaining music files? Should I expect to pay per song, per album, or per month?

I also appreciate any other information that you care to share on this subject.

 

[getut]

I recommend MP3Tunes.com.

They are standard MP3 with no Digital Rights Management whatsoever. Show the RIAA that you are willing to get your music legally, but are NOT willing to let them control your computer.

 

[MikePA]

I have an iPod (60 gig iPod Photo) and use iTunes. Also use it in my car. 99 cents per song, about $12.99 for an album. iTunes will also search your hard drive for MP3 files and put them on the iPod. You can also import music CDs into iTunes.

 

[PineRidge]

Mike are you saying that I can import a CD to iTunes then transfer the songs to the MP3 player?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Mike, be careful of the monthly subscription downloads, on some of them you are only renting the songs, as soon as you stop paying the monthly fee you lose access to the songs. I tend to agree with MikePA, iTunes works very well and yes, you can copy a CD into iTunes and then export it to a player. iTunes does limit how many times you can record a playlist, but if you alter your playlist, you can keep recording. Basically it says if you are doing too many multiple copies then we will be a pain for you to use, but if you are a normal person you'd never run into a problem. I don't know about Getut's answer but it sounds good.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> Mike are you saying that I can import a CD to iTunes then transfer the songs to the MP3 player? </font>
I've imported CDs into iTunes but I've only ever used iTunes with an iPod.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue">I recommend MP3Tunes.com. They are standard MP3... </font>
They might be standard mp3, but they are not the standard, i.e., original artists. I'd rather pay 11 cents more and get the original singer/group.

 

[ejtaylor822]

Mike,
What kind of MP3 player do you have? Or, are you looking to get one.

I have, and love, my iPod. Have wanted one for years and my wife surprised me with the 40GB this past Christmas. As a musician this is the greatest thing in the world. Gone are the days of taking a CD player and a whole case of CDs to a rehearsal/gig. Drop the pod in your pocket and it's done! I use it in the car with and FM adapter and at work.

iTunes can be somewhat clunky at first, but, I think it's much better than the windows media player. Plus, with the on-line store with the search functionality and ease of downloading it's a great system. Another cool function of iTunes is the ability to share your library with multiple computers in your home network. I have my main "media" PC in my studio setup as the "master" sharing the library. iTunes is loaded on all our PC's. We can now get to ALL of our albums from one central location. I have a small laptop that I paid $100 for, upgraded the memory to use XP and now have this hooked into the main stereo in the home theater. No more loading CDs!

One caveat to iTunes though. It only runs on XP. So, depending upon your PC, you may have to upgrade to XP (about $79) and add additional memory so that XP can run (about another $50 to $100 depending upon how much you need). Also, iTunes is a memory hog as well so take that into consideration as well if you have to buy memory. You probably want to have at least, bare minimum, 256 MB total system memory.

Hope this helps.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Mike,
I've gotten some off of blubster.com they seem to have a good variety.

Steve

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> One caveat to iTunes though. It only runs on XP. </font>
It also runs on Windows2000.

 

[PineRidge]

Eddie I just have a small 512MB MP3 player that I use daily when exercising on the treadmill. Up until now only used the FM portion of the player but figured why not fill it with some of my favorites tunes to pass the time while I'm running like a hamster....

I do run XP and have as much memory in this computer as it will allow so that should not be an issue.

Lots of good information and tips here guys, thanks.

 

[Dargo]

Yes, you can rip your tunes to MP3 and itunes will play them. However I am ticked to find that if I download music from the itunes store, I cannot put that music on my player. It has to be played on the computer only. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Well, that makes it about worthless for me to spend my .99c per song there. I sat there one morning and spend some money buying music I wanted to hear while I was mowing. Not! Not unless I wanted to drag my laptop along with me as I mow. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif If I buy music, I go to the store!

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> However I am ticked to find that if I download music from the itunes store, I cannot put that music on my player. It has to be played on the computer only. </font>
Then you mustn't own one of the mp3 players that are compatible with iTunes listed on the Apple site -----> here.

 

[Dargo]

Hmm. Thanks for the list. Actually all but one of the players I own are on the list. My RIO Carbon isn't. But, that is not the one I was trying to use. The program simply tells me that I cannot copy the music I bought. Being that I didn't plan to use any of the music exclusively on my computer; i.e. for my MP3 player, I'm not very happy with iTunes.

I'd assumed that it was because I don't have an iPod. I don't have anything against them, but just like the Mac computers, they are overpriced for what you get. I like iTunes, but I guess I'll dump it because it seems to want to force me to buy an iPod, which I won't unless their prices become competitive. Thanks for the link though. I'm surprised to see that they list 3 of the players I have as compatable, but the players are in fact not compatable. And, yes, I've upgraded to the latest version of iTunes.

Being that they lock people out of music that they buy, I see why people still look for places to download music free. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Oh yeah, I forgot to add, all of the music I downloaded years ago from Napster and Audio Galaxy will copy just fine to my MP3 players. Now that they are regulating what you can download for a fee, they have really messed it up. I'd heard from others that they had bought music over the internet and could only play it on their computer. I thought they were doing something wrong. I suppose not. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[jwstewar]

One thing that I do is I have a SD card reader. It treats my SD memory cards just as another hard drive. Just copy the songs you want to there and I'm done. When I hook my MP3 player up, it is also recognized as a hard drive.

We've purchased a few from songs from Wal-Mart. At 88 cents each, you can't beat it. I'll duck now and go back outside and work before the attacks begin for actually recommending that W word. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[v8dave]

I haven't bought any 99 cent recordings yet. So far I have just loaded my CDs into Itunes. I have only one or two mpg3 files in iTunes I've down loaded from the net. One of the things I like about loading the CDs is the ability to not copy certain songs from the album. I didn't like that song when the album was released and I still don't like it--but now I don't have to hit fast forward (or skip). Only the songs I want to hear. The tab on the bottom of iTunes says 643 songs, 1.6 days of recording--man that's a lot of Rock and Roll and none of the turkeys I don't like.

Mike, all your music is stored in the iTunes "Library." You can sort by Artist, Genre (type), Album, play time, number of times you've played it, etc. Plays lists are made from the main library. Make the list then just drag and drop. I've got HD Rock, Easy listening, Rock. . . Just whip up a list and play it.

I bought an iPod week before last and it is great when travelling, waiting to board the flight, on the flight. Also, not too shabby when doing mundane things at work. Next tractor session is going to be rocking too! The iPod needs a USB port (fire wire port works too) to connect through, says it needs a USB-2. But, I'm here to tell you an original USB port works too, just slower.

Besides a loading a MPG3 player, you can make music CDs for your any CD player (your car?). Or, if you've got a MPG3 CD player (in your car) you can make and play MPG3 CDs.

iTunes is free. Get iTunes here at Apple. Load it on your computer get familiar with the operation after loading some CDs you have in your library. Play through your computer's speakers or head set. Then decide if you want to branch out into more expenses.

 

[MikePA]

It's MP3, not MPG3. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Dargo]

Mike, I got an email back from iTunes. They told me that they had some security encoding issues to prevent songs bought from them from being shared all over the internet. Some had encoding that only allowed them to be copied like once or twice. I told them the problem with that is that a lot of times I delete what is stored on the SD card in my little MP3 players and reload different songs. I don't keep the same songs on the little players permanently. They said I could download the songs I told them about that I paid for from their service again, free. They gave me a "coupon" code for the songs in question. But, they told me that right now I "may" have the same problem. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif At least they are working on it. And, when they can see that I did purchase the songs in question from them, they are much easier to work with.

 

[PineRidge]

Well I don't own an iPod so couldn't make iTunes work for me. Did a Google search and found a very easy to use CD to MP3 ripper. Now we can transfer our CDs to the MP2 player to use whenever we wish. Problem solved......

 

[Moon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Did a Google search and found a very easy to use CD to MP3 ripper. )</font>

I've used WinAmp for that, and it works well. It's a free download ...at least it used to be. It's been a couple of years since I downloaded it.