Buying downloadable music online WTF?
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
Walmart and Bestbuy have decent online music stores - you can download mp3s (including individual tracks as opposed to full albums).
Regards, Nish
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I don't have an mp3 player and don't want one, I just play them on my pc or burn to cd to play in my car. That's the real problem I guess. I don't want a new cell phone or digital camera or gps or mp3 player etc until they all come in one single slick and easy to use device. Which is what we should have by now, not all this junk cluttering up our lives. I'll check out tunebite thanks
Honestly, if all you're looking for is a way to play on PC or burn to CD, iTunes does that without hassle. Play the DRM file in iTunes for the computer, burn to CD for the car. Don't want DRM? Rip the CD back to mp3, aac, wav, etc. with either iTunes, or whatever program you want. :) Flynn
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You can buy individual tracks from digstation[^].
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Shog9 wrote:
Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files.
I'm not spending for a full cd to get the one song I want. This is what prompted me to consider downloading now. For example I want the song "Both Sides Now" by Dengue Fever which was recorded only on one album ever and that's the soundtrack for the movie "City of ghosts" which I definitely don't want to buy as I only want that one song and I don't like the rest (I've previewed them on amazon). It's 16.98 new on amazon, I could potentially download the one song I want for a buck somewhere. If I wanted a whole album then I'd buy it and rip it as I usually do but there are so many old, rare or obscure songs that just don't fit well with buying an album. Actually, I just wish Dengue Fever themselves had a site where they sold their music directly, I'd pay a couple of bucks if I knew it was going directly to the band. The whole system needs a big time revamp.
John Cardinal wrote:
For example I want the song "Both Sides Now" by Dengue Fever
I was going to direct you to www.singingfish.com[^], which is a site I've used for nearly a year, but that somehow has been "changed" to video.aol.com[^].
"Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15
"Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb
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Honestly, if all you're looking for is a way to play on PC or burn to CD, iTunes does that without hassle. Play the DRM file in iTunes for the computer, burn to CD for the car. Don't want DRM? Rip the CD back to mp3, aac, wav, etc. with either iTunes, or whatever program you want. :) Flynn
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Cool, there's a *lot* of indie music there. Too bad they don't have a radio station type thing to just listen to it and discover new stuff I like.
What kinda of indie music do ya listen to?
_____________________________________________________________________ Our developers never release code. Rather, it tends to escape, pillaging the countryside all around. The Enlightenment Project (paraphrased comment) Visit Me at GISDevCafe
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Cool, there's a *lot* of indie music there. Too bad they don't have a radio station type thing to just listen to it and discover new stuff I like.
John Cardinal wrote:
Too bad they don't have a radio station type thing to just listen to it and discover new stuff I like.
That would be a nice feature. :doh:
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
I personally like Napster. You can buy singles (burn, play on WMP), they have 'radio stations' and also give me recommendations based on other choices, although some of the recommendations are odd. I downloaded one spanish song and I keep getting latin artists as recommendations. Same thing with country--downloaded a couple Johnny Cash songs. You do have to download their software and you can have it on three computers. So whether I download songs at home, it updates at my work computer.
_________________________________________________________________ Hey! I don't parallel park big brown Econoline vans on the left side of the road!
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But I have thousands of songs I've ripped from my cd collection that I play in wmp, unless ITunes will play them as well?
What format is it in? Usually .wma files will get automatically converted to either mp3 or aac, depending on the converter you have set up (default is 128 kbps AAC -- there are a few different bit-rates for both MP3 and AAC). If the songs are already in MP3 format, they will import straight in. It will (obviously) refuse to convert anything with DRM. Try it out on a small selection of your library (couple hundred songs maybe). Then see if you like the program. One thing we've found is the Visualizer looks pretty cool on a 32" LCD... :-D Flynn
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
You primary sources of music (and also everything else downloadable) should be Usenet (a.k.a. newsgroups) and IRC. While you can try and use your ISP's Usenet server (almost every ISP offers newsgroups), I would highly recommend going with a premium Usenet provider, like Easynews, Supernews, etc. Easynews, in my opinion, is the best. They have huge retention times (> 30 days for binaries), no download speed limit, full searchable index, PAR viewer, ZIP queues and more. Their search page is here: http://members.easynews.com/global4 iTunes? Napster? Bittorrent? Forget all that crap. Regards, -cpu SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Clue IS NOT NULL 0 row(s) returned.
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
I have always been quite happy with iTunes. My one complaint is that if you buy a single song on an album and then later decide to buy the entire album you will still get charged $9.99.
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
Major bands from major labels you pretty much have to go through iTunes. Rhapsody and others that use a subscription model AFAIK require you to keep on paying every month or the DRM kicks in and you lose what you have downloaded. iTunes has DRM, you have to install the app but you pay per track and you can burn it to CD and listen on your computer plus 5 others. It isn't ideal but iTunes is about the best. For indie, non-major label bands etc. then eMusic.com is good. It is the biggest seller of single tracks after iTunes and it sells DRM free music.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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Ok, I thought I would take a look at my options for buying single songs online and downloading them. I discover the market is complete chaos to the point where my searches primarily brought up guides for sale on where to get and download music. This is ridiculously confusing. I looked at ITunes but I have to install their software apparently which I'm not down with. I want MP3's that I can download and play in WMP and burn to CD's to listen in my car. And I want big variety because I'm looking for some pretty obscure stuff. Given that, what would you recommend?
John, Not sure this is going to be of much help, but Wally World (aka Walmart)[^] has an on-line music store; not sure what formats you can get ... but they are only .88c a song ... Just and FYI - you have to use IE to browse their site (or the IE plug-in for FF) ...
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
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What kinda of indie music do ya listen to?
_____________________________________________________________________ Our developers never release code. Rather, it tends to escape, pillaging the countryside all around. The Enlightenment Project (paraphrased comment) Visit Me at GISDevCafe
Well I don't technically know at the moment what the definition of indie really is :), but the site that was referenced bills itself as "indie" and it's full of musicians and bands I've never heard of but it's just has a list of genre's and albums so you have to laboriously click through each one to find out if you like it or not.
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John Cardinal wrote:
Given that, what would you recommend?
Well, there's this Russian site that has an easy, fast web interface, doesn't require any extra software, and gives you files that you can play anywhere... :rolleyes: Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files. It's the only thing i've tried that hasn't ended up just causing a big hassle.
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Well I don't technically know at the moment what the definition of indie really is :), but the site that was referenced bills itself as "indie" and it's full of musicians and bands I've never heard of but it's just has a list of genre's and albums so you have to laboriously click through each one to find out if you like it or not.
If you like indie, try kexp online stream. One of my favorites during work. Also they have a blog and a podcast that exposes you to alot of good tunes. My favorite currently is the good, the bad and the queen. Another band from Albarn the frontman to Blur. Good luck.
_____________________________________________________________________ Our developers never release code. Rather, it tends to escape, pillaging the countryside all around. The Enlightenment Project (paraphrased comment) Visit Me at GISDevCafe
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John Cardinal wrote:
Given that, what would you recommend?
Well, there's this Russian site that has an easy, fast web interface, doesn't require any extra software, and gives you files that you can play anywhere... :rolleyes: Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files. It's the only thing i've tried that hasn't ended up just causing a big hassle.
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Shog9 wrote:
Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files. It's the only thing i've tried that hasn't ended up just causing a big hassle.
Curious though, do you happen to know if ripping and using where you want is legal in the USA? IIRC, the license is only the media on which it was supplied, but to not know for sure.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: New enhancements to VS WYSIWYG! Latest Tech Blog Post: Scratch: fun for all ages for free!
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Shog9 wrote:
Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files. It's the only thing i've tried that hasn't ended up just causing a big hassle.
Curious though, do you happen to know if ripping and using where you want is legal in the USA? IIRC, the license is only the media on which it was supplied, but to not know for sure.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: New enhancements to VS WYSIWYG! Latest Tech Blog Post: Scratch: fun for all ages for free!
Rocky Moore wrote:
Curious though, do you happen to know if ripping and using where you want is legal in the USA?
I didn't sign a license agreement, so it's legal in my mind. Not that this will save me if i should get taken to court over the matter, but then, at this point i've no money for lawyers, so anyone could take me to court for anything and ruin me regardless of whether they had a valid case. And so i live by luck and grace, enjoying beauty where i find it, and knowing it could all end at any time.
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Shog9 wrote:
Personally, i buy CDs, rip 'em, and do what i want with the files. It's the only thing i've tried that hasn't ended up just causing a big hassle.
Curious though, do you happen to know if ripping and using where you want is legal in the USA? IIRC, the license is only the media on which it was supplied, but to not know for sure.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: New enhancements to VS WYSIWYG! Latest Tech Blog Post: Scratch: fun for all ages for free!
There's a 'home taping' clause in US copyright law which is believed to permit ripping music from CD. UK copyright law does not currently have such a provision and it's unlikely to be considered 'fair use' (this applies more to making copies of a segment of a work to quote it in order to support an argument, than to making a complete copy). However, one is apparently in the process of being drafted (response[^] to petition[^] to create such an exception).
Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
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Rocky Moore wrote:
Curious though, do you happen to know if ripping and using where you want is legal in the USA?
I didn't sign a license agreement, so it's legal in my mind. Not that this will save me if i should get taken to court over the matter, but then, at this point i've no money for lawyers, so anyone could take me to court for anything and ruin me regardless of whether they had a valid case. And so i live by luck and grace, enjoying beauty where i find it, and knowing it could all end at any time.
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Shog9 wrote:
And so i live by luck and grace, enjoying beauty where i find it, and knowing it could all end at any time.
ya are just WAY too FREAKIN poetic, man... i'll have to write that down...