Buying downloadable music online WTF?
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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 ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
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...
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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...
You can burn songs to CD with Rhapsody, and they have no additional control for those. The Rhapsody ToGo plan; however, works on updating a monthly key on your mp3 player, I believe.
BW
Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand.
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.
-- Neil Peart -
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.
---- Scripts i’ve known... CPhog 1.8.2 - make CP better. Forum Bookmark 0.2.5 - bookmark forum posts on Pensieve Print forum 0.1.2 - printer-friendly forums Expand all 1.0 - Expand all messages In-place Delete 1.0 - AJAX-style post delete Syntax 0.1 - Syntax highlighting for code blocks in the forums
:)
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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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
Not sure that the "home taping" clause would apply when you are transforming a media from one for to another for the purpose to use it on another form of media. I may have to look into this in the future.
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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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've used a certain Russian MP3 site and also iTunes. The Russian site (ignoring all legalities - I don't want to stir up trouble (again)) provides a nice service, in that the choice is wide and you can choose bit-rate. iTunes is very easy, and I've found some obscure stuff on it (e.g. I wanted a couple of Killdozer albums, haven't been able to get them on CD or any other download site, but iTunes had them). In addition, iTunes DRM allows you to burn music you've bought to an audio CD...at which point you can rip the CD and get unrestricted MP3 files. On the down side, iTunes only offers 128kbps rips which (IMO) isn't high enough. But as you don't want to install the iTunes software, that's all a bit academic :-)
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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.
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You can burn songs to CD with Rhapsody, and they have no additional control for those. The Rhapsody ToGo plan; however, works on updating a monthly key on your mp3 player, I believe.
BW
Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand.
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.
-- Neil PeartYou can only burn tracks you have bought outright from Rhapsody (at $0.99 or $0.89) You may not burn the tracks you got through the subscription/membership service.
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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You can only burn tracks you have bought outright from Rhapsody (at $0.99 or $0.89) You may not burn the tracks you got through the subscription/membership service.
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...
Correct, I should have made the distinction. I just meant it was an option to get music without being tied to the service later. Last time I burned a track it was $0.89.
BW
Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand.
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.
-- Neil Peart -
I download 99% of all my songs (100% legal in Canada). I only purchase music when I want to support the author (local bands, hard to find christian music, etc.) RIAA can kiss my butt.