MP3's ? Where is the best place to find free MP3's??

[damclay]

MP3's ? Where is the best place to find free MP3's??

Please reply if you have any sites that give away free mp3's....

I have tried napster, but it is way to unreliable.... and i also know of audiofind.com but it doesn't have a wide enough search category.

Thanks

[Mr. Cynical]

Napster? Unreliable? Good luck then. Of course, I neither condone or advocate the piracy of copyrighted materials.

This post ©2000 Mr. Cynical enterprises

[dorkbro]

Napster? Unreliable? Good luck then. Of course, I neither condone or advocate the piracy of copyrighted materials.

This post ©2000 by, uh, me, yeah, thats right. What are you looking at.

[MadHatter]

http://www.mp3board.com

That's the most popular mp3 site on the net, as long as you know how to use ftp's.

(Of course this is all just what I've heard, mp3's are highly illegal) *ahem*

[VexPrime]

Some mp3's are given out at some certain sites, by the copyrighted company...Napster is one of the few places i've been able to find an adequate supply of mp3's(even rare ones.) Napster has a disclaimer on it's site, the program is totally legal, and therefore users get to share mp3's with anyone logged into the servers. I understand some can be illegal, mp3's obtained without proper consent, but that's the users discretion. As is any illegally obtained software from the net, you do have a 24-hr time limit to have it on your pc, if it's on longer than it is illegal and if your CAUGHT, you could be in some serious trouble, but no one really monitors this..and that's what makes the consumers mad, they want you to buy the product, but today SOME people don't care, they take their chances. I don't know how it is for mp3's, but just thought i'd share this piece 'o info for ya.

[damclay]

thanks for the warning...

[ubermensch]

Originally posted by VexPrime
As is any illegally obtained software from the net, you do have a 24-hr time limit to have it on your pc, if it's on longer than it is illegal...


NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!

that's total bull. unless it's a program, where the actual programmer says so, or other copyright holder. that's up there with "my roomage commited suicide, so i get straight a's..."

find me a piece of law that says this, and you can have my first born.

[Gatsby]

Cut and pasted from this thread. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=28619) (which is mostly about napster registry entries for the Metallica Banned)

I've never had much luck with Napster. Even when I had it up and running, it was very hard to get anything since I'm on a 56k modem and always had a bunch of people trying to download from me while I was trying to get anything.

I've never tried newsgroups, but that's a pretty good option I hear. I just never bothered to figure out how to convert the binaries.

I use an FTP Client. WSFTP and CuteFTP are supposed to be good, but I like BulletProof FTP. I think all three have 30 day trial versions. I do most of my searches through http://www.oth.net but there are many others out there.

If you've never used an FTP client, the first thing you have to know is what a ratio site is (which most MP3 sites are). A 1:1 ratio site is even trade. You upload a 3 meg file, you get 3 megs in credit to download. Most sites are 1:2 (3 meg upload = 6 meg download) or better. I'm sure you get the idea.

When you sign on to an FTP site, the first thing that will show up in the FTP client is the welcome message. Make sure you read it! It's the rules to follow by the site owner. Everyone has their own rules.

As far as the Napster thing, it's probably a registry setting that does not get deleted when the program is uninstalled. If you're not familliar with editing your registry, find someone who is. I try to avoid giving advice on this because you can totally bork your machine if you screw up the registry. Plus, I don't know a helluva lot about Napster.

Hope this helps. Happy MP3 hunting!

[neutron star]

always had a bunch of people trying to download from me while I was trying to get anything.


There is an option in Napster to change the number of concurrent uploads allowed. Simply set it to zero and you've effectively disabled the file server component of Napster (i.e. you can download all you want from others, but nobody can download your stuff).

[Gatsby]

You could point it to a library with only one song by Engelbert Humperdink too. My point was that FTP is an easier trade method than Napster for modem users, since it's one on one trading.

[neutron star]

Nah, Napster is way better than FTP. In fact, I rarely use FTP at all anymore. Before Napster, I couldn't tell you how many times I had 5 instances of CuteFTP open at once, hammering 5 different servers, all of which were busy 24/7. If you got on, it was luck. Then once you did get on, you'd have to deal with a lousy ratio. I HATE ratios, especially considering my situation. I have unidirectional cable, meaning I can download an mp3 in about a minute, but it would take me over an hour to upload one. No ratios with Napster. (or IRC, another decent place to find mp3's, and the best place to find movies and music videos. Hmm, well I guess you'd have more luck with music videos on Usenet's alt.binaries.mpeg.videos, but I digress...)

Another advantage of Napster is the easy, centralized search of all connected computers. Compare that to web sites where you can search through submitted FTP sites. A third of the sites don't work at all, another third are constantly busy, and the rest have a 1:1 ration. It's pitiful.

I'd rather just fire up Napster and have my song in a minute or two than spend an hour scouring all the FTP search engines on the web looking for that prized rarity.

I don't understand what you mean by "one on one trading" available via FTP, but not via Napster. Could you please elaborate?

The only advantage I can think of that FTP has over Napster is speed. I guess it's just a more efficient protocol. And of course, most people on Napster are either on dial-up, DSL, or cable. FTP sites are more to have a T-carrier connection. That's not to say that I haven't seen users on Napster with T1's, but they appear to be few and far between.

[neutron star]

I really need to start proofreading my posts before submitting them. :P

[yojimbo]

http://www.avfind.com is good . It tells you if the links work or are broken.

Napster is by far the best IMO.

[Revtim]

I've also had some luck finding MP3s with Gnutella:
http://gnutella.wego.com

and cutemx:
http://www.cutemx.com

CuteMX is basically a Napster clone that shares more than MP3s.

[Myrr21]

Umm...Gnutella anyone?
Better than Napster--no central server and doesn't slow down your computer as much. Not that I would know anything about that, it being illegal and all.

[neutron star]

Hey, speaking of Gnutella, can anyone help me out with this problem I've been having with it? I connect to another user, thereby conecting to his users, and the tree expands outwards. Fine so far. The number of available files skyrockets. Then, suddenly, it just resets itself and starts over at zero! All my previous results are gone. Am I doing something wrong or is this just buggy software?

[Revtim]

Neutron star, I've seen that too, I think it's buggy software.

Myrr21: Since all the searches of everybody in the Gnutella goes through your machine, it will slow your machine MORE than Napster.

And there is nothing inherently illegal about Gnutella. It's simply file sharing. If you share files you should not be sharing, then you are breaking the law. Saying Gnutella is illegal because some people break the law with it is like saying cars are illegal because some people speed.

[damclay]

thanks for the help guys most thankfull.

[Myrr21]

Actually, Gnutella doesn't slow you down as much as Napster--the reason for this is that Napster continuously pings your computer and checks the info you have on there. So it slows you down more. Of course, you are correct in that it doesn't have to do this, it was just a bit of uneccessary code.

[Revtim]

I didn't know that Myrr21, thanks for the info.