# Any legit, PAY music sites on the web? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2002, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092 "2002-10-27T08:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/1 "2002-10-27T08:13:43Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=141402](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=141402) I forgot in my OP that I was willing to pay a license fee to down load what I am looking for. (and I am, in fact, willing to pay a liscense fee). Therefore, I am not looking to steal any works. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/2 "2002-10-27T10:32:26Z")
Another doper recommended [emusic.com](http://emusic.com) to me. They have a subscription system. They don’t have a very mainstream selection, though, so you may not be satisfied by them. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/3 "2002-10-27T11:27:13Z")
[listen.com](http://listen.com) JUST started a PPD system. I don’t know much about it as it just started thursday. Worth a look I guess. I get most of my music from [www.ampcast.com](http://www.ampcast.com) which is all indie music. Some free, some PPD, and CD’s. The quality of musicians is much higher there then [mp3.com](http://mp3.com) IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/4 "2002-10-27T13:10:53Z")
The music industry hasn’t yet adapted to the fact that the MP3 toothpaste is out of the tube, even though it’s been splattered all over our bathrooms for years. They are, however, spending lots of money on lobbying for legislation to try to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and they generally aren’t spending a penny to make legitimate downloads available yet. So if you want to download a song and pay the musicians the royalties they want, you can’t do it except in some rare cases. In my opinion, the music bigshots are making a huge mistake. I, and probably a lot of other people, would love to pay what the market will bear for legitimate downloads. But the executives can only clamp their sphincter muscles real tight and pay lobbyists to try to pass bizarre legislation that would allow them to hack into your computer looking for unauthorized files, or to force all microchips to have crippling built-in copyright protection technology. In five years, when you see a lot of former record executives standing by the freeway onramp trying to sell you flowers, please be merciful. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/5 "2002-10-27T18:43:03Z")
I asked a similar question here a few months ago. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129299](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129299) I ended up not finding any satisfactory soultions. I believe that the couple in question just ended up asking someone else to go the illegal route. Oh well. **Bob Scene** , I agree with you. At least no one’s chimed in this thread yet “Why don’t you just buy the CD’s?” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/6 "2002-10-27T21:06:56Z")
Tamex: I’ll answer that one. hit song = good 90% of the CD it is released on = poo I will not waste my money on 11 tracks of filler. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/7 "2002-10-27T22:02:47Z")
[Listen.com](http://Listen.com)’s service was [mentioned on Slashdot](http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/24/2144234&mode=thread&tid=141) recently. You pay $9.95 a month plus 99 cents per track, and the files are in a proprietary format (not MP3 - you can only play them on your Windows computer). However, you can burn them to CD. Personally, I’d stick with EMusic if they have what you’re looking for. $9.95 a month gets you unlimited downloads in MP3 format. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/8 "2002-10-28T06:41:23Z")
The problem I have is, what I’m looking for is extremely obscure. I can’t find any CD’s/albums with the recording I want. Yet I’m sure it exists because I once had a recording of what I’m looking for. Without going to deeply into why I want what I want, where i can I go to shout out “I want this and I’ll pay for it!”. Someone, somewhere, has what I want. I’ve already posted on E-bay. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legit-pay-music-sites-on-the-web/134092/9 "2002-10-28T12:24:29Z")
> [@](#): > > In five years, when you see a lot of former record executives standing by the freeway onramp trying to sell you flowers, please be merciful. Yes, I will be. I will hit them smoothly, at about 65 MPH. Death should be instantaneous.