I don’t have an iPod, for a variety of reasons I won’t belabor here, or any other mp3 player - yet.
I do listen to mp3’s on my laptop when friends send me files.
I do like the thought of downloading singles from new bands that are getting buzz, so I can check them out - e.g., Spoon, Artic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, etc…and don’t mind paying a buck or two to get that 1 song…
Based on that overview, what download service would you recommend? iTunes, even without an iPod? eMusic? BuyMusic? Rhapsody - although since it is a subscription service, I don’t know if I will access enough music to justify a $10 monthly charge…
Help me understand not only which you’d pick, but why?
I was using and enjoying iTunes for over a year before I got my iPod. Their selection is great and you can keep your songs forever, unlike Napster 2.0 and, I think, Rhapsody.
The downside is that I think if you buy a song from iTunes, while you can use it on your iPod, computer, or a burned CD, it won’t work if you someday get an mp3 player that isn’t an iPod. Unless, of course, you burn it to a CD in iTunes and then re-rip it off that CD with your iPod’s own software (and I’ve never tried it, so I don’t even know if that would work; there may be some copy-protection scheme). Even assuming that does work, you’re creating extra generations, so you’ll lose some quality.
With Napster, you can buy any song for 99 cents each, and it’s yours to keep. You can also take the monthy subscription, which gives you unlimited downloads, but you can only keep them for as long as you subscribe. You don’t need to subscribe to buy songs.
I’d take the subscription if I was interested in checking out new artists, but I just use Napster to download my favorite songs, so in my case it’s cheaper to just buy the songs for a buck each. YMMV.
Maastricht, review our forum rules and do NOT post links to that site again. We will not allow links to illegal filesharing sites. This is an official warning, do not do this again.
Yeah, it works; that’s how I do it, since my mp3 player’s not an iPod. It can get to be quite a waste of blank CDs after a while, though.
Overall, I’d say iTunes has a better selection than Napster. Rhapsody’s kind of a rip-off, IMO.
The best service as far as price, though, is emusic. Problem is, they’ve got a pretty nice selection of underground/indie stuff, but if you’re looking for more mainstream music, you’re SOL. Still, they’ve got a plan where you can download 90 songs a month for $19.99, which is the best value I’ve found.
Makes more sense to me to do it with a CD-RW or just to wait a little while and load up and burn an entire playlist. Assuming that it will burn to CD-RW, of course. (My copy of iTunes doesn’t want to recognize the CD-RW disc, and I’ve never tried it anyway, but I can’t get it to recognize the CD-R either.)
THis is good stuff - thank you. I have a trial subscription to eMusic that i am checking out, but suspect you are right about their selection being too limited, wsbbird.
I will check out iTunes and Napster for my “just wanting access to new songs” purposes…
I’ve bought quite a bit of music online from napster canada and from puretracks… not sure if there’s a direct equivalent to that in the US, it’s a pretty simple WMA based shopping cart store… no integrated software, you just go to the store, search or browse for tracks you want to buy, pre-listen to very short clips through a WMP plugin popup, check out with your credit card, download the WMA tracks and the licenses. Option to redownload in case you lose the song files or the licenses.
As a matter of course, I always buy up in full CD-length batches, from either service. Just seems like a prudent way of making sure that no matter what happens to the digital licenses etcetera, I always have a ‘hard copy’ of the music I ordered and can, worst to worst, re-rip into MP3 format.
I’m not sure if you’re talking about technical issues or rights issues; regardless, in iTunes you can burn a particular playlist no more than, IIRC, 3 times. (Maybe 5.) I don’t know exactly how sensitive this is – that is, I don’t know how much you have to revise a thrice-burned playlist before iTunes allows you to burn the modified version.
That’s kind of emusic’s raison d’etre (although it existed before any of the others, IIRC). It’s the stuff the labels know they can’t sell a billion copies of, so they’re willing to put it on the service at an effective price much less the going rate on iTunes.
Allofmp3.com has the cheapest (by far) downloads and is at least theoretically legal.
Otherwise, if you like the idea of a subscription-based system, Yahoo! offers its Music Unlimited service with over a million songs for just $5 a month billed annually. A 7-day free trial is available.
I don’t think it’s even theoretical in the U.S. It might be legal in Russia, but there’s a word for the wholesale import of contraband materials into the United States from abroad. It rhymes with muggling.
wippit.com has a reasonable selection of protected WMA files and plain MP3 files for download. No subscription required: just pay for and download the ones you want.
Okay… I’m actually a little confused on a technicality here.
IIUC, that website wouldn’t involve ‘wholesale’ import into the US, as I far as I know the meaning of the term ‘wholesale’. Instead, they’re retailing directly to customers over the world, using the power of the internet.
If you buy import contraband materials retail, does that still rhyme with muggling?
