buying mp3s off the internet

[Joe24]

We used to have Limewire pro. It wasnt bad untill my brother downloaded some Sugerbabes track and it wouldnt work and couldnt be deleted. That was abit crappy. We got rid of it after that.
Limewire Pro wasnt much of a change to normal Limewire, but we got it free so we didnt care!

 

[bonj2]

Just to make a point about mp3fiesta as bonj mentioned it, using this Ukrainian site (and there are quite a few similar ones) is seen by copyright authorities as equivalent to piracy.

Such sites are legal under Russian/Ukrainian law, but they (claim to) pay a tiny royalty percentage to a local organisation that the copyright holders will not deal with. So, the net effect is one of obtaining an MP3 where the copyright holder has not been paid royalties, no different from grabbing the MP3s via BitTorrent. There have also been claims that these sites have been linked with organised crime, which may or may not be true.

In essence, if you are happy using MP3Fiesta (or similar) then you might as well save yourself a few quid and download using a P2P service!

EC

My issue with p2p 'service' if you can call it that is not a legal/moral one, but a technical one.

the difference is with mp3fiesta is they host them on THEIR SERVER, rather than just enabling me to download it off random peers who may or may not have it, and may or may not have their computers on and connected to the internet. With mp3fiesta i can just select a track i want and i'll be guaranteed to have it in a minute or two.

If it's illegal for them to do what they're doing then that's their issue not mine. I'm not uploading the track, as I would be when i use p2p, so by using mp3fiesta i'm not breaking any copyright law, even if they are.

Organised crime? Bollocks, where's the evidence, clearly just a story made up to discredit it.

 

[bonj2]

We used to have Limewire pro. It wasnt bad untill my brother downloaded some Sugerbabes track and it wouldnt work and couldnt be deleted. That was abit crappy. We got rid of it after that.
Limewire Pro wasnt much of a change to normal Limewire, but we got it free so we didnt care!

i've heard bad stuff about limewire and viruses aswell. azureus is apparently better.

 

[Abitrary]

The main problem with all this is that you probably won't find a one-stop shop for the stuff that you actually want to listen to.

The sort of stuff I go for will no way be on any paying download site and is too much of a pain to find on file sharing ones. It's just to much of a trial and consequently I just don't listen to music any more. Unless it's a youtube link which someone sends me in which case I listen to the first couple of seconds and then quickly turn it off.

 

[bonj2]

so in other words abitrary, the music you like doesn't actually exist?

 

[longers]

The main problem with all this is that you probably won't find a one-stop shop for the stuff that you actually want to listen to.

The sort of stuff I go for will no way be on any paying download site and is too much of a pain to find on file sharing ones. It's just to much of a trial and consequently I just don't listen to music any more. Unless it's a youtube link which someone sends me in which case I listen to the first couple of seconds and then quickly turn it off.

Have you tried the charity shops? You can buy with impunity and if it's not what you're after it won't have cost you much and if you donate it back, they get to sell it twice.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

iTunes doesn't give you mp3s, it gives you aac files encrypted with digital restrictions management so you can only play it on Macs, Windows PCs and iPods.
I believe Napster and the like do something very similar except that they'll only play on 'plays for sure' mp3 players and Windows PCs.
Play.com are pretty good - unrestricted mp3s at quite a good bitrate, but the selection isn't stellar. I've used them a few times.

I did use allofmp3.com back in the day, but sadly it (and similar sites like mp3fiesta) are rather bordeline legally and ethically.

It's annoying as irrespective of price, allofmp3.com was by far the best music downloading site I ever used. You could choose format and bitrate and just pay for the bandwidth you used.

 

[Abitrary]

Have you tried the charity shops? You can buy with impunity and if it's not what you're after it won't have cost you much and if you donate it back, they get to sell it twice.

Rare vinyl shops and charity shops I will occasionally pop into. However, if it is something genuinely rare, then I am scared to play it in case I scratch it. And sometimes it is too scratched anyway and I don't want to bugger up my stylus in case they become unobtainable in the future.

 

[longers]

However, if it is something genuinely rare, then I am scared to play it in case I scratch it.

Going off topic here but are those digital turntable jobbies any good? You'd only have to play it once from the vinyl wouldn't you?

 

[Abitrary]

Going off topic here but are those digital turntable jobbies any good? You'd only have to play it once from the vinyl wouldn't you?

Never tried them. The point of vinyl is the analog timbre, which would be lost by committing it to digital.

I'd consider using one if an extremely rare recording was about to disintegrate, and even then I wouldn't record it to MP3, but I'd hire a lathe and cut a completely new vinyl LP from it.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

The point of vinyl is the analog timbre, which would be lost by committing it to digital.

 

[Milo]

Vinyl beats cds and the like any day of the week have to agree there.

 

[Jaded]

iTunes doesn't give you mp3s, it gives you aac files encrypted with digital restrictions management so you can only play it on Macs, Windows PCs and iPods.

Erm, a lot of stuff on iTunes has no DRM now.

 

[Fnaar]

iTunes doesn't give you mp3s, it gives you aac files encrypted with digital restrictions management so you can only play it on Macs, Windows PCs and iPods.

If you can be @sed, buy the thing off iTunes, burn to a cd as an aac track, then take it to work (or another computer) and import it as mp3... then copy it to ur mp3 player (mine is phone, which won't do aac)... certainly works on Bob Dylan and the Proclaimers!

 

[bonj2]

it has to be said that is something I can't be arsed with.