Downloading Music

[Mobi]

I suppose I'm a averagely competent, if somewhat ancient, computer user, and I frequently download software programmes, and the odd video clip etc, and with the kind help of the folk on this forum , I can now download and make my own MP's of radio streams, but for some reason have never got into downloading music.

Now the wife and son are getting into computers, they are asking me about music downloads, and to be honest it is something I would also like to do - but of course my choice of music would be very different from theirs.

When I look on the net, I am bewildered by the vast array of sites that offer music downloads - free or otherwise, and I really don't know where to start. I don't mind paying for music, but would prefer to pay for single tracks rather than albums, but here again, I have no idea as to which sites I should be signing up to, or giving out my credit card details to. It goes without saying that I am not averse to getting free music if it is legitimately available.

My media player of choice is Real Player, but I could use Windows Media Player, and I have also downloaded I-Tunes player. Even the few free tracks I have managed to download off one site don't seem to be transferred into my player's library, and I can't figure out how to do it. Also I have 'clicked on a number of links where it says 'download', and nothing has happened.

Is there an idiot's guide to how to download music and store it, and can anyone recommend some sites to try? I'm really not into the latest pop, and would prefer links to back-catalogue type of stuff.

Thanks for any advice/help

Mobi

[Plus]

I think you'll get into all sorts of trouble trying to legally buy music off the Internet if you are based in Thailand.

[Mobi]

I think you'll get into all sorts of trouble trying to legally buy music off the Internet if you are based in Thailand.

Not if I use a UK based credit card with a UK address.

[Neeranam]

bearshare

morpheus

are two that I've used - hundreds of good tunes free

[Plus]

I think you'll get into all sorts of trouble trying to legally buy music off the Internet if you are based in Thailand.

Not if I use a UK based credit card with a UK address.

They'll suss out that you IP address is in Thailand.

[Mobi]

I think you'll get into all sorts of trouble trying to legally buy music off the Internet if you are based in Thailand.

Not if I use a UK based credit card with a UK address.

They'll suss out that you IP address is in Thailand.

You could be right, but I've had no problem with other products I've bought using this method. Are you saying it is due to the piracy problems?

bearshare

morpheus

Thanks Neeranam, I'll try them

Any others, folks?

[Wolfie]

bearshare

morpheus

are two that I've used - hundreds of good tunes free

Might be free but highly unlikely to be legal, also one of the quickest ways to get your computer infected with some nasty virus

(I speak from experience)

[Plus]

They'll suss out that you IP address is in Thailand.

You could be right, but I've had no problem with other products I've bought using this method. Are you saying it is due to the piracy problems?

Why don't you try to register with Itunes and see if your IP address checks out.

bearshare

morpheus

Thanks Neeranam, I'll try them

Any others, folks?

Limewire, or even better - Usenet. Any basic $10 per month package will be more than enough for music. It will still be illegal, though.

[sierra01]

Not sure if it's legal or not but I use these sites...

<url removed>

<url removed>

Never had any virus problems there either.

Moderator comment - I'm making a wild guess that a site offering free music downloads as they are, would not be legal

[penguin]

Limewire!

Credit cards can be a problem when used on the net with a Thai IP address. Some American companies don't want to deal with you. Funniest was once when l wanted to purchase a key for some software rather than using a crack off the internet and they wouldn't accept my non Thai c/c. I even sent them an e-mail asking them to get an approval from my card company and part of their reply was that because l had a Thai IP address the only way they would deal with me was if l sent them a copy of my passport and scans of both sides of my c/c, all this for a $20 piece of software. Ended up getting a friend overseas to purchase it for me.

[phazey]

iTunes ?

[richard10365]

I downloaded a winamp plug in recently that automatically saves all the audio files streamed through winamp. It also saves the artist name and name of the song. It's called streamripper for winamp. For more info check out this link. http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

[LindsayBKK]

Not sure if it's legal or not but I use these sites...

<url removed>

<url removed>

Never had any virus problems there either.

ummm yes tried to listen to 1 song with xxxxxxxxx.com was going to take 58 minutes & I am sure the quality was going to be perfect NOT! , No Thanks . Buy mp3's on cd is faster.

[Mobi]

Not sure if it's legal or not but I use these sites...

<url removed>

<url removed>

Never had any virus problems there either.

ummm yes tried to listen to 1 song with xxxxxxxx.com was going to take 58 minutes & I am sure the quality was going to be perfect NOT! , No Thanks . Buy mp3's on cd is faster.

I sort of agree with you about buying the stuff on disc - but I'm under pressure to get up to date with the 21st century, and anyway, a lot of the songs I would like are difficult to find in the shops, and I dare say the latest rap and all that stuff would also present problems for the wife.

The 2-3 songs I did succeed in downloading only took a minute or so per song, and the quality is excellent.

penguin

Credit cards can be a problem when used on the net with a Thai IP address. Some American companies don't want to deal with you. Funniest was once when l wanted to purchase a key for some software rather than using a crack off the internet and they wouldn't accept my non Thai c/c. I even sent them an e-mail asking them to get an approval from my card company and part of their reply was that because l had a Thai IP address the only way they would deal with me was if l sent them a copy of my passport and scans of both sides of my c/c, all this for a $20 piece of software. Ended up getting a friend overseas to purchase it for me.

At the other end of the spectrum, I had absolute no problems purchasing a genuine copy of Windows on the net and using my Thai based credit card, and downloading it onto my PC. Microsoft clearly has no problems selling to Thailand - I wonder why?

Back on topic - thanks for all the music links - I'll try them out.

Keep them coming.

[cdnvic]

They throw up roadblocks like that and wonder why piracy is so much of a problem

[penguin]

At the other end of the spectrum, I had absolute no problems purchasing a genuine copy of Windows on the net and using my Thai based credit card, and downloading it onto my PC. Microsoft clearly has no problems selling to Thailand - I wonder why?

Why would a company with a Thai website have a problem selling to Thailand?

http://www.microsoft.com/thailand/

[Mobi]

At the other end of the spectrum, I had absolute no problems purchasing a genuine copy of Windows on the net and using my Thai based credit card, and downloading it onto my PC. Microsoft clearly has no problems selling to Thailand - I wonder why?

Why would a company with a Thai website have a problem selling to Thailand?

http://www.microsoft.com/thailand/

Sorry mate, but I purchased it from Microsoft Singapore. And what's more they even shipped me a backup disc to my door in the wilds of Pong.

[penguin]

Singapore has never had much of a problem doing business with Thailand, just ask Thaksin.

[basjke]

Not sure if it's legal or not but I use these sites...

<url removed>

<url removed>

Never had any virus problems there either.

Just tried out both sites and they realy S*ucks.Kohit will stop downoading after 1 mb wathever song you choose and hardstyle put your computer full of spy and adware before you can say uch.By the way searched for queen on hardstyle and got no results.

[Naam]

Limewire!

Credit cards can be a problem when used on the net with a Thai IP address. Some American companies don't want to deal with you.

there's a free version of Limewire, no credit card needed. i am using Limewire once in a while to top up my mp3 collection of old country&western songs and never had a virus problem. legal or illegal, i have no idea.

[cdnvic]

The legalities vary from country to country. In Canada it's actually not illegal to download mp3s encoded at 128/160k. Making full quality copies and trading them is. Personally I think that's a bit too loose but it'd be nice if it were legal everywhere to download low quality versions to try out. Most of the music I buy now comes from getting a sample online and liking what I hear.

[Mobi]

I beginning to wish I'd never started this and just stuck to cd's.

I tried downloading the two deleted sites, and got warnings of viruses so got rid of them - I hope!

Then I tried limewire, and I got a nasty message telling me about a 'system DLL user 32 was relocated in memory, and the application will not run properly.... I think it was something to do with my firewall, but don't really understand. So I restored back to an earlier time, and the PC seems to be OK now without Limewire.

I'll try Bearshare and Morpheous in a minute - and if they give me grief I guess I'll give up, or maybe try subscribing to Itunes - but even that doesn't sound too hopeful from Thailand.

I must be getting too old for this kind of thing

[sierra01]

I use CDNVIC's favorite, Nod 32, and AVG anti spyware paid version, and have never found any virus's or malware in anything I've downloaded from the 2 deleted links. Never had any problem from there at all.

[Mid]

google bit torrent , use utorrent

[Mobi]

Well you guys must be lucky because I've had no end of problems downloading these Morpheus's players and such like. I keep ending up with warnings about programmes files being moved to illegal locations, so I've restored back and got rid of them, and everything is fine.

So I went back to Itunes and signed up using my UK credit card and address and was accepted with no problems. Then to see if it worked I bought 5 of my all time favourite songs at 29 p each and got them downloaded in double quick time.

Then I tried to burn them as a an MP 3 but I tunes and Nero burning software would have none of it. So I recorded them through audacity, exported from Audacity into MP 3 format and was able to burn onto disc. The only problem is that audacity records with an enormous amount of high end (treble) and I don't know how to reduce it. However, the sound is still Ok with a bit of "eq'ing", but it would be nice to export a perfect copy. Any ideas on how to adjust the Audacity recording sound, or another means of converting I tunes music files into MP3 format?

BTW my daughter in England was going on about torrents - I'll look into it.

[kayo]

Mobi. Some good news for you.

I'm not a apple/Itunes fan at all, but,

But first, in terms of user friendlyness for non/advanced PC users, and willing to pay per song etc... Itunes is probably your best bet.

They do make it complicated to copy/alter format etc... however.

But there is some good news

Read THIS>

Apple and EMI in copy protection deal

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple and EMI will reveal a ground-breaking deal on Monday for Apple to sell the music label's songs free from copy protection limits, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Advert for SuperScotCasino

The report said music giant EMI plans to sell "significant amounts" of its catalogue without anti-piracy software, citing people familiar with the matter, and that the music label is considering not only Apple's iTunes stores but other outlets.

However, a separate source familiar with the situation told Reuters a Beatles deal was not the focus of Monday's event. "There is no Beatles' announcement," the source said.

EMI has acted as the distributor for the Beatles since the early 1960s, but the Fab Four's music holding company Apple Corps has been a high-profile hold-out from Internet music services like Apple's iTunes.

Spokesmen for Apple and EMI declined to comment on the newspaper report.

EMI said earlier on Sunday that the company will hold a news conference on Monday at its London headquarters, where EMI Chief Executive Eric Nicoli will be joined by Apple Chief Executive and co-founder Steve Jobs.

A live Webcast of the event, which will feature "a special live performance", will be available at http://www.emigroup.com beginning at 1 p.m. local time in London.

Earlier this year, Jobs called on the world's four major record companies, including EMI, to start selling songs online without copy-protection software, known as DRM, for digital rights management. DRM software is designed to thwart piracy but also makes using music cumbersome for many consumers.

Jobs argued that there appeared to be no benefit for the record companies in selling more than 90 percent of their music without DRM on compact discs, while selling the remaining small percentage of music online encumbered with DRM.

Executives at several rival record companies said they expected EMI to drop DRM but questioned whether EMI had done sufficient market research to justify the move.

"It's problematic," said one executive. "EMI haven't tested it enough so they don't know what the market reaction is going to be to open MP3s."

MP3s are an open audio format that allows digital music fans to share songs or albums with other listeners. The music industry has shunned the standard in favour of formats that require some form of copy protection.

"The issues are will MP3s help expand the market and how will it affect piracy? We just don't know," the executive said.

All the major record companies have experimented with digital music sales without anti-piracy with varying results. EMI's biggest market test was with Norah Jones' single "Thinking About You" in January, while Sony BMG tested the market with Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" last summer.

In an e-mail to reporters, EMI said the two companies would announce "an exciting new digital offering". The e-mail sparked speculation among bloggers and news media that the announcement could involve putting the Beatles' music catalogue online.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard, Duncan Martell and Michael Kahn in San Francisco)

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

[Mobi]

Thanks for that Kayo.

BTW I was wrong it's 79 p per song , not 29p. So that's around 55 Baht. Still not too bad - cheaper than a drink in most bars, and as I've given up the booze I've got a bit of spare cash

I find that playing the I tunes downloads thru Real Player gives me better quality than using the I - Tunes player, and my conversion and burning using Audacity and Nero gives me a pretty fair cd to play in the car where I have an incredible sound system and equalisation console.

Still if there's something more easily copy-able on the horizon - even better.

[ballbreaker]

Sign up for one of the premium Usenet providers like Giganews or Easynews.

[fabianfred]

utorrent is good... but maxnet block it

I've no problem with itunes using my UK credit card which uses my sisters address in the UK

emule plus v.1.2b is good too

[Mid]

utorrent is good... but maxnet block it

turn encryption on and forward a port .