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Where do you go for digital music?


ChasUFarley
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I recently re-discovered Napster and am very disappointed. To make a long story short, I hate the thought of "renting" my music. I'll probably download a couple of gigs of music, burn a few CDs from it, but then if I miss a payment to Napster, I'll loose it all (except for the songs I paid for - wait - no, I can only use those about a half-a-dozen times and they'll expire!) What a pain!

I did use Kazaa for a while but hate the spyware that comes with it - and there's some legal grumblings going on with that, too.

Now we're checking out iTunes - looks safe but could get pricy... at least we'll own the tunes...

What do you use?

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Rhapsody. They don't have everything but they have a lot. Used I Tunes a little, too.

Maybe Napster got hacked by Metallihackster. icon_biggrin.gif:D-->

One of the problems with big peer to peer file exchanges like Napster (was) is that you don't really know what you're getting. There's a high level of risk involved in downloading stuff. Haven't checked out the new Napster site though.

I think Oldiesman was using something that sounded pretty good. I checked it out once, can't remember the name though. Maybe he'll chime in.

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As someone who just loves a little civil disobedience, I did try the conversion trick with the Virtuosa program to unlock the Napster files... didn't work... DARN IT!

Hey Socks - careful using anything that is close to Meta11ica's name - they've even sued Victoria's Secret because of they had a silver eyeliner with the same name. Since they cut their hair they've turned into the biggest bunch of cry babies, anyhow. "WAH-ha-ha-ha-ha! Mommmeeee! She 'tole my NAME! Wah!"

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Oh, I miss the original Napster. Most of my hundreds and hundreds of files came from there. It was so great there for that brief peried to go online at any given time and find ANYTHING by the droves.

I still have some rare downloads from then.

I have enough for now.

Can't listen to them all anyway.

Ask the teens if you want to follow the mp3 trail today.

But their stuff will be names you have never heard of and will never listen to.

Funny, a lot of them like the Beatles.

Some I know are getting into vinyl collecting and they sit around and listen to records on a turntable.

"The Times They Are a Changin"

Again.

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CM --

Thanks for the info --

Couple of things you should know about this tho, since you said your son uses it...

You also agree to share your music, pics, software, etc., by giving a filepath name to the directory when you register the program you download and install to get and share the files...

The other things you should know is that the speed of the download also depends on how the person you're getting the file from connects to the internet - if they have dial-up it will be very slow! The speed of downloads isn't bad... you can download several songs at once, much like Kazaa - but not as fast as Napster or iTunes.

Thanks for the tip - I was able to get enough music in less than 30 min for a new Wiggles CD for Kristopher.... (my sanity is slipping....)

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quote:
You also agree to share your music, pics, software, etc., by giving a filepath name to the directory when you register the program you download and install to get and share the files...

You are only giving access to the folder that you use to share music. It can be copyed and moved to a different folder if you so choose.

Your whole computer cannot be accessed by this type of file sharing. Just the one folder that you use to share files.

And of course make sure you have virus scanning on your downloads.

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Yuppers - we did that... I didn't know how 'puter savvy your son might be - I hope I didn't offend you wiht the 'heads up' about the program.... but I figured it might be something you'd want to know, if you didn't already... Nuttin' is really free, you know.

Hubby and I have had a blast with it tonight - we've found some very rare cuts of music that we probably wouldn't have found anywhere else - Aerosmith, Elvin Bishop, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, etc. We've finally had to shut ourselves off so we didn't stay up all night... :-)

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He's a lot smarter then me on a lot of computer stuff. He's been working with computers since he was 3 with our first comp and takes to it easily. But I have been able to help him figure out some things on it too. Which made me feel pretty smart. icon_smile.gif:)-->

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quote:
Hey Socks - careful using anything that is close to Meta11ica's name - they've even sued Victoria's Secret because of they had a silver eyeliner with the same name. Since they cut their hair they've turned into the biggest bunch of cry babies, anyhow. "WAH-ha-ha-ha-ha! Mommmeeee! She 'tole my NAME! Wah!"

icon_biggrin.gif:D--> Chas, I'm laughin' my metallihiney off!

Ain't it the truth.

I really don't think the industry gets music sharing. People have always - always - "shared" music with one another that they like. It's the best advertising an artist can get. Plus, a lot of the older music hasn't been available to buy.

If 4-5,000 sharings a year occurred for an artist's music that wasn't available, hey *knock knock*....labels should find it, remix it, produce it and sell it. Duh. It's not rocket science here, just good ol' All American Capitalism. 30 years ago, I didn't have any money. I'm a consumer. Gimme some choices.

But I don't do file sharing "Napster" style anymore. Too risky and if the music's available for sale, I'll try to support the artist in the hope they're getting paid for their work. It makes sense. But I do think the sharing of music internet-style does good for an artist's career, to an extent. Once you've heard it, you can buy their stuff if you want. If you've heard them you can go to a concert if you like them. Smart bands have audio and video selections on their sites. Fans dig it, it's how you get to know their music.

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Hey John, speaking of vinyl - I've done some comparison listening to vinyl and cd releases of the same music. If the vinyl's in good shape still, it kills the cd in "oomph". Some of that stuff is a little unstable on the vinyl now, so the stereo sound is really interesting coming off vinyl. It does seem to have a more "real" sound. But at the same time the cd reissues are usually mixed and remastered better so it's a toss up sometimes. But overall, the records sound fuller to me, definitely over any mp3 quality cuts.

P.S. here's a simple (enough for me) explanation of the differences between the "analog" record sound and "digital" cd sound HERE. For minds that have a mo'.

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quote:
Hey John, speaking of vinyl - I've done some comparison listening to vinyl and cd releases of the same music. If the vinyl's in good shape still, it kills the cd in "oomph".

Analog is 'warmer' sounding - hands down. Some genres of music don't sound as good in digital as they do in analog - some even require that *pop! sss-hisss!* sound that you can only get off vinyl... Don't give me Ella Fitzgerald or Glenn Miller on CD - it just don't cut it! Some things have to have the wax to be good!

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quote:
some even require that *pop! sss-hisss!*

True! It's funny - there's a digital effect to add that into music when it's not there. Cute.

I was reading an article here

Chas, comparing various download services. Did anyone mention eMusic yet? I haven't heard of that one. There's a few out there. Guess iTunes is now the biGGie for pay sites.

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eMusic....

Where do I begin....

I listen to a wide variety of music, as you may have guessed from some of my posts...

eMusic, in my opinion, is a tool for promotion bands, singers, labels - not for finding rare cuts (nothing is juicier!) or oldies or current cuts. Run a searh on Joss Stone, Hall & Oats, David Broza, U2, The Cure, AC/DC, Dolly Parton - you'll get nada, zip, zero, zilch - but there's tons of "World Music" (I hate that all-encompassing term, but anyhow...) there, if that's your thing. (Hey, I even listen to some ethnic music but that's not everything to me.) eMusic doesn't give me the bang for my buck that I'm looking for.

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Interesting thought ---

In all the formats that music had been made available in, it seems that the sound preferences all come down to CD (digital) and vinyl - I don't hear anyone waxing nostalgic over cassettes or 8-tracks ("Gee, remember that great sound 8-tracks made when switching to the next block of music? I really miss that..." NOT!)

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That's the tr'oof! I don't miss cassettes. I've got a bunch of old reel to reel tape stuff that's turned up. In fact, a box of old stuff from the late 60's showed up last year from a basement - had some really funny stuff on it. Amazing. I opened the boxes, laid the reels out. Looked at them. Slowly unwound some of the tape. Finally put 'em on an old deck. Bingo. Played like it was 1970. icon_biggrin.gif:D--> By comparison it's like walking compared to flying. It's so labor intensive, the loading, fast forwarding, back and forth. It's kind of fun. For about 5 minutes. banghead.gif

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I have downloaded and burned a few full length DVD's and also copied a few rented DVD's just to experiment with technologies and see if my burner works properly, etc.

(Of course I destroyed the copies icon_smile.gif:)-->)

I had no trouble making a copy that looks and sounds as good as the original, best I can tell. But after my brief experience I do not think Hollywood has to worry too much just yet.

After trying it, we found that as cheap as DVD movies are these days, we would rather just go buy the dumb thing and get an excellent copy complete with packaging, notes, pictures, etc. and save all the hassle of the burning process.

As the Internet hits more impoverished nations I think you could have a lot of pirating. But they are too poor to buy it anyway.

It will be interesting to see how all this plays out in history.

I see kids buying CD's when they really like one. Not that expensive i the greater scheme of things. Could downloading MP3's be losing its appeal?

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I still do some file sharing. My attitude is "If you sell it I will buy" but a lot of great stuff is still not available in the states. I'm still trying to find the CD by the group Stardrive which was out for about two weeks in Japan. I've worn out my vinyl copy and I doubt I'll ever see it reissued.

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Tommy,

Re:"I still do some file sharing"

And what program do you find most effective? I still try to find stuff on file sharing, too. Mainly stuff you CAN'T buy like old movie and TV theme songs but I have had problems with Bearshare and Kaaza as of late. You have any recomendations??

sudo
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