cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Preferably on the up and up.
What do you use?
What do you use?
Best music download sites
- Thread starter cheezydemon3
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doobliebop
Well-Known Member
I rarely use anything on the up and up... I get most everything from torrent sites: pirate bay, demonoid, mininova etc...
If I want a song right away though, I'll pay for it through itunes.
If I want a song right away though, I'll pay for it through itunes.
up and up....I guess Itunes
Weizenheimer
Well-Known Member
Up and up, itunes.....a bit below the up and up check out limewire
BioBeing
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homebrewer_99
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I've never downloaded a song...
dataz722
Well-Known Member
I've never downloaded a song...
You usually just download the entire album instead?
Mirage
Well-Known Member
Buy the CD and rip it to your computer as a .wav or at least download a high bit rate version. Otherwise you are just shortchanging yourself.
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cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
You are saying Itunes and others lose quality?
greencoat
Well-Known Member
The beauty of the state of technology is not having to deal with paying money for a sub-par album. I download whatever I want for free via a torrent tracker site. If I like an album enough, I'll purchase a hard copy (vinyl if available, CD if not.) If I don't like it, I didn't lose any money and gave the artist a fair chance. I'm not into the idea of paying money for a compressed digital file that I can't hold or share because it's been wrapped in DRM.
news groups are handy. But to be honest, I find there are lots of ways to sample songs before purchasing. I rarely buy music, but if I find a good album or song I like to compensate the artist as directly as I can.
Edcculus
Well-Known Member
There are a ton of great streaming sites out there. One thats been popping up a lot on Google searches is Lala.com. I can stream a huge variety of albums. If I like it, I pop down to my local record store and buy the album. No sense in paying for lossy mp3s when I can have a lossless CD format for the exact same price.
forcera
Well-Known Member
That's why I buy tickets to their shows if I like them. I can't even remember the last piece of music I bought. I got something off of iTunes a while back but I had a gift card.
bsteele
Active Member
Mirage
Well-Known Member
Yes, precisely. Especially iTunes. They upped the bit rate recently to 256kbps but a CD is 1411kbps.
Mirage
Well-Known Member
Meh, overrated
Lol, I used to think so too, but if you get some decent speakers and amp, you can hear the difference.
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cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Good info, Thanks all.
Some good headphones are da bomb, but in the car or for listening while playing WoW, it's good enough.
I've found that many radio stations have switched to playing MP3 quality music over FM. It's much easier for them to have on hand and program automatically. Most people can't tell the difference.
Mirage
Well-Known Member
Yea, I agree that most people don't care. My car stereo is stock so it wouldn't matter on that either. I do most of my listening at home though either at my computer or on my stereo.
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cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
meddin
Well-Known Member
I agree with you, but that is a big 'if'. Like most people I listen to about 95% of my music in the car or on my iPod. Under those conditions you would be hard to tell much of a difference between a 128kbs file and a full quality lossless audio file.
iTunes is now DRM free...
*disclaimer* The above being said, I do use Newsgroups for most my downloads
. Of course with 'illegal' downloads, you run the risk of getting caught. Like this woman who loast a $1.92 million judgement for downloading 24 songs.
Mirage
Well-Known Member
Yes, in the car esp, unless you dropped a lot of money on high end audio and sound proofing but I can hear it on my iPod too. But, as I said, most of my listening is on my computer or from my stereo. It is just something to think about, if you plan on upgrading as you will have a whole set of music that is lesser quality. I know most of my music is lower quality so I am in the process of replacing it. I find it especially apparent when listening to classical music. 
The thing that gets me with the download sites is the cost. Think of it this way: Back in the "day" when I used to buy vinyl/CDs they cost about $13 bucks for about a dozen songs. (a little over $1 per song.) These albums had to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, and then sold in a store that had to pay all kinds of overhead.
Now the music is recorded and put on a server and then you download a digital file. Yet, they still charge $1 per song. And the quality is worse than the cd version.
I still buy some cds at live shows and such, but that's because the music I enjoy isn't all that mainstream and I like to support the artists directly. But the major record labels can suck it.
Now the music is recorded and put on a server and then you download a digital file. Yet, they still charge $1 per song. And the quality is worse than the cd version.
I still buy some cds at live shows and such, but that's because the music I enjoy isn't all that mainstream and I like to support the artists directly. But the major record labels can suck it.
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cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Anybody have any favorites now.
Bedlam
Well-Known Member
I've used this service for several months and it is so-so. I find that when I go to look up a song I want to download, it is there about half the time. Now, last fall they acquired a much bigger library and that seemed to increase my hit rate a bit. Pretty easy to use and I like their interface a lot. Plus you get to listen to samples. I think it is worth it and have kept my subscription, but it isn't what my dream service would be.
