Legal music downloads.

[jkaduk]

Who do you like? I looked at ITunes and I didn't like that I had to download and install their software before I could find out what they have. I'm looking for old (70's, 80's) and new rock.

 

[Michael]

I use Napster. Very happy with it so far. easy to use, well catigorized. free trial too.

 

[Dan Deutsch]

Are any of the sharing sites legal? I am guessing this is a gray area right now. I used to use Audio-Satellite and you could "pull" songs from another's list.

It seems to be running again but now you have to ask for the song and the user has to push the song to you. You also have to join a group, of which there are many, in order to play.

Just wondering if anyone else is using a sharing service.

 

[Brian Austin]

Are any of the sharing sites legal?

No, sharing sites are not legal. They violate the copyrights of the song.

Personally, I avoid those types of systems. The software is often loaded with spyware. The RIAA is constantly trying to infiltrate the networks and either throw in junk songs (like Madonna's message) or gather names for civil suits.

 

[JohnL]

iTunes

I've been using iTunes since it was released for the PC. I'm very satisfied with the overall experience, no problems with the software. Of all the paid-download services, iTunes gives you the most freedom to do as you wish with the music once you purchase it. You can burn songs to CD as many times as you'd like (although you can only burn the same playlist three times). Once you have the music on CD, it is in .wav format - then you can do whatever you want (load it on an .mp3 player, edit it, mix it).

As far as music selection goes, iTunes is as good as any, and browsing the store is very pleasant. I have one peeve with iTunes, quite often, the short song preview they offer doesn't represent the song well - about 20% of what I've downloaded turned out to be much less appealing than the short clip lets on.

The only thing I dislike about ALL the download services is that the music is encoded at less than CD quality, and on a good sound system, the difference is noticable. However, I am through buying $13 CDs just to get two or three good songs.