Best value for legal music downloads you get to keep?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:25 pm

Hi all, I would much appreciate any advice you have on how to grow my collection

- iTunes 99 cents per song is too much for me to justify
- I don't want to illegally download music

My best options are probably used factory CDs or perhaps trading CDs with friends

Any thoughts?
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pah68 · Post by **pah68** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:27 pm

Anonymous wrote: - I don't want to illegally download music

or perhaps trading CDs with friends

Not that I can talk, but what would the difference be?

Unless of course you are deleting the ripped tracks after you trade the cd's on.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:29 pm

pah68 wrote:
Anonymous wrote: - I don't want to illegally download music

or perhaps trading CDs with friends
Not that I can talk, but what would the difference be?

I guess you have a point there.

At least the trading CDs with friends probably wouldn't result in a court summons from RIAA for file sharing though

cosmo18 · Post by **cosmo18** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:59 am

My favorite place for downloading CHEAP leagal MP3s (I love this company almost as much as media monkey) is the website http://www.allofmp3.com they only charge $.04 a meg and the music is 100% legal, not to mention you can choose the format (MP3, ogg, wma ect) and the bitrate that the song is encoded in, for example I was able to get Frank Sinatra's greatest hits vol. 1 and 2 for around 2 bucks

judas · Post by **judas** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:45 pm

Allthough the legality of allofmp3.com is discussed i do love it to and would recommend it to anyone.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:03 pm

I beefed up my collection this summer with the addition of about 400 CD's to replace records.

I found that about 80% of the time used Amazon was the best deal, although occasionally, eBay came through, but it does involve more work. You'll find that many great deals on eBay are not so because they charge about $5 postage. Amazon is generally a flat $2.50.

Yes, I have a CD exchange with friends, too.

I also use bit torrents for live stuff with flac and shn files.

I haven't gotten to point where we are exchanging hard drives yet.

I currently have about 20,000 tracks.

Mthrsuperior · Post by **Mthrsuperior** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:54 pm

http://www.emusic.com is fantastic.
20 bucks a month gets me 90 downloads and there's no DRM and the rips are half decent VBR.

eMusic is geared more towards indie stuff, but for me that's a huge plus

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:43 pm

An average used CD will be about $5 for about 20 songs, about 25 cents a song. For 100 songs that would be about $25.

You are not dealing with "half decent" VBR's or mp3's. You have 100% lossless music with all the album art.

Post by **Lowlander** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:06 am

In January a new initiative will launch that will provide free (Ad supported) music from some big labels. These songs will have DRM though. I don't remember the name of the site that will offer this service.

Mizery_Made · Post by **Mizery_Made** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:13 pm

Lowlander wrote:In January a new initiative will launch that will provide free (Ad supported) music from some big labels. These songs will have DRM though. I don't remember the name of the site that will offer this service.

I believe you might be talking about SpiralFrog, though, I thought they were launching sometime this month. *Shrugs* If I remember reading correctly, that's gonna be more hassle then it's worth as you gotta log in like atleast once a month to keep the license, and, you can only keep the licenses on any song for like 6 months. :\

Teknojnky · Post by **Teknojnky** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:32 pm

I use allofmp3.com when I can't find something I want, altho there is certainly controversy regarding the legalities of, there system and price points are very good.

You choose the format and quality (including lossless), you pay ## amount per meg downloaded.

One thing that may not seem pleasant, is that you basically must pre-pay... you reserve various amounts of money, then you download and the applicable amount is deducted until your account is depleted.

If the pre-pay doesn't bother you, it's a great system.

cadmanmeg · Post by **cadmanmeg** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 3:54 am

Sorry, but what does it mean by "lossless"? Not to step on thread, but curious. Thanks much.

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:38 am

Lossless, is with all audio information, not compressed like MP3. Lossless will take more space but has the best available quality.

Mthrsuperior · Post by **Mthrsuperior** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:42 am

cadmanmeg wrote:Sorry, but what does it mean by "lossless"? Not to step on thread, but curious. Thanks much.

This isn't "scientifically correct" but you'll get the idea:

Lossy formats such as MP3 make the file smaller by removing audio information the human ear can't hear. (supposedly - I stress supposedly and I think Scooter will 2nd that) .

Lossless formats such as FLAC make the file smaller by removing redundant data. - Sort of like a zip file. When you zip a file it gets smaller but when you unzip it the file is exactly the same as before you zipped it.

Lossless files are a lot bigger but they sound a lot better.

Teknojnky · Post by **Teknojnky** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:00 pm

Lossless

Lossy

Best value for legal music downloads you get to keep?

Best value for legal music downloads you get to keep?

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Re: Best value for legal music downloads you get to keep?