SWL Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'm just checking out this digital download stuff for the first time. [:^)] I was on "Limewire" and was really enjoying finding just about any type of music that I wanted.......and it sounded decent, too. However, I had a few pop-ups from my Norton security telling me that it was blocking attacks on my computer. Then I researched Limewire on the net and found that this is a hacker's paradise. Is this true? Well, I believed it to be true and got the heck outta there because of the "attacks" that were being blocked by Norton. This really sucks. I was really digging it, too.......downloading to windows media player and making cd's etc. So, my question is....Are there any safe sites out there to download music? This may be a dumb inquiry but like I said I've just been a cd and vinyl guy up until now. Show me the way to the promised land of great music. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Rule # 1, you don't get something for nothing.... Rule # 2, if you think you got something for nothing, refer to rule # 1. Check pawn shops, cd's are going for dirt cheap. I can buy them for less than a dollar each, and I also check the surface before I buy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocnorb Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 FYI anything you download in MP3 has only a fraction of the information that a Vinyl record or a CD does and "CANNOT" sound anywhere near as good... period may be ok for listening to in a car or as background music but not good for "LISTENING" to IMHO Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanO55 Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I tried Liedwire (not a typo) too. Poor quality and nothing but virisus all over the place. Had to cleanup my computer several times so I got the hell out of there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblio Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I believe the reason for the plethora of hacking is the underlying communication structure, that being Peer-to-Peer, Kazaa is another popular peer-to-peer 'sharing' service that has the same risks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Rule # 1, you don't get something for nothing.... Rule # 2, if you think you got something for nothing, refer to rule # 1. Check pawn shops, cd's are going for dirt cheap. I can buy them for less than a dollar each, and I also check the surface before I buy them. Well said, and if you are desperate for a particular track and cannot find the CD in the pawn shop, thrift store, etc. Amazon has become a good source for old stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Are these type sites legal now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Amazon has become a good source for old stuff. It's back to Amazon I go. They should really start giving away free music, though. ....Gonna write them a letter. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmako Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 The recording industry isn't done using the courts to whack illegal file sharing either. They just won a several hundred thousand dollar judgement against a guy who had only pulled down about 30 songs. Since I started using www.Pandora.com for background music while ambling around the domo, I have switched almost exclusively to used cds from Amazon. Most that I pick are under 3 bucks and then another 3 for shipping. Sure it adds up, but I want the disc in my collection...not the mp3. As mentioned above, I cannot walk past a pawn shop or thrift store without checking out the music sections. What I find mostly is CRAP, but every now and then I come out a winner. Still waiting patiently for some Cornwalls and Mac gear.........being poor sucks, but helps to make one an optimist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Lala.com allows you to listen to the full version of each song once all the way through before you have to buy it. It's still an Mp3 though and you'd be better off with the CD which they often sell as well. -Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Since I started using Pandora for background music while ambling around the domo, I have switched almost exclusively to used cds from Amazon. Most that I pick are under 3 bucks and then another 3 for shipping. Sure it adds up, but I want the disc in my collection...not the mp3. I've been checking out Pandora lately as well. I noticed that they have an option to download mp3's directly to Windows Media. Seems like this might be pretty cool to then burn it to a disc or to an Ipod. Would this be considered safe? Despite claims that mp3's don't sound good........I've heard plenty that actually sound pretty good. That being said, half of my cd collection absolutely blows for sound quality so this is partially where I'm coming from. Some mp3's sound better than the originally poorly recorded cd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokarz Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 there are a bunch of places where you can buy songs/albums legally. amazon, itunes, and napster are probably some of the most well knowns. i downloaded from amazon a few times since they often give me these $5/$10 certificates for buying stuffs from them. i could be wrong here, but once you uncompressed an MP3 and burn it onto your CD as a WAV file, aren't you suppose to get 99.8% of an original CD track? i would definitely stay away from those P2P network sites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clermontcop Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Why download music when you can go to www.pandora.com its free, you dont have to download anything, and you can listen to anything you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I agree Pandora is great but he was wanting to make cd's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I've been using Pandora a lot lately just to hear stuff I don't have. Maybe I just hadn't noticed but I'll often see a "buy" link which can take you right to Amazon. It certainly helps me make a more informed decision about what I want to buy. I don't know what bit rate Pandora uses but it is at least a little better than the 160 kb I was stuck at years ago. Now that I have equipment that will let me hear the difference it is unlikely that I will be listening to those much except for on my alarm clock. You can save audio streams to .wav but I don't know if that is worth the trouble and I'll bet there was something in the agreement with Pandora that would prohibit that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivernuggets Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 This is straying from downloads a little, but I use Half.com a lot for buying cds. It's a tributary of Ebay, so your username and password can be used in both places. You can find most used cds for $2-5, then $3 for shipping. Back to MP3s. Their quality is determined by how they were encoded and at what bit rate. If you get the right set up, they can sound very good (relatively speaking). LAME is a good MP3 encoder: http://lame.sourceforge.net/about.php I have been ok with using the Windows Media Player for making MP3s, and using the Rio Karma 20 gb player: http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 It's old and discontinued but wonderful. Plays lossless FLAC files if you're into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brockybear Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I would recommend Linn Records http://www.linnrecords.com/ You can buy Studio Masters recorded at 192khz 24 bit digital which is the closest thing you will ever get to perfection in audio recording. Albums are available in FLAC or lossless WMA or MP3 if you really have too. Hi res audiophile recordings are out there for download and the price is pretty damn good. I hooked up a Cary DAC to my laptop and listen to recordings at a sampling rate that maked a CD sound like a casstte tape. Digital distrabution of music is the way forward and audiophile downloads grade recordings are out there at an affordable price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocnorb Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 there are a bunch of places where you can buy songs/albums legally. amazon, itunes, and napster are probably some of the most well knowns. i downloaded from amazon a few times since they often give me these $5/$10 certificates for buying stuffs from them. i could be wrong here, but once you uncompressed an MP3 and burn it onto your CD as a WAV file, aren't you suppose to get 99.8% of an original CD track? i would definitely stay away from those P2P network sites. Smokarz The MP3 format is a "lossy" form of compression. It "removes" parts of the file to save space. You cannot "expand" an MP3 file back to an original wave file the bits removed to make the file smaller are gone for good.. You can burn it to a CD as a wave file but it will only have the info that was in the MP3 file and can only sound as good as the MP3 file did. A bitrate of 320 is the highest that the MP3 format will go and although it sounds much better than 128 or 192 bit rates if you were to do an A/B comparison with a decent vinyl or CD system you would certainly notice the difference. Having said that 320 bit rate MP3s are a great way to take tunes to a party or any kind of listening where it is not really "listening" I would never take my vinyl out of my listening room for anything short of a special listening on another system Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clermontcop Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Another website I have used in the past and I have downloaded hundreds of songs with no issues at all is www.mp3sparks.com. The only thing I have found with using this website is sometimes the site is up and sometimes its down, not sure why, but its worth a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Well I have to say that I've really been enjoying Pandora for the last few days. Downloading songs through Amazon directly to my windows media player. A pretty cool way to find new music as well as old. [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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