Buying Music Online

[Melville]

What LEGAL sites you you guys buy music from online? Something like Napster, iTunes etc. Basically, I'm sick of buying albums on CD - I generally don't care about most of the tracks on an album enough to justify paying for the whole thing, and the first thing I do with a CD anyway is rip it to my PC (.mp3 or .ogg) and chuck the CD into the back of my wardrobe never to be seen again.

So, any suggestions for a decent download site? I don't want excessive DRM or propriatory formats because I want to be able to listen to music on my GP32 / some other gadget. I mostly listen to metal, rock, jazz and classical - as a rule of thumb, anything that you could never imagine showing up on "Top of The Pops"!

Obviously I've been googling and reading the sites' FAQs, but I'm more interested in unbiased opinion. Share your thoughts!

 

[spray]

allofmp3.com

at a price that makes sense and it seems that it's legal under russian law

 

[Vimacs]

yeah, allofmp3.com is the only one wich gives good quality in good formats for a fair price and without drm crap.

 

[woogal]

Legal under Russian law (or so they claim) but I can't imagine any money gets back to the artists so it's just the same as stealing, only you have to pay :blink:.

The legal sites are far too overpriced at the moment though. I've been looking into stuff like this just lately (got the wife a sony bean for xmas so I've been checking out sony connect), but from what I can see you end up paying full price for an album but you only get compressed files. What I'd like to see is legal sites working the same way as allformp3.com and offering lossless files at around full price, or compressed files at reduced cost. Paying full price for half the quality just seems a bit pointless to me.

 

[Goity]

Yahoos is meant to be not bad

 

[spray]

hmmm, just reread the original post

if you want drm free stuff that will play on other things then really you've gotta succumb to piracy of go the route of allofmp3.com, nowhere else will offer mp3s that are either vaguely mainstream and drm free.

if you have a fast net connection, can't recommend usenet highly enough!

 

[skate2live92]

safe-share is...."legal"

costs $15 though (to download)

 

[Melville]

That's really annoying... downloading music isn't difficult for me, but I'm starting to feel guilty about the (smallish) library of music and flims I've amassed from various shady sources and want to replace them with legal copies now I've finally got a real job.

All of the films are sorted thanks to the bargain bins at local shops combined with the fact I have very little time to watch them so didn't mind just deleting a lot without replacement. Maybe I'll just have to go back to buying CDs - while I understand the need (well, the labels' desire at least) for DRM, I really hate buying music then having the seller tell me that "by the way, you can only listen to it through our software on your PC while connected to the internet and hopping on your left leg at full moon with a custard cream clenched between your buttocks*".

Going slightly on a tangent, have you guys tried Pandora.com? Not what I'm looking for 'cause it only streams music, but still very cool. I'm probably the last guy on the web to find out about it (I haven't been online much for a while), but I'm sufficiently impressed by how well it works to risk seeming n00bish.

Thanks guys / girls / uncertain
Melville

*ok, this wasn't a direct quote but you get the idea.

 

[spray]

pandora is great for when you're at your pc and feel like some new tunes and some old classics

 

[skate2live92]

i love buying CDs...

You make a good point, buying CDs is easier because you have so much more freedom and you dont feel guilt for the artists/record label .

 

[Goity]

i love buying CDs...

You make a good point, buying CDs is easier because you have so much more freedom and you dont feel guilt for the artists/record label .

​

Try telling that for my sister... :S

 

[PinkSpider]

I erm... why do record labels deserve my money?! Id rather give straight to a band for downloading their stuff... infact if their was a steam like system for music I would consider paying now im on a decent salary. But till then... I dont give a shit... P2P me do.

Also most of the bands I know who I would buy dont even need my money... rich bastards. The poorer bands I know of I would pay to see, and perhaps even pay for a CD.

 

[Drak]

Yo can download full cd rip albums off of bittorent. Dont pay for your music that be selling out

 

[Goity]

What is this, communism?

 

[PinkSpider]

 

[Vimacs]

i love buying CDs...

You make a good point, buying CDs is easier because you have so much more freedom and you dont feel guilt for the artists/record label .

​

yeah, and you get free rootkits with it!