Downloading Music...

[pinoy3D]

I finally got an iPod, and now I want some music. I've been getting my music for years from Limewire, but there selections have been pretty limited, especially in terms of sound quality. So I want to subscribe to one of those sites where you can get unlimited downloads for a monthly fee. Does anybody have any experience these sites (Napters, Rhapsody, or any other site)?

[Biddle]

Get a library card. (Free)

Search their entire music catalogue for EVERY Chicago library online. (Also Free.)

Have them ship the five disks that you put on hold to your nearest library location. (Also Free.)

Stop by any weekday, Mon - Thur before 9pm to pick up your disks, add a few more to fill out your picks. (Maximum - 4 disks out at a time), take them home, burn them on your computer, create backup disks, return to the library and start all over again. (Free.Free.Free.)

Did I mention that the libraries now get the most current music, as soon as it comes out, as well as stock of older titles. Anything that they don't have, can be found on Itunes. (Although Itunes doesn't have any Beatles music - yet. The library has shitloads of it.)

Enjoy.

Cheers,
COB

[VinRigan]

Seconded, though I have yet to peruse the catalogue nearly well enough.

I do have a Napster account, though- it's only so-so. They will let you listen (for $12.95/month) to unlimited music, and you can download it and play it on your iPod, so long as you have a subscription. Shitty thing is, some newer stuff, you can only play 30 seconds of the track, unless you buy it, which blows. I tried to play a Dandy Warhols album and a Ringside album, and it said both of them, the entire albums were only previews.

I don't like the bastards, so I do what I do with all other internet radio (like Pandora, where I've found most of the new music I learn I dig), and use Replay Music, a program that makes MP3's of the songs, separated when there's a set amount of silence in the play (you set how long the silence must be, and how low "silent" is). It also, somehow magically identifies the songs in an online database and names them/tags them- usually correctly. Sometimes it doesn't have the track names, but if you have something where you can flip back through the playlist, you can easily fix the titles. Basically the same thing as recording songs off the radio, only better quality.

I've heard Last FM is also good, and lets you play whole albums, though I dunno if it's a subscription or just a good streaming radio. Napster craps out after 86 songs in a row, for whatever reason.

[pinoy3D]

oh yeah, the library. Good idea. But when you say Chicago libraries, do you mean Chicago-area library or Chicago Public Library. Because I live out the suburbs. Would they ship to the burbs?

I'm also looking for rare EPs that I have been able to find only on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody...