Where To Download Music On The Internet by: Chris Fox
Virtually all of you have probably heard of the RIAA's quest to crush online music piracy. The illegal sharing of copyrighted songs via the MP3 format on top the Internet costs the music industry billions of dollars. This is conventionally done applying illegal file sharing programs like KaZaa and iMesh. This article explores the legal ways to download and enjoy music from the Internet.
Method 1: Try out Free Music Sites
There are many free music websites which provide free music downloads. It is not the websites of your music pirates - it is completely legal. Do not expect to find full albums to download, particularly if the song is from a famous artist (only music pirate websites allow full album downloads). You'll only find a couple "teasers" intended to produce you wish to purchase the artists' Compact disc. Independent, less well-known artists are an exception - many of them will let you down their complete song catalog to promote themselves.
Just here are a couple of the free music websites which I personally recommend:
* AMPCAST.com
* Amazon.com Digital Music Downloads
* RollingStone.com
* ElectronicScene.com
* The Internet Underground Music Archive
Method 2: Purchase Music Online
An increasingly popular way to find and download music online is to head for legal online music services. The virtually all popular of these is the Apples iTune service. Now it will bring across 400,000 songs from all 5 major labels. Every song is available for a standard cost of ninety-nine cents every. Right here are the best online music services I have come across:
* EMusic.com
* iTunes
* MusicMatch Downloads
* Napster two.zero
* Rhapsody
* Weblisten.com
Conclusion
It's incredibly tempting to employ KaZaa and more file sharing programs to download music - however please do not. If you wrote a song and sold a Compact disc, would you be happy to see hundreds to thousands of people distributing that song for free? No. You do not have to break the law to find and download free MP3 music. There are many websites out there offering free music - you just want to find them.
The MP3 is a complete godsend for anyone who enjoys and appreciates good music. Not only does it afford users the convenience of purchasing music online and ripping from purchased CDs, it also provides the utmost ease in portability. There are more MP3 players on the market than I can name. These players allow you to download hundreds and in some cases thousands of MP3’s to take along with you anywhere. I create MP3 CD’s containing up to 120 of my favorite songs for my listening pleasure in my car. But how can so many audio files get stored on my 800MB (Megabyte) CD?
MP3 Encoders and MP3 converters are the software that creates MP3s by using an MP3 compression and decompression algorithm. For example, an average 3 minute WAV file can be as large as 15MB. Using MP3 encoders and MP3 converters, a large WAV file can be cut down to a much smaller and more portable MP3 file of about 3MB.
MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3. At layer 3, psychoacoustics principles are used to find and remove all unnecessary sound data, leaving behind only the crucial audio data. By unnecessary sound data I mean all of the stuff that we humans don’t hear anyway. Most people can’t hear sounds above 16 kHz so why would you want it hogging your disk or hard drive space? Non-music audio such as speeches, sermons, audio books and comedy albums, can be reduced even less based on this.
Compression occurs after the essential data has been separated from the redundant data. At this stage, the same amount of data can be stored using fewer bits and less space. The bit rate is the ratio of the number of bits transferred between two devices per second. The higher the bit rate, the higher the sound quality. The lower the bit rate ratio, the lower the sound quality. 192 Kb/s is the most popular bit rate used in peer-to-peer networks. For the most part, MP3 converters and encoders today use variable bit rates. This allows for much better quality audio because the bit rate conforms to the dynamics of the audio frames being stored which in turn keeps more of the important music data.
There are dozens of MP3 compressor and encoder software programs available online and at stores. Some of the main encoding engines are: LAME, Blade Enc, Fraunhofer Encoders and Xing. Deciding which MP3 encoding engine technology is right for you depends on your individual needs and preferences. Blaze Media Pro is an excellent option if you're looking for a powerful, yet easy to use, all-in-one multimedia solution.
Video capture software for AVI and WMV by: Mansi gupta
In this age of computer technology access and manipulation of information at any point of time and in any form has become absolutely common. With invention of CD, Camcorder, MP3, digital cameras and many more gizmos like them access to audio and video files have become a commonplace affair for most of us. Everyone just expect that if one has any sound track or any video clip they must be able to play and view it every time and at all places. But the problem is that these many diversified instruments each have their own format for storing the various audio and video clips.
It’s not certain that the audio CD that produced excellent sounds in the MP3 would perform equally well on the home theater system at the house. Problems eventually arise when you eagerly switch on the computer to view some of the pictures recorded on the handy cam or when you want to listen to some rare and favorite sound track on the computer. After all the endeavor to attach the cords and devices you find that all the efforts was to only find the computer display a message that it did not support the format in which information was supplied to it and hence could not do anything with the audio or video. Believe me its very frustrating when such incidents happen. Usually one has to just sit back, get frustrated with the technology and miss their very rare favorite sound track. One desperately wishes that if they had some thing in this world that could change the format of the file and make the file work on the device they had.
Blaze media pro is a perfect solution to all these problems and now you don’t have to miss viewing your much-loved pictures and hearing to the best of tracks just because the format in which they were stored was different. Blaze media pro is a blessing for a techno freak. Now none needs to pay a huge ransom to the technical experts for just changing formats of simply editing a little piece of information. All types of changes and inclusion or deletion of any part of the recording is only a click away. Blaze media pro has very exhaustive tutorial and extremely easy steps to perform all manipulations that are desired on video or audio files. It’s easy to follow steps enables even a novice to easily handle all the technicalities involved in the process.
Many software’s promise to provide an easy way to convert audio and video files from one format to another but with most of the services there’s a limit that they can only perform one specific task that they had assured. Now each time one requires a different type of format exchanging they have to rush and mess with another device. Blaze media pro brings an end to all these hurdles in the way to universal access of information. It offers an one stop venue for all the your digital requirements. What better can it get than, that it’s available free for trial for 15 days on net and can be downloaded easily.
Want to find out how to listen to all your favorite songs whenever you want? If so, you’ll want to learn more about music software and how you can install some programs onto your computer. Here are some descriptions of some basic music software programs you will want to learn more about:
CD Ripper
A CD Ripper program allows you to convert tracks from a compact disc to your mp3 player, or onto your computer. You can make your own mp3s from audio CDs, so that you make your own song selections. You can also convert batches of WAV decoded files at a time to mp3 files on the CD Ripper, and if you want to download this program onto your computer, you’ll need to have Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or 2000, and a CD-ROM drive. For most CD Ripper programs, you can try a free download first before purchasing the product.
Audio Editors
If you are into recording and creating your own music, an audio editor program may be a good investment. An audio editor program allows you to save your own studio sessions or songs to modify later. Most include a metronome (to keep music and vocals in rhythm) and an audio mixer. The mixer allows you to adjust different music track settings like tone, pitch or volume. On some programs you can even ‘beat match’ between tracks, thus allowing for a smoother transition between songs. One audio editing program you may want to try is Blaze Media Pro, a program which is also a CD burner and converter. And, if you’re recording a large file, most audio editors will be able to support your files with no problem at all. If you are using a multi-track editor, one thing to keep in mind is whether your sound card and memory capabilities are up to the task of handling large volumes of songs,.
Although most audio editor programs are commercial (and not freeware) and have a standard price tag, you can receive free trials for audio editor programs as well. Be aware of the memory and sound card requirements as designated by the company who produces the software. Depending on who makes the software, it may be available for Windows XP, Windows 98, ME, 2000 and even Mac OSX.
MP3 Audio File Format – A new format for storing sounds by: David Chandler
MP3 is the latest and the most popular audio format that is used now. This acronym stands for MPEG Layer 3. It is a compressed audio format with a compression ratio of up to 12: 1. The sound quality of the audio in this format is very high. A normal audio file, which is 1200 KB in size, can be stored in just 100 KB if it is using the MP3 format. The size of the audio files is very small when compared to other formats of audio files. This makes it easily portable.
Where to get MP3 audio files?
MP3 audio files are widely available in CDs now. Almost any album that is released in the world is also sold in the MP3 audio format. These albums in the MP3 formats are also available in some websites that are dedicated for MP3 downloads. You can also purchase these MP3 CDs at any audio store meant for that purpose.
MP3 downloads
Free MP3 downloads are also available in some of the websites. You need to become a member of these sites for a fee to download unlimited number of songs in the MP3 format. Some of the sites charge you for each song that is downloaded. Free MP3 downloads for testing the quality of the audio is usually provided by most of these websites. Websites like www.napster.com allow free MP3 downloads if you have MP3 players from select manufacturers. You can download directly to the player by using the software provided by the website.
How to play a MP3 audio file?
To play a MP3 audio you need separate players whether it is software or a physical player that can be carried. MP3 software players are used in your PC to play MP3 audio. Physical players from many branded manufacturers are available in the market to play these MP3 audio files.
MP3 Ringtones
With the advent of the mobile phones, it has become a fashion to make your mobile call you with your favorite songs as Ringtones. Youngsters particularly teenagers are more interested in using Ringtones of the songs they like. This has picked up in such a manner that MP3 Ringtones are now being sold in websites. Many websites sell Ringtones in the MP3 format. The mobile you are using should be capable of playing the Ringtones in the MP3 format to use these MP3 Ringtones. These websites provide you with an interface to select the model of the mobile phone you have and then download MP3 Ringtones that suit your mobile phone model.
About the author: For more information, visit the MP3 Info Center at http://www.mp3infocenter.com David Chandler For your FREE Stock Market Trading Mini Course: "What The Wall Street Hot Shots Won't Tell You!" go to: http://www.stockmarketgenie.com
MP3 Players under fire in US and European courtrooms by: Paolo d'Amato
ALEXANDRIA, Va. & TURIN, Italy - Oct., 2005 - Audio MPEG, Inc. and Sisvel, S.p.A. announced that Thomson S.A. and a number of its subsidiaries have been sued in the United States and Europe for infringement of several MPEG Audio patents by its MP3 players and digital set-top boxes. This patented technology was developed and is owned by France Telecom, TDF (Telediffusion De France), Philips, and IRT (Institut fur Rundfunktechnik GmbH). The patents are essential to the MPEG audio compression standard used worldwide in MP3 players, TV set top boxes, digital television broadcasting, and an increasing number of consumer electronics products.
The lawsuits were filed by Sisvel S.p.A. and Audio MPEG, Inc., who have the right to license the patents. Litigations for patent infringement against Thomson are now pending and progressing in Alexandria - Virginia, Mannheim - Germany, and Milan - Italy. In this process, thousands of Thomson MP3 products have been detained by the customs authorities in Germany and continue to be detained by customs following a preliminary injunction issued by the Mannheim Court in Germany.
According to the complaints, Thomson markets and sells MP3 players, TV set top boxes, DVD players, and CD players using MPEG audio compression covered by the patents of France Telecom, TDF, Philips, and IRT, without a current license to practice those inventions. Over 250 companies are licensed under these patents and are paying royalties. Until recently, Thomson was also licensed, but failed to renew their license in 2005.
The lawsuits seek royalties for past infringement, punitive damages for willful infringement, attorney’s fees, and injunctions to permanently prohibit Thomson from selling MP3 players, TV set top boxes, DVD players, and CD players using MPEG audio compression.
"By refusing to renew their license under the MPEG Audio patents, Thomson has ignored its duty to respect intellectual property of third parties. This led to the seizure of its products by the Customs Authorities and made lawsuits necessary in both the United States and Europe," said Gen. Richard I. Neal, President of Audio MPEG, Inc. "Thomson's failure to take a license is not only unfair to the owners and the inventors of the patents, whose efforts and research have made this technology possible, but also to the over 250 competitors of Thomson who are meeting their intellectual property obligations as licensees under these patents. Our actions both in the United States and overseas are all about accountability and responsibility."
According to John Paul, a partner in the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, "The US litigation against Thomson is pending in one of the fastest moving Federal trial courts in the United States, a court known as the "rocket docket." Litigation in the US is focused on getting all of the facts out in the open and that process consumes a tremendous amount of time, energy, and expense. In the rocket docket the consumption of these resources is even more intense because the court requires that the litigation must be completed much faster than in other courts."
Who are Sisvel and Audio MPEG?
Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell'Elettronica S.p.A (Sisvel) is a patent management company that has become a leader in its field with offices in Turin, Milan, and Hong Kong. It has the rights to license a number of patent portfolios, including the non-US patents in a portfolio relating to MPEG audio compression. Originally established in 1982 as a joint venture by the Italian television producers, it later acquired the entire patent portfolio of Indesit and conducted a number of successful licensing programs in various fields of consumer electronics.
Audio MPEG, Inc. is a patent management company, located in Alexandria, Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sisvel and has the rights to license the US patents in a portfolio relating to MPEG audio compression.
Listening to all of your favorite songs whenever you want is always exciting. No more having to wait for it to be played on the radio or have to go out and buy the whole CD for just one particular song. When you can download all of your favorite songs for free it just makes it that much better. What if you could download the music videos to all of your favorite songs for free and add to the excitement every time you listen to the song? In this article I’ll discuss some of the best places to find free music video downloads and why some free music video download sites are better than others.
As mentioned in a previous article I wrote, Music Video Downloads, not all sites are going to be capable of good quality free music video downloads. Some are going to allow you to preview the first 30 seconds of a song, while other sites allow you to watch only one song, then you must become a member to view more. However, there are sites out there that allow you to download good quality videos for free.
One of the bigger downsides to free video downloads, though, is that most places only allow you to watch the video and not save it to a file to view later. Yes, you can view it anytime you want by simply clicking on the video and having it load in about 15 seconds. However, if there is a certain list of songs you would like to observe, then you’ll have to search through the site to find them as oppose to having them all saved in a library.
Another downside to free music video downloads is the fact that most sites contain only popular artists and songs, so the unknown bands may be harder to find videos for. This is not to say that the selection is small, but it is limited to more of the current hot hits.
One of the better sites that I have found for downloading music videos for free is www.artistdirect.com. Once you get to the home page at the top is a button for movies and videos, this is where you will find all of the free music video downloads. On this page you will find the top music videos for various categories such as hip-hop, pop, rock, and so on. Plus they have the top 5 music videos currently, with a button away from getting the top 600 music videos. I have found this site to be very quick and efficient with downloading videos, but as mentioned earlier you are only capable of viewing the videos and can not save them to a library or folder.
One of the more common and well known sites to find free music video downloads is at www.mtv.com. For this site they have it set up with six different categories that you can click on. As you click on one of the categories it brings up the top six videos under that category currently, then you are able to browse all the videos for that category if you please. Or to make things easier, they have a place where you can simply search for a specific video.
I have listed two of the more popular sites to find free music video downloads, and two of the easier sites to search through. If you were to conduct a search for free music video download sites on google, there are about 131 million different sites or pages connected to this phrase. So as you can see there are several different places to look for the videos, it’s just up to you to find them. The two I have provided would be good ones to start at, but feel free to broaden your horizon and begin searching for the sites to find your favorite music videos for free.
About the author: Best MP3 Music Downloads is a site that contains information, articles, and resources on all genres and styles of music. You can download music and videos, and find links to the best places to download music here: http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com
Almost everyone has heard about the massive crack down on Internet music piracy that has been occurring over the past few years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a pay service), other file sharing programs now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other similar organizations are doing their best to hunt down copyright offenders and put an end to their crime sprees. The consumers on the other hand argue that their actions hurt nobody, that there is no damage done to anyone by their not buying an album. Furthermore, they claim, MP3s allow them to sample a CD before purchasing it, thus actually helping sales.
I'm not here to argue the pros and cons. Basically it's not worth it, as neither side of the argument will ever see the opposition's point of view. What I'd like to do is take a look at the completely free and legal alternative to 'stealing' music. Those wonderfully talented musicians who are willing to put their creations online to download for free, solely for the joy of spreading their creations to the masses.
Free music is surprisingly easy to come by, even music by famous bands. Sometimes it needs to be 'streamed' from the Internet, meaning that you can only listen to a song while you're online, but with the ever-growing popularity of broadband Internet this is really no longer a problem. Sites such as MP3.com and purevolume.com provide free music by almost any band you can think of, although there is a large amount of it that has to be streamed and not downloaded. A search for 'free legal MP3 downloads' will reveal a huge number of pages to visit.
For something specific, try visiting the artist's website, or the site of their record label. These will often offer a few sample tracks to download for free. It's not quite as convenient as having access to every song that you want, but it's not a bad alternative.
But how about we forget about the mainstream for just a while and move towards the alternative? Towards the hopefuls, the talented bands that have yet been 'noticed'. There are a huge number of these smaller bands out there that are sticking their stuff online for any and all to listen to, just so that they can be heard. These can be easier to find, because most MP3 sites will be filled with these smaller acts. A great place to start is http://www.garageband.com/ or the aforementioned http://purevolume.com The great thing about smaller bands is that you can often find bands that come from your local area and then go and see them play live. Being able to see a favourite band live more than once a year (or lifetime) without expending huge amounts of money and time is pretty cool. Many music search engines will let you search for bands of a particular genre in a particular area, which makes it all quite easy.
A fairly major contributor to the online music scene is the remixer. These people take other tunes and redo them, usually in a techno style because one person can do this competently. Chief among the tunes selected to be remixed are those old ditties that used to play through the simplest of sound chips on aging consoles: the video game theme songs. People now go and grab the main tune line from an old favourite and fill it out, making real the work our imaginations used to do for us to turn the single tone melodies into orchestral masterpieces. A few good places to start are http://remix.kwed.org and http://remix.overclocked.org as well as a personal favourite band http://machinaesupremacy.com
I hope this has given you something to think about. It's not hard to come across illegal MP3 rips, in fact it's often hard to avoid them, but if you give the free music scene a look you may find something completely different and new that will really do it for you. With web hosts already being penalized hugely for illegal content being stored on their servers (having an entire server taken down because of one inconsiderate user is damaging and irritating beyond belief) and moves being made to charge ISPs for the content being accessed by their users, it makes more sense than ever to get out there and grab yourself an awesomely original and completely legal music collection.
DON'T Download JUNK! Make sure your download mp3 music is a quality mp3 and that your music download doesn't have hidden downloads that will not only ruin your search for great music but will annoy you and invade your privacy.
Here are the four hidden downloads most free music sites install on your computer when you download mp3‘s.
1.Spyware is almost always contained in mp3 freeware and shareware downloads. The spyware gathers information and monitors the activities you perform, unbeknown to you. 2.Adware is also contained in these mp3 download networks. Your computer can and probably will be stuffed with a huge amount of intrusive advertising. 3.Pornography is very prevalent on the Internet. Be very aware that porn peddlers disguise their software as the latest free mp3 download or game demo to redirect your modem to porn sites.
4.Spoofing is when download mp3 networks are filled with fake files. For example, if you download what you think is a popular mp3 song, you will get the same ten seconds of the song over and over again. So in your hunt to download mp3 ‘s and create your own library of music, be selective of which music download site you use. There are many to choose from but few that offer privacy protection, online service, tech help, spyware-free and adware-free downloads, as well as a large library of quality mp3’s.
Things have come a long way with regards of how we listen to our favorite music. It's as easy as a push of a button with digital music.
Knowing where to start, how you want to listen to your music and what you want to do with it, is the first step. When you download mp3 files from online music services, you need to know what they allow you to do. Some songs are just for listening to, some can be downloaded, and some can be burned to a CD or a portable music player.
A few owners of certain artists publishing rights will not grant the license rights, which means some mp3's are not available for downloading.
The majority of the time, you'll find what you're looking for because the larger download MP3 subscription music web sites have access to the catalog of the Five Big Labels – Sony, Warner, Universal, EMI, and BMG, which account for about 80% of recorded music.
So now that you have the facts on how to download mp3 ‘s, do some research for quality music download sites, take advantage of any Free Trials, download lot’s of music, turn up the volume and don’t forget to Sing Along!
The MP3 movement started out with a huge audience of music enthusiasts on the internet. The MP3 digital music format has had, and will continue to have, a huge impart on how people, gather, listen to and share music.
The MP3 format is a compression system for digital music that helps reduce the size of a digitized song without disturbing the sound quality. Digital music is converted to MP3 format and made available for use, usually via the web. MP3 files can be downloaded onto your computer from the internet and special software, either commercial or freeware. Using your computer and software you can convert digital music from a CD into MP3 format.
MP3 files can be played in three different ways: 1. They can be played directly onto your computer. 2. They can be decompressed and recorded onto a CD. 3. These files can be played on a portable MP3 player.
The advantage of MP3 players is that they are small, lightweight and rugged. They are a great way to carry your MP3 files with you!
With a portable MP3 player, a personal computer, and the appropriate software, you can do the following:
1. Obtain free or low-cost music from the web. 2. Create your own mix of music by downloading MP3 files from the web and converting the tracks from CDs. 3. Listen to near-CD quality music wherever you go. 4. Listen to more music (up to 10 hours' worth).
If you want to convert your songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you can use ripper and encoder software. A ripper copies a song's file from the CD onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format. By encoding songs, you can play them on your computer or take them with you on your MP3 player. The ripper and encoder software may come with your MP3 player.
The specific instructions will vary with the individual software programs, but the following steps will definitely take place:
1. Place the CD from which you want to convert songs into your drive. 2. Select the track(s) that you want to convert to MP3 format. 3. Convert the selected track(s). 4. Copy the new MP3 files on to your computer's hard disk.
Now you are ready to download these MP3 files into your portable MP3 player. Once you have MP3 files on your computer, you can use the software that came with your MP3 player to download the files into your MP3 player. Again, the specific instructions will vary depending upon your software program and player, but you will:
1. Create a playlist from your MP3 files. 2. Plug the player into your computer's parallel of USB port. 3. Transfer the MP3 files according to the instructions.
Once you have downloaded the MP3 files into your portable MP3 player, you are ready to take your music anywhere. Most MP3 players are small, lightweight, and solid-state. Because most players are solid-state, there are no moving parts to break down or skip, so the sound quality is uninterrupted regardless of your physical activity. MP3 players are equipped with various types of headphones or earpieces.
Portable MP3 players can play music longer than a portable CD player. The length of play for a CD player is about 74 minutes, the length of one CD. However, the length of play for an MP3 player depends upon its memory capacity, which can be upgraded on some models. A standard MP3 player can play for about half an hour (32 MB) to a few weeks (40 GB)! Some models can be upgraded with additional memory devices.
About the author: Keith Kingston is a professional web publisher, offering information on mp3 downloads and mp3 players. You can visit his website at http://www.4-mp3-downloads.com/
