I'm wondering what to use as quite a few people who were using either Limewire or U torrent have told me both of those sites are now filled with viruses? If so were is everyone down loading from now.Thanks for any help.

Lots of people here pay for their music. Full fidelity, no risk of viruses. Once you leave the pay model, you take your chances.

I know my family hits the usual resources, iTunes, bonfire(futureshop), Puretracks etc. I tend to not download at all and prefer to buy cd's until higher bitrate downloads are more common.

I mostly use a program called: AudialsOne

Here’s a nice short review w/screenshots: Review

If your interested in my opinion I started this thread but it‘s a bit long: My Opinion

This won’t let you target specific albums the way a torrent would but for sheer volume of tracks it finds nothing beats it. I have over 25,000 mp3 from this and have pretty much turned it off for now. Some tracks are duplicates but you can limit that by using tight search parameters and it will weed them out for you. You can control the quality of what it downloads like say only 320bit mp3s but that will limit what’s available.

AFAIK this program is 100% legal even in the USA. Some people may still feel it’s stealing but IMO it’s no more stealing than downloading TV shows to your DVR. And at least for me the reality is that my CD purchases have increased from about 1/month to over 10/month as I can now sample whole songs and sometimes whole CDs w/o the worry that I might be buying something I don’t like.

Might not be what you are looking for but I think it’s worth the free demo.

Cheers,
Dean

My post was not meant as a judgement/comment on piracy. I am on the fence on the whole topic since I think that the music industry is ripping off the majority of artists in the first place.

Dean, what does Audials use as a source. I know you talked/wrote about internet radio. Does it convert audio streams back into music files? I would love to find a way to sample more music before I buy, but I don't particularly like the idea of continually risking infection from downloads.


I have heard this more than once. I suspect that it would affect me the same way.

From my perspective, I would love to start sampling indy music more and paying artists directly for the stuff I decide to keep.

All the music I download comes from Amazon's mp3 service.

Sorry Fred my comment wasn’t directed at you but just the audio community in general. And I’m glad it came up because I found I should amend what I said before:

To avoid hijacking and update my old thread I’ll answer your questions here

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=259906#Post259906




My biggest problem with buying CDs especially from groups I hadn’t really heard was that I would end up not liking it. RadioTracker has gone a long way to eliminating this fear. It’s also hugely expanded the types of music I’ve been exposed to and now like.

Just beware, the AudialsOne software only cost me 60 USD but the CDs I’ve bought because of it easily runs me over 600 USD.

According to the site you can buy RadioTracker separately from the AudialOne bundle:

http://shop.audials.com/buynow_web.php?tag=RadiotrackerPremium

If nothing else it’s worth the free demo.

Cheers,
Dean

It would be nice if sites like Amazon gave us more than a 30 second snippet from a song...often you can't really get a sense of the music from such a small segment. I often use Youtube to find out more from different artists before I buy something.

Guy at work turned me on to this service (stream-only, no downloading, but it solves your 30-second clip issue), which seems pretty good, but after reading the terms of service, it's very clear you should NEVER upload ANYTHING to it. It basically says anything you upload, they're allowed to irrevocably use and/or sub-license at no cost to them and if royalties or anything need be paid to 3rd parties as a result, you're on the hook for that. Great for listening. You can make playlists, and if you go to individual track info, they'll recommend things you may not have heard before. Anywho, here's the link: http://grooveshark.com

I pay for my music. 256kbs iTunes Plus or Amazon MP3's for me.

I have run into a few bad tracks on Amazon though - ones where the snippet sounded ok but the full file had disappointing SQ. I don't remember ever being disappointed with an iTunes+ file. Regular iTunes (128kbs) yes, but not +. And there's no DRM with an iTunes+ file, just like Amazon.

I like Pandora too for streaming. It's worth the yearly-subscription price, IMHO.

I wouldn't touch Limewire or any P2P service for music these days. Not only is downloading most (not all) music illegal but there are problems with both virii and music-bombs. A music-bomb being a music file where it starts fine but then then midway through the file it'll just flip to horrible loud screeching sounds designed to hurt your hears or your equipment. Particularly nefarious ones will have the music encoded at a very low volume so that you turn up it up nice and loud. Then blast you with super-loud encoded screeching. Not cool.

I realize it's a debatable thing. If you're going to use a P2P service to get these files, just be really careful with whatever you download.

I have a question for anyone who uses downloadable music services like iTunes or Amazon. Do these site also act as a backup for the music you’ve purchased? Like say if you loose the file for some reason can you go back an download it again? Having an offsite backup like that would be a great benefit if those services offered it.

So far I’ve always bought CDs and ripped them to my NAS and just used the CD as a backup. I do like the idea of being able to get individual tracks but am just hesitant about the permanence of them. Guess I’m showing my age here.

When my hard drive crashed I lost all my purchased itunes music and was able to retreive all of it back. I do not remember the procedure I went though to get them back though.
Mel N.

My current stance on pay-per-download is "screw that". I'm not going to be paying money for something I can't hold. I want a physical copy of the product with artwork and whatever else the artist chose to include.

My major beef with pay-per-download services (aside from no physical product) is: What happens when you accidentally lose your collection in 15+ years and would like to download again? You'll likely have to pay again. Especially if the service you used no longer exists or if the records of your past purchases have been archived. If I buy a physical copy of a recording, I have it for as long as I want. I can format shift any way I like and still have a copy years from now if something happens to my electronic copy (or copies). As long as physical copies of media are sold, that's what I'll be paying for.

Just my opinion. Yours may differ :P

I'm with you. I only buy downloads when I can't get it in physical form.

Dude. Don't buy. There's plenty of free po....Oh, we're talking about music. Never mind.

I really set myself up with that one, huh?

You could say you left yourself 'wide open'.

Fair points. The fear of losing thousands of dollars worth of music, whether from technological advance or accident, is certainly justified.

I buy about 80% of my music digitally these days. Roughly on the order of a couple of albums per month. With artists that I really like, I buy the physical CD and/or the SACD. That is, when I really want the Nth-degree of SQ. But for most things, I'm content with the downloaded versions.

Both Apple & Amazon lets you burn your music to CD, if you're so inclined to do so. I do often, mostly for playback in my car (which doesn't do MP3 CD's). True, it's not a pressed CD with the jewel case and the artwork. Matters for some, not for others.

Amazon's MP3's and iTunes+ files are DRM-free, so even if Amazon or iTunes disappears, your music will still play on any device that can process a MP3 or AAC file. Worrying about not having a device that will play those is the same as worrying about not having a CD player anymore to play your CD's. I suppose a day could come, but I'm not really that worried about it. If/when that day is on the horizon, I'm pretty certain that someone, somewhere will come up with some method of transforming the billions of existing MP3 files into magical new FormatX.

It is, however, totally true that it's far easier to wipe out a thousand CD's worth of digital music than it is to destroy a thousand physical CD's. The former requires a few key presses, the latter requires a chipper-shredder, a fire, or C-4 . A robust backup plan is absolutely critical when you have a digital {whatever} collection. If you're not prepared for that responsibility, then keep buying CD's. Keep those 35mm film negatives locked away too. <- note the wink, it's a joke.

But of course, there's a flip side to having digital media. When my co-worker's car was broken into a couple of years ago, the thief stole a slip-wallet full of CD's. Real CD's. Insurance covered the broken glass, and damage to the car, but not the CD's. He was SOL. Had they been self-burned CD-R's from a digital-collection, he could have spent $3 on CD-R's to burn new ones. Even if it had been an iPod full of music, the cost would have been less than having to repurchase those 20 or so CD's that were stolen. The moral of the story is to rip & reburn the CD's that you own if you're going to keep them in a car.

I believe that Amazon keeps a record of whatever you buy and allows you to re-download it whenever you want. I do not think Apple does the same, but they might reset your account if you talk to tech support. But no, I wouldn't count on either company being able to help you 15+ years down the road. Just like Best Buy isn't going to help you in 15+ years replace a CD that you lost.

I've lost more CDs over the years than MP3s. I make sure I keep multiple back ups. Also, I think younger folk will have a much easier time with buying digital media. The idea you need a physical product is going to become (and I think HAS become) a bit behind the times. Really, are you paying 10 dollars for the CD? Hell, I can buy one for 50 cents. You are buying the information ON the CD. Whether that information is on a CD, hard drive, or on a server its the information and the access to it that you are paying for. That said I still love buying CDs...but I can handle paying for amazon's service too. Also, I live in Iraq/Germany so its easier and faster.

I miss browsing through albums and checking out the art.

CDs don't last forever either though. I think if I had a huge collection, I would be tempted to do two full backups. Drives are so cheap now.

I take my retail CDs, rip them to MP3, keep on computer, transfer to iPod, transfer to PS3. If I want to listen to it in the car, I usually burn an MP3 CD so I'm not changing CDs every hour (or listening to the same 12-15 songs for days at a time). This way I get the best of both worlds. Every advantage of having a real recording plus all the advantages of a digital copy. Plus I get to encode the MP3 at whatever bit rate I want with whichever encoder I want (usually 224kbps Stereo in high quality with the LAME encoder using CDex).

For the most part, my CDs sit on a shelf, but they're there and there's no question that I purchased the music. I can have my mp3s all back and named/arranged how I want in a matter of about 4-6 minutes per disc. I'll know they're all exactly the same quality, ripped at exactly the same time with exactly the same settings. I'll know there are no errors, missing pieces, no "bit rot", and no imperfections not present on the original recording.

I hope that didn't come out like an argument (it wasn't meant to be...Again, just my opinion on the subject and how I see it).

If there ever comes a time (there will, but I mean in my lifetime) when I'm no longer able to get physical copies of new music, I hope I hate all the new music and wouldn't buy it anyway

As for your comment about 35mm film. I'm all for digital cameras. There's an actual advantage to them; you don't have to get any prints of any pictures that didn't turn out perfect. With music, the only advantage is convenience, and usually it comes at a price: quality (I do realise you can download tracks encoded with the FLAC from some services and that's why I said "usually":))

Soulseek.
Been using it for years, never encountered a single virus, or a "music-bomb", which I've never even heard of before until reading about it in this thread. Maybe it's because I download mainly smaller/indy music, so no one would bother to plant one of these so called bombs in music relatively few people would be downloading.

One thing to take note of is that regardless of how "ripped off" an artist gets(in many cases, it's not as miserable as people say), the worst person looking to get you money is better than the best person not looking to get you money.

Too many bands are out there blowing their advance money then crying poverty, and there are too many groups that should have never been signed to begin with.

For real.

I use usenet to audition and stores to buy. I would never pay for copy protected music when I could pay for the CD and not have to deal with it, and I'd never pay for any lossy junk when FLAC can be had off usenet for free.

to the original poster's question... i use Utorrent.(BTW Utorrent is a program not a site, i use mainly ISOHUNT for the actual files) stick to the right bit torrent sites where there are user reviews of the up loaders and you'll be fine. in years of downloading i've encountered very few viruses and my AV scanners have caught the few.
Before screaming pirate! if music is any good i then buy it, usually the CD. If amazon mp3's ever come to Canada i might consider them.
Kinda sad when i go to the records store, they look at you weird when you buy a CD... physical media? huh? are you sure??