how the heck do you put music on yer harddrive?

[gunsmith]

I tried "buy a song" on google and got no where.
napster wants 10 bucks a month!
isn't there a website that I can just use a credit card and down load a song to the "music" section of my pc?
do you have to join some other website?
i am sick and tired of registering everywhere for every dang little thing.

[Sindawe]

Never used Google for music, only iTunes.  Once the account is set up, purchasing the data and license for the music is one or two clicks.  It does require the installation of the iTunes client, and the files are protected for use only in iTunes or compatable players. They do have a wide range of artists singed up, but still no Glukoza or Myriam Faris.

[gunsmith]

i do not want to download anything else...i am sick of downloading stuff i do not use.
can i not just buy a song over the net?

[MattC]

To do it legally, I know of no alternatives to downloading proprietary software from these companies.  I suggest iTunes since they are trying harder, from what I've heard, than any of the other online retailers when it comes to keeping the price per song low.

The reason you need to download extra software is because it's part of the encoding system to keep you (or slow down more experienced people) from ripping the songs and sharing them free over file share programs.  In order to sell you the songs, the retailers need to show to the music producers that the files have some theft protection built in.

[gunsmith]

thanks, I did mean legally, though they make it so dang difficult it is no wonder people do it otherwise.

[bedlamite]

Audiograbber is good for ripping cd's. You will want to get the LAME decoder and unzip it into the Audiograbber folder too.

[Manedwolf]

iTunes is by far the easiest. Listen to snippets, click 'buy', done.

[BakerMikeRomeo]

The only thing that bugs me about iTunes is their limit on the number of computers one can "authorize" to use your iTunes-purchased music. I've been poking around for a way to remove the DRM stuff from my iTunes purchased music (sidenote: I don't steal music [er.. anymore. I used to a lot, but I quit]) so I don't have to worry about exceeding my "authorized computers" limit when I format-reinstall or replace my box.

~GnSx

[client32]

walmart.com more specifically download.walmart.com/swap

I don't really know anything about it except that is what my brother uses.

[Manedwolf]

walmart.com more specifically download.walmart.com/swap

I don't really know anything about it except that is what my brother uses.

If you want variable DRM on different songs, a horrible interface and only sanitized songs, sure.

I'm not sure how they did it, but Wal-mart managed to give their online music store the feel of an ugly fluorescent-lit disinfectant-smelling store, just like their stores.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

The only thing that bugs me about iTunes is their limit on the number of computers one can "authorize" to use your iTunes-purchased music. I've been poking around for a way to remove the DRM stuff from my iTunes purchased music (sidenote: I don't steal music [er.. anymore. I used to a lot, but I quit]) so I don't have to worry about exceeding my "authorized computers" limit when I format-reinstall or replace my box.

~GnSx

The easiest way to do that, is burn the music to an audio CD, then rip as MP3.  It's wasteful, but it's the easiest and fastest way to strip the DRM out of iTunes purchases.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The only thing that bugs me about iTunes is their limit on the number of computers one can "authorize" to use your iTunes-purchased music. I've been poking around for a way to remove the DRM stuff from my iTunes purchased music (sidenote: I don't steal music [er.. anymore. I used to a lot, but I quit]) so I don't have to worry about exceeding my "authorized computers" limit when I format-reinstall or replace my box.

~GnSx

The easiest way to do that, is burn the music to an audio CD, then rip as MP3.  It's wasteful, but it's the easiest and fastest way to strip the DRM out of iTunes purchases.

iTunes let you put DRM protected music onto CD's?  Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of DRM?

[Jamisjockey]

I'd suggest Itunes.  Once you buy music you own it.  You can burn to/from CD and buy off the net.  Reasonably easy.

[TMM]

never used it, but it's MUCH les of a horrid ripoff of iTunes:

allofmp3.com

Whole albums for a few bucks at most.

~tmm

[Ben]

iTunes let you put DRM protected music onto CD's?  Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of DRM?

Yup -- I do that all the time as I have a Creative Zen instead of an Ipod. It does defeat the DRM, but it's kind of a hassle so maybe they just figure more people are inclined to buy an Ipod than to take the step to make the music workable on other players. I understand either a country in Europe or the EU is suing Apple over the proprietary Itunes thing.

[Firethorn]

iTunes let you put DRM protected music onto CD's?  Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of DRM?

Considering how easy it is to simply find and download an MP3, or borrow somebody's CD, it's as effective as anything else at stopping illegal copying.  IE not.

'Slow down' is right MattC.

I've often used a value comparison to show how DRM and such end up being the execs shooting themselves in the foot:

Legality: Advantage Company
Cost:  Advantage Pirates
Convienence to obtain: Advantage Pirates except for common CDs and maybe the better online stores
Convienence in Use: Advantage Pirates - unrestricted usage with no ads(applies more to DVDs with the 'no skip' bit set.  BAD disney)
Quality - Advantage Company, usually.  Many forms of copy control degrade the real product; stripping it out using something like EAC improved playback quality on the burned copies, as the original dics's error correction codes were messed with to form the 'protection'.
Compatibility - Advantage Pirates

It's company 2; pirates 4.

Hmm....

[Vodka7]

If you want MP3s, you pretty much have two options: eMusic & Bleep (the online store for British label Warp Records.)  Now, both of those stores (obviously Bleep especially) have compartively tiny catalogs, but if they have what you want, you can download a cheap, high quality MP3, that works on any device on the world, and that you won't have to use any tricks on to make it do what you want.

Napster and the like (Yahoo, Rhapsody, Urge) are primarily subscription based services.  You get access to all the songs and can listen to them on X number of computers and compatible devices only.  They don't work with the iPod.  Think of them almost like on-demand satellite radio--when you stop subscribing, all your downloaded songs stop working.  You will have to download their special software to download the songs (although the songs, once downloaded, can be played in WinAmp, Windows Media Player, and most modern music players--but only on X number of computers.)  These services also offer purchase-by-the-track options which allow you to burn the song.

The third alternative is the Russian grey-market--sites like allofmp3.com.  They're legal in Russia, but the RIAA is making enough of a stink about them here in the US that most major credit card companies won't let you charge anything to them (just like they do with the big online gambling sites.)  Funding your account is not 1-2-3 easy.

Making a recommendation is hard--personally, I subscribe to Yahoo Music, and love it.  It's got almost everything (although, like all its competitors, there are gaps--some artists and labels just don't want their music online no matter how much DRM you slap on it), and it's dirt cheap.  That said, if I unsubscribe from Yahoo, my music is all gone.  If you want to keep your music, it's not the way to go, but I've found the subscription fee is a *lot* lower than what I used to spend on CD's, so financially it was the best decision for me.

If you've got an iPod or see yourself buying one in the future, I wouldn't recommend anything but the iPod store.  It just works.

Really though, if you want to keep your music and never have to worry about incompatibility, just keep buying CDs and use iTunes or something similar (EAC+LAME here, but that's not for everyone) to rip them to your harddrive.

[BakerMikeRomeo]

The easiest way to do that, is burn the music to an audio CD, then rip as MP3.  It's wasteful, but it's the easiest and fastest way to strip the DRM out of iTunes purchases.

Sweet action. Thanks, Dasmi.

It's not a huge deal. I figure I could use a CD-RW, and as long as I check and make sure the songs burned and ripped without hiccups, I should be fine.

~GnSx

[wmenorr67]

I just rip my CD's to my harddrive using Windows Media Player.

[Manedwolf]

The third alternative is the Russian grey-market--sites like allofmp3.com.  They're legal in Russia, but the RIAA is making enough of a stink about them here in the US that most major credit card companies won't let you charge anything to them (just like they do with the big online gambling sites.)  Funding your account is not 1-2-3 easy.

There's nothing grey market about that. Grey market is buying and selling legal items outside of their intended market. Selling Region 2 DVDs in the US is grey market. Legal, it's just that it annoys the companies. Buying a bunch of stuff on a major rebate deal and reselling them for full market price on your own is grey market. Legal, just makes the stores grumble.

What allofmp3.com does is charge you for completely stolen, pirated songs, period, no two ways about it.

[MechAg94]

I rip my CD's also.  I still buy CD's I want at the best discount I can get and just rip them using a shareware program.  I like have the CD on the shelf I guess.  If I download, I'll end up deleting it accidentally and have to buy it again.  It is all for personal use on my computer and in my iPod anyway. 

[gunsmith]

I am such a dinosaur.
I wish I had teens that could show me this, you are all speaking greek/chinese to me.
Foolish me I thought I could just click download and it would go to my harddrive , after submitting my CC.

[Phyphor]

I rip my CD's also.  I still buy CD's I want at the best discount I can get and just rip them using a shareware program.  I like have the CD on the shelf I guess.  If I download, I'll end up deleting it accidentally and have to buy it again.  It is all for personal use on my computer and in my iPod anyway. 

Same here, I like having music going in the background when I'm writing, but I *don't* want to have to keep changing CDs.  So, I rip 'em as 360kbit mp3s and throw them on my Winamp playlist.  No fuss, no muss, and none of that gahdamned (hah! Love that spelling) DRM crap.

And Gunsmith, depending on where you buy your music, they're going to foist off their player/management software on you.  Some of it is pretty usable, some...not so much.  I'd probably go with iTunes for right now, assuming they have the songs you want.

[Manedwolf]

I am such a dinosaur.
I wish I had teens that could show me this, you are all speaking greek/chinese to me.
Foolish me I thought I could just click download and it would go to my harddrive , after submitting my CC.

That would be precisely how iTunes works, yes.

[client32]

Reviving an old thread here.

Walmart has ditched DRM on their downloads:  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070821-worlds-largest-music-retailer-ditches-drm-not-censorship.html

I don't know if anyone cares, but I thought I would post it.