Downloading MP3s

[Sissyfoo]

Because I am a decent and law abiding chappy and I have no desire to financially cripple those money grabbing cuntz0rs at the RIAA (I hope they die horrible and unending deaths for all eternity) and because, more importantly, I am a lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy bastard I was wondering if there are any sites that people are aware of where you can buy the album/singles that you are interested in and then download them directly to your hard drive so it is not necessary to actually go out into the nasty, cold and dangerous world. That was quite a long sentence.

Oh yea, ordering them to be delivered is no good because ME WANTS NOW!!

Cheers.

I also refuse to use P2P software because that is stealing and stealing is bad (plus the quality is crap and the downloads take forever).

 

[wyrd_fish]

Coka Cola, Pepsi and Apple all offer services like this...

its about 80p a track i think

try google on the 3 i mentioned

 

[Sissyfoo]

Kewl. Thanks.

 

[fatbusinessman]

Pepsi aren't actually offering this, they're just linking to Apple's Music Store. If you're in the US (and possibly Canada), then this is probably your best bet. If you're not, then tough.

The Coca-Cola promotion is in partnership with MusicMatch. This is also US-only.

So if you're not in North America, then you're kinda stuffed, to my knowledge. You're best off just going for one of the "get CDs shipped over cheaply from abroad" websites, or one of the "we don't rip you off" CD shops.

 

[Whipped]

Napster started up again with a payable service. Not sure on the details though, but Tycho at Penny Arcade seemed to think it was worth it.

 

[Scooba da Bass]

Warp offers most of their back catalogue online, the prices are pretty reasonable and the encoding is highly quality than any of the other legal download services.

Distinctive records also have a number of tracks available for downmload. The quality is mixed however, with some stuff only at 128 kbps.

 

[Jonty]

Hi SissyFoo

If you're in North America, then Napster (Microsoft orientated) and iTunes/Apple Music Store (Apple orientated) are probabaly your best bet. Both of these services will be extended to Europe by the end of the year, but they're not going to be available any time soon, sadly. Neither of these services will offer music in MP3 format (.wma and .aac respectively) but this is just for security and digital rights management (DRM) concerns.

If you're in Europe, then OD2 currently offer the best services. Generally they're branded depending on which portal you choose, but MSN Music Club, Tiscali Music Club etc. are all OD2 based and offer the same selection of music. If you use Windows Media Player, you can access these services via the 'Premium Services' option. I've been using MSN Music Club for a while now and I've been happy with it. There are a variety of payment options and around 200,000 tracks to choose from. As far as I know, all OD2 based services deliver the music in .wma format.

Kind Regards

 

[Scooba da Bass]

I'd suggest that if you are going to try and use a legal download service stay away from any that forces any kind of DRM on you. It's exactly the same as bringing home a copy protected CD and having to play 128kbps mp3s from a propriety application when you stick it in your PC.