Friends,

One of my younger children is asking me to purchase or download a CD of music for him. Windows Media Player offers to download the CD for $8.61, but I am looking at other alternatives. I have come across several download services which allow free downloads with the membership of $25 for 2 years or $35 for life.

I am not looking for anything illegal, but given the choice, it is hard to make up my mind. I want to ask for advice and recommendation of any download services and/or other alternatives.

Thanks in advance,

Alex

Alex,

I actually pay 9.99 per month to Napster and I download unlimited songs. The catch is; I playback the full song on Napster, then record the song from my computer to a .wav, convert it to MP3 and I'm good to go.

I've been doing this for 12 months and it's legal!

Al

You're looking to stay legal and that above is not legal. They're not telling you the truth.

Best alternative is to buy the CD, better quality and liner notes, etc. But yes, I think now, Napster has entered the legal realm. Those with monthly fees will pay the copyright owners their royalties.


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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

Al, Bill,

Thank you for your replies. This points me in the direction of Napster/monthly membership deal.

I am not interested in buying the CDs - the jackets look nice, but are not really helpful to me (unless they contained lyrics, which they rarely do).

Thanks again,
Alex

If you don't want an entire album, Walmart.com offers downloads of singles for $.88
Albums run around $9 and up.
Eddie

A VERY IMPORTANT consideration (for me) in choosing a 'Downloadable MP3' Music Online Merchant is that they offer their MP3 songs at 192kbps or better. To my ears, anything less than 192kbps is not worth paying for.

Realizing that some merchants only sell 128kbs quality MP3s or less, would like to know which online merchants offer them at 192+ kbps tunes & GREATER. Thanks. - Scott

Al,

Does Napster allow you to save music in .WAV format, or do you have to use another program to do it?

Thanks,
Alex