MP3 playas

[dmuja]

So if you work out to music you already know that listening to 'Tool' or 'Puddle of Mud' is better than crystal meth for an energy boost. So with that in mind, I recently tried out an "iPod shuffle" digi music player. Great concept, and after I loaded one song off of iTunes I was stoked - this thing is as close to weightless and invisable as it gets!

 

Unfortunately, I could NOT load any more songs on it! No matter what I re-installed, re-re-installed, it still gave me an error message, and after searching the web all day as well as the apple "support?" site (which tried to blame my 1 year old pc for being "out of date" - I updated everything possible) I finally gave up and took the damn thing back to target for a refund!

 

Also, itunes sucks now because you can't even burn a CD as you could 2 years ago because of their proprietary software scam.

 

So, my quest is for suggestions pertaining to

[dmuja]

weird, dont know what happened there....

 

 

so as I was saying..

 

 

Im asking about the BEST AND EASIEST MP3 PLAYER AND DOWNLOAD SITE.

Im not that puter savy (obvious).

 

I have confidence that there is such a thing out there.

 

I used to like itunes because of thier large selection and so far I haven't found other sites that sell as cheap with that big of playlist.

 

Sugestions??

 

thnx - D

[Chad_A]

I recently just ordered one of these, myself.

 

Which version do you have, 512MB, or 1GB? The older version that's shaped like a stick, or the new one that clips onto your belt that's about 1x1"?

 

I did look up reviews on the websites about this player; sounds like this is the most common problem with them.

 

Most people sent them back to apple under warranty, and got them exchanged. Is it brand new, or at least under warranty?

[olyclimber]

Also, itunes sucks now because you can't even burn a CD as you could 2 years ago because of their proprietary software scam.

 

Every music site is going to have DRM, and some have implemented schemes that are far worse than Apple (unless you use the Bit Torrent "music service" ) I believe you must have your setup configured wrong if you're unable to burn a CD....are you trying to burn iTunes bought song as MP3s on a CD? If so, that will not work. iTunes will, however, let you burn a regular audio CD from songs bought fron iTunes.

 

Anyway, any MP3 player can give you a headache if you're unlucky enough to get a defective one or have software issue. I have had no problems with the 1st and 2nd gen iShuffles I have, and iTunes by far the best music manager out there IMO.

 

 

[Off_White]

Does Itunes do that digital rights thing? Is it a subscriber service or a store? If it's a store, then you've actually purchased the song, and the problem may be in your player. I've tried two paid sources in the past.

 

Rhapsody sucks, you subscribe and get unlimited access, but pretty much can only listen to it on your computer, like a radio station you program yourself, but it won't let you record or burn the material. Seems you only download 99% of the song, and the remaining bit comes when you're logged in. This is a Real Networks product, one of those companies that want to invade your computer and change the file associations so that you use their product to do everything. Comically, it's very difficult to unsubscribe. You can't do it online, finding the phone number is difficult, and invariably you wind up speaking to someone in India who has an exit interview script where they try to squeeze information out of you and won't just cancel your account when you tell them to cancel it. I'd say avoid Rhapsody like the plague, but your mileage may vary.

 

Emusic is alright, a fair selection of indie type stuff that I tend to listen to. They have plans where you pay a set amount and get a certain number of songs. Cost per song gets cheaper the larger the plan you buy.

 

The real goldmine is in the Usenet newsgroups. You'll need to do a little research since you'll need both a newsgroup reader and usually a separate account with a service that provides storage and access, but the amount and breadth of stuff out there is staggering. For about $10 you can download 25GB of stuff a month, and that's a lot of music. It's almost too much, downloading a dozen unfamiliar albums a night means it floods in at a rate too great to even assess if what you've got is any good.

 

There's a lot of other free stuff out there too, from labels, bands, distributors, and the like on the web. You should take the time to get a little more high tech with your acquistion, it's not really very complicated, and downloading and your device are two different subjects.

[Peter_Puget]

Just say no to lossy formats!

 

CD's sound bad enough already.

[cj001f]

Just say no to lossy formats!

 

us latte sipping liberals don't have the exalted confines of a quiet wood paneled room to listen; the decrease in quality isn't noticeable over the braying of my 15 welfare brats and the rumble of the EL every 5 minutes.

[TBay]

Im asking about the BEST AND EASIEST MP3 PLAYER AND DOWNLOAD SITE.

 

allofmp3.com

 

tracks as cheap as $0.01

 

act now, it received its death setence on Nov 19.

 

still in operation.

 

You pay for how much you download AND you choose the quality. If you download a 2 minute song, it's literally half the price of a 4 minute song. If you want to download the 2 minute song at twice the bitrate it'll cost you extra.

 

Visa no longer participates.

 

its been a good ride.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2006 by TBay

[Off_White]

Just say no to lossy formats!

 

CD's sound bad enough already.

 

You'll find .flac files and such on Usenet as well.

[cj001f]

Im asking about the BEST AND EASIEST MP3 PLAYER AND DOWNLOAD SITE.

 

allofmp3.com

 

tracks as cheap as $0.01

 

Why pay for illegal music? If you are going to steal it, steal it. If you are going to pay, buy it legally.

[tvashtarkatena]

Does anyone know how I can pawn it?

[W]

I believe you must have your setup configured wrong if you're unable to burn a CD....are you trying to burn iTunes bought song as MP3s on a CD? If so, that will not work. iTunes will, however, let you burn a regular audio CD from songs bought fron iTunes.

 

(Home computer not in front of me right now) Is it still possible to then rip the CD back to your computer setting the songs as unprotected MP3 files? I've been able to do this with the old version of Itunes but haven't tried this since the new version came out.

[G-spotter]

Buy from iTunes, burn to CD as music, rip back to your computer as MP3... that's a lot of work just to listen to Fergie moan about her humps. Hell you could buy the whole CD pirated in Hong Kong for 79 cents and cut out two steps.

[fenderfour]

FYI - there are some DIY replacements for the Ipod firmware that remove all of the DRM bullshit. I don't think it works for the shuffle, but it's there for Nano's and the newer Ipods.

[fenderfour]

Ok, I found it: http://www.rockbox.org/

 

The truly open source MP3 player: http://makezine.com/daisy/

 

A music service that doesn't DRM you to death: http://www.emusic.com/gift/index.html

[olyclimber]

I believe you must have your setup configured wrong if you're unable to burn a CD....are you trying to burn iTunes bought song as MP3s on a CD? If so, that will not work. iTunes will, however, let you burn a regular audio CD from songs bought fron iTunes.

 

(Home computer not in front of me right now) Is it still possible to then rip the CD back to your computer setting the songs as unprotected MP3 files? I've been able to do this with the old version of Itunes but haven't tried this since the new version came out.

 

yes, and there is a mod for using LAME within iTunes too, if you're into that sort of thing. Its only the AAC downloads from iTunes Store that have Apple's DRM.

[W]

Thanks Oly. 2nd question- what is LAME? (Dru, spare us the endless spray opportunities here)

 

So far my experience is that the iTunes store has the widest ranging selection I seen. If it isn't found there, I usually can't find it anywhere else.

[Off_White]

LAME

 

It's an open source code for encoding MP3's

[olyclimber]

http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

[Peter_Puget]

My DRM system:

[dmuja]

Which version do you have, 512MB, or 1GB? The older version that's shaped like a stick, or the new one that clips onto your belt that's about 1x1"?

 

1gb new tiny one, nifty as hell, if I could have gotten it to work - in fact, one of the "10 essentials" for sure, if I could have gotten it to work.

 

I did look up reviews on the websites about this player; sounds like this is the most common problem with them.

 

yep. I hope they work the bugs out eventually.

 

 

 

iTunes will, however, let you burn a regular audio CD from songs bought fron iTunes.

 

Yes, yr right, when I checked again, indeed the CD had the songs actually burned on it - at first glance I thought it merely burned "links" to the songs stored in my itunes library on my PC.

 

But still, the format will not allow me to copy the content on the CD disk accept to another "Apple" product right? In othr wurdz, I can't transfer them *DIRECTLY* to another kind of digi music (mp3) player.

 

So I tried--->

 

 

Ripping:

 

(also referred to as "digital audio extraction") a process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as DVD or CD, to a hard disk.

 

"Ripping" has been adopted to refer to audio extraction/duplication, though this use of the term is not literally accurate.

 

Lo and behold, I "ripped" the tracks into "My Music" folder on my pc hard disk and they are now in "wma" (Windows Media Audio) format! coool..

 

Question:

 

So now..if I buy something like "Creative Labs Zen" or some other non-apple product, I will be able to transfer these "wma" file tracks into that device right?? And they should play just fine?? Same quality - or close to the same? Possible problems??