What Site Should I Use To Download?

[EvanJ]

I think a source of music I have that I currently have 146 songs on is going away. Most or all of the songs are older (golds by radio standards). I haven't bought or illegally downloaded any music in years but now I may be interested in paying to download individual songs. I'm interested in some songs that existed before the internet or when the internet was much smaller, and I don't know how many years back sources of paid downloads go. I would rather have to enter payment information once for a site when I register and be charged every time I buy a song than have to enter payment information in the same site whenever I want to buy a song. I have little to no interest in playing these songs on anything other than my computer. I may burn them onto CDs if that doesn't cost any additional money but I don't want to pay more for the ability to put the songs on a CD, phone, iPod, etc. How much of paid downloading is done through iTunes and what alternatives if any are there to iTunes? The site that I think is going away lets you search by artist only, song only, or album only, but I would rather be able to enter the artist and song together when searching. I have no interest in making playlists to share with others. I would rather pay to download a song once than pay a monthly fee to keep being able to listen to it. What site should I use to download?

[WotUNeed]

I like Amazon.com's MP3 store. I also use iTunes sometimes because it carries some things Amazon doesn't have. Both of them have the payment and search functionality you describe, and neither of them has burning charges. None of Amazon's MP3s have DRM, so playing them is not an issue. Some of iTunes's don't because they now have the iTunes Plus feature, but not everything in the store is available that way, so it might be a slight hassle to burn those songs to CD and then rip them back to your computer if you want to listen or burn outside of the iTunes program.

As I only download occasionally, though, I'm no expert, so let's see if others have better alternatives.

[Arson]

What's the quality of the MP3? What's the format when you download a song from itunes?

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

Feb 12, 2009 1:07:17 GMT -5 Arson said:

What's the quality of the MP3? What's the format when you download a song from itunes?

At Amazon, the quality is 256 KBPS for all the MP3s. Some of the early ones were 240-something VBR, but now it's CBR.

The majority of iTunes songs are 128 KBPS AAC formated. This format is a little better than MP3, but at 128, it cannot be distinguished from a 128 MP3.

Considering Amazon's prices are the same as iTunes' (sometimes even cheaper) and no DRM, I prefer Amazon.

[Slinky]

Amazon has the best selection outside of iTunes and the fact that they are MP3s is a big plus in my mind. I have an MP3 CD player in my car radio and a Sansa MP3 player that can't play AACs from iTunes. Yes I could convert them, but it's just easier to have then in MP3 format already.

2 other great places for cheaper MP3s, but less selection are Walmart.com ($.74 for hits, $.94 for others) and Lala.com ($.79 for your first 50 downloads and then $.89 after that). Personally I've been downloading exclusively from Lala.com if they have the tracks I'm looking for.

If you're looking for independent label stuff, EMusic has the best prices ($12 for 30 songs per month and 50 free songs just for signing up). The selection is really small though. I signed up for Emusic for one month, downloaded 150 songs, then canceled because I realized there's no way I'd find 30 songs per month that I'd want. It ended up being a great deal though, because I got 150 songs for $25. That would have cost me almost $150 with Amazon or iTunes.