Metropol

OK... I've been using Shareaza for over a year now. In fact if I recall it was our very own Gavin who told me about it. So, I find a song I want, download it to my hard drive and play it. No problem. We'll skip the illegal bit for now as this isn't the point I'm making...
Now, I've been looking for two b-sides for weeks now. They are on my 'Pending' list but just won't download. Rare they may be, but someone must have them.
So, I've had a try of legal download sites. Tesco seemed good, but surprise, surprise these two tracks are not there. So, why with Napster/iTunes/the new HMV and Virgin sites do I have to download THEIR software to not only play tracks I have bought but to actually do a basic search to see if on the off chance they have the ones I want? I downloaded Napster last year and it would only play tracks if I were logged into the service?! i.e. stored on THEIR servers not my PC. This can't be right surely? Only Tesco lets me save to hard drive. I did manage to get iTunes to save a track I was after but it seemed to be in M4P format which I have never heard of. I tried to convert it MP3 but it wouldn't let me as it was "Protected."
So this week I have installed and subsequently uninstalled iTunes and Napster (again). WHY can't they operate like Shareaza does and save tracks to a specified folder. Or have I missed something?

Unlike Napster and similar services, The iTunes Music Store will allow to download music you've purchased, to a specific
folder on your HDD, and all the song files you purchase are yours to keep, whatever happens. Obviously, they'll be DRM
protected, but there are ways around it. If you want to find ways to circumvent the DRM, do a search on Google, but I
wouldn't recommend that unless you own, or have previously owned the music you're looking for, on physical media.

With Napster and the like, you effectively rent the music while paying a monthly subscription. Once you stop paying, the
music stops playing (!) and you'll lose whatever music you paid for. With iTunes, you download a song for 79p, then you
can burn your purchased music to an unlimited number of CD's, and you can authorise up to 5 computers to play it.

DJGM wrote:If you want to find ways to circumvent the DRM, do a search on Google, but I
wouldn't recommend that unless you own, or have previously owned the music you're looking for, on physical media.

i can't see why anybody shouldn't be free to unlock drm media files - the restrictions are completely artificial and pointless.

surely if you are allowed to 'burn' them to a cd a few times, all you need to do is re-rip the cd for a drm free copy?

Ironically, re-ripping music from CD's of songs purchased from the iTMS apparently does strip the DRM
from the music. So far, Apple doesn't seem to mind if people do this. As much I don't 100% agree
with DRM restrictions on digital music purchased from the online music download stores, such
as the iTMS, circumventing the DRM is still technically a form of theft.

There's an ongoing "Don't Steal Music" debate thread over at the SillyDog701 Message Centre.
(The admin/owner of that forum is 100% against digital music theft in pretty much all forms!)

DJGM wrote:circumventing the DRM is still technically a form of theft.

sadly, that technicality doesn't register on the lobster moral scale.

in anycase, even if they got drm so shit hot you couldn't even rip it from a cd, the very fact that you can listen to the audio still means you can directly record it from the output and save it as an mp3.

Dr Lobster* wrote: in anycase, even if they got drm so shit hot you couldn't even rip it from a cd, the very fact that you can listen to the audio still means you can directly record it from the output and save it as an mp3.

Thus why all these attempts to prevent piracy are useless.

Allofmp3.com. It's easy, it's got an absolutely massive catalogue, it's gone none of this DRM crap, you can encode at your chosen bitrate, pay about £0.05 ($0.08) for a song, and best of all, it's quite legal. You're paying for your music - albeit to a company based in another country - and so no-one can accuse you of stealing your mooziks.

Can't get enough of it.

Looks good though those two b-sides still aren't there!

How safe is this site? Based in Russia by the looks of it.

Brad wrote:Looks good though those two b-sides still aren't there!

How safe is this site? Based in Russia by the looks of it.

Pay by Paypal

Brad wrote:Looks good though those two b-sides still aren't there!

How safe is this site? Based in Russia by the looks of it.

Shame you couldn't find the songs you were after, but I still highly recommend the site. It is extremely safe and secure. Similar to downloading music via your P2P program, you must first download the Allofmp3 proprietary program which manages your account and downloads. The program is pretty compact, and very unintrusive.

Once the song is downloaded, it's yours to do with as you please.

I've been using Allofmp3 for months, downloaded hundreds of songs, and I've had absolutely no problems at all, apart from occasionally not being able to find a particularly track. By and large though, it's a brilliant program - free to download the program, dirt cheap to buy each song, and no irritating DRM bollocks getting on everyone's tits.

I'll take your word for it and give it a try. But if Putin's cronies come knocking on my door, I'll know who to blame.

By the looks of it I have to buy credit? So I can't just buy a single track as a one off? At least it charges according to length of track. Tesco was 79p for a two minute punk track or a 20 min ambient track regardless.

Ta anyway!