MP3 sources

[Steelsun]

The wife just got an MP3 player (pretty neat) and is wanting to fill it up with downloaded music.

In order to save the pocket book from her going crazy on the 99cents download sites out there, I am looking for free legal sources of MP3s.

The only legit one I've seen so far is Music.Download.com, but finding a good song there is difficult.
I've found plenty of "streaming" sites for free, but no other downloadable ones (that are not spyware/hacker havens).

Any suggestions, favorites, etc?

[chloew]

Use iTunes to convert your own CDs to MP3.

[boomerd35]

I wouldn't mind paying the 99cents, but when I was looking for mp3's, they all had some kind of catch where you had to keep subscribing to their service to keep using the songs. The only place I found to just pay the money and download the mp3 didn't have much selection at all.

[Terrancelee]

If you want to make your own Mp3's ..

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

Quick and easy and you have all your music you already own converted into handy, dandy mp3's.

[dragonspyke]

alot of my friends say the use Limewire, but I'm not completely sure if its legal.

[tiffany]

allofmp3.com

[marcus]

When I feel the need for more songs I use:
http://isohunt.com/

Yes it is a bittorrent site but a good one. I use it on my G5 Mac along with Azureus as my bit client.
The downloaded files go straigt to my external. No Harm on my main hard drive. I recently just got a
new ipod so I've been transferring music lately.

Limewire on my Mac sucked. So I switched. Good Luck

[Steelsun]

Thanks for some of the suggestions.

The mp3 player came with CD ripping software, so we are already doing that for her stuff.

I also showed my wife how to use bittorrent (and thePB dot org), and she's having a blast with that.

Just looking for other legit channels to get music.

[LoungeLizard]

iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody

[thrumyeyes]

allofmp3.com is super cheap, and legal .....in Russia...

[DoctorWu]

I'm a big fan of Napster...$14.99 a month all you can eat downloads.

[Bartman01]

No such thing as a FREE and LEGAL source of commercial music in the US.

allofmp3 is a Russian company that operates outside of US law. The US government has been pressuring the Russian government to shut this (illegal in the US) operation down.

Bittorrent/limewire are basically theft. Funny how people on a forum dedicated to the creation of intellectual property are so quick to advocate the theft of other types of intellectual property.

Either buy the CD, or buy the music from a legitimate site. Many US artists are now selling their music directly to the consumer online, so in some cases you can buy directly from the artist.

[kenw]

Heck, even Walmart has downloads. and only 88c each.

Realize that most sites will download the entire album/CD for even less than 88c/song.

However it is often cheaper to buy the CD and convert/rip your own, most non-latest hit CDs are under $10 each, I find lots of good ones (well, good to ME...) for $5-7 at places like Best Buy. And don't forget used CD places. I've bought dozens of CDs this way.

I prefer this as you always have the original uncompressed files as backup. Realize that most mp3 files are significantly compressed, like JPG image files. Buying the CD you get the uncompressed files. You will be hard pressed to hear the difference on a iPod or in your car, but your home system may show some weakness in compressed MP3 playback.

[dbphotos]

Join BMG music club get your 12 cd's for .01 cent and buy your 2 or 3 required at normal pricing and then cancel the membership. Rip them to your .mp3 player and you 14-15 cd's worth of music for about $40.

[DeLeon]

I use Wal Mart for my mp3 downloads...I dont remember last time I bought an entire Cd...when some one puts out a Cd that I like every song on, I will by the entire CD.

There is legal music on bit torrent, its just very hard to find. And you will be tempted when you see the entire Weird Al Yankovic collection in one convenient download. =Þ