The Great "Cheapest Legal Music Downloads" Hunt.

pinkkaz

Hello, another vote for Spotify here. Completely legal. Only thing is it's a streaming service so you can't actually download the tracks - it's more like a huge jukebox. However they are developing for mobile as well so who needs downloads when you have music on demand?

https://www.spotify.com

peregrin

I like Spotify too. The mobile version was demoed a while back on Google Android (there is a Youtube video somewhere) which includes some sort of restricted download functionality so that you can continue to play music if you are say on the Underground.

I do worry about these huge jukeboxes in the sky, they are great but rely on the company staying in business, licensing agreements staying intact and such like... what guarantees do people who may have paid for the service have that their favourite artists are not going to disappear at a whim because of, for instance, a dispute between a content provider and the the service provider?

Potentially worrying...

jenniewb

peregrin wrote: »

I like Spotify too. The mobile version was demoed a while back on Google Android (there is a Youtube video somewhere) which includes some sort of restricted download functionality so that you can continue to play music if you are say on the Underground.

I do worry about these huge jukeboxes in the sky, they are great but rely on the company staying in business, licensing agreements staying intact and such like... what guarantees do people who may have paid for the service have that their favourite artists are not going to disappear at a whim because of, for instance, a dispute between a content provider and the the service provider?

Potentially worrying...

It is indeed potentially very worrying. Thats prob why its better to stick with a more well known subscription service such as Napster or E music. I would imagine their main downfalls would be if downloadable music became free- both of the above are global download music sites, meaning they may not be as easily hurt by new music download trends -unless like I said, something pretty major happens.

Both have been around for years and years and both seem to go from strength to strength. Potentially worrying yes, but personally? Am not worried (and your talking to one of the worlds biggest worriers here!)

soosiefloosie

You can get free downloads of classical music from Classiccat.net and Pianosociety.com
They are set up to showcase young performers and university orchestras/ensembles. Several are live performances with audience applause at end, but you could always get rid of this with a freebie editing program such as Audacity.

ah_heng

I'm also a satisfied user of Spotify. What's amazed me was they have quite a good selection of Chinese Songs in their database... If they have a paid version which allows downloads (and keeping it), I'm sure to be the first one to subscribe Keep it up!

olliecampbell

Just a couple of warnings with regards to Spotify.

- Make sure you use a different password to everything else, they've had a few security leaks where account details have been released.
- It eats bandwidth, so if your Skyping or doing other Internet intensive tasks as the same time then close Spotify.
- Because of the last point I wouldn't use it at work!

Baddriver

safari wrote: »

Isn't emusic one of those sites like Napster where if you stop subscribing you lose all your music?

Nope. One of the big selling points of eMusic is that it is DRM free and therefore not locked down in this fashion; all downloads are 320kbps MP3 format.

thisisace

Baddriver wrote: »

Nope. One of the big selling points of eMusic is that it is DRM free and therefore not locked down in this fashion; all downloads are 320kbps MP3 format.

Have they got a decent selection of music now ?
When I did their 25 free songs trial a few months ago, it seemed to be just re-recordings and the sort of stuff you'd get on a cheap CD from the petrol station !

peregrin

thisisace wrote: »

Have they got a decent selection of music now ?
When I did their 25 free songs trial a few months ago, it seemed to be just re-recordings and the sort of stuff you'd get on a cheap CD from the petrol station !

If you got to emusic.com then click "About eMusic" at the bottom of the first page, you'll get to a standard screen with the options to "Browse", "Charts", etc. and you can also search the catalogue and listen to the previews before you sign up :-)

hth

frankie

How easy is it to unsubscribe from emusic after downloading the 50 free tracks?