Ages ago I had found a really neat one. It might have been a program that I downloaded...
*sigh*

You could search title or artist, group and all of the available songs would come up on a list, and then you could make a Que of the ones to download and they would automatically download like 3 at a time and as soon as one was done the next in the Que would start....

It might have been a user supported music thing, now that I think about it more.. sometimes you'd get bad sounding recordings..
well if you know of a good music source - I prefer country and 60s, 70s, 80s rock

There is Limewire and as long as you have a good anti virus and anti spyware program installed prior to the download you should be ok! It is a lot like the old Napster only better!

I have limewire, but apparently they are cracking down on the limewire users... at least I think I read something about that somewhere... so I try not to use it too much.

downloading music has been made illegal by our government, and there are few places to legally get music from on the internet these days. Most websites offer music hosts so you can listen to, but not download music.

If you're interested in downloading music, look into "torrenting." People tell me it's very reliable for downloading whole albums at once.

It is SO inexpensive to download from legitimate sites like iTunes, etc. There are a lot of other ones as well. There are also places like Rhapsody, where for a monthly subscription fee you can listen all you want and then purchase if you so decide.

I try to avoid getting into heated conversations about this (my work involves intellectual property) but I want to point out that this really is STEALING. Plain and simple. When you steal music or movies you are hurting the very people who created it and inhibiting them from making a living. It's not just about big companies -- to me, they're the very smallest part of it.

Of course, I can't stop anyone from doing this but just know that if you do, someone out there is being hurt.

there are some free sites with christmas songs. mostly wave files. but oh so fun to listen too. all the silly ones are there. actually, i can't remember if we downloaded, but lil'monkey and i spent hours listening.

http://www.santasearch.org/index.asp

Good chance these songs are mostly what we call "public domain" -- totally legal. (I hope they are.) After a while, "ownership' actually reverts to the PUBLIC. But no, it's not time for those 60's-80's songs yet. Yes, one day YOU will "own" a Beatles song. Just not now.

I want to strongly suggest against LIMEWIRE for it is the most troublesome backdoor hacking out there especially when one doesn't know what one is doing. About half of my clients bring their puters to me with problems starting from Limewire...

Torrenting is not as safe as one think. ANY TYPE OF P2P is NOT safe completely...we are talking about insecure FTP's and people hacking into your accounts even if you think you have firewalls up the wazoo....do any respectable site with the experts and most of them will strongly suggest against most P2P stuff...

once again, that is also my opinion based on what I've seen and trouble shot...

with that said, this is what I feel about downloading music.

In the era that we came from, it was LEGAL to download songs from the radio onto our tapes. It was LEGAL for us to backup our music to another tape. Almost everyone our age did it.

and if the music was good, we went out and we BOUGHT the tapes even though we can just share it. Back then, it was consider a proud and honor thing to own your own latest music album from so and so if we loved it....cause it is like owning a good piece of Artwork such as Georgia O or Ansel Adam.

It was also the age of good music...

Personally, I can't listen to 70% of the crap (my very personal opinion) that's out there these days. They are crap to ME...I can't imagine myself listening to "Don't you wish your girlfriend was more like moi" in 20 years...or
"Bye Bye Bye" in 30 years...

but I will listen to "Yesterday" again and again...

yes, I do agree to some extent that it IS stealing...however....

In the days of the LP's where they have artists drawing on their albums and they TRAVELED everywhere for FREE just to get an audience to listen to their music. Singing out from the back of their VW or their old pickup trucks or their old trailers,they were practically giving away their music in hope that someone would listen to their music. And even after giving a lot of their records away, if it was GOOD, they would still sells thousands if NOT millions of records cause it was just GOOD MUSIC!

the record industry wants one to believe that they are hurting? Really? When was the last time anyone saw one of those artists out on the street begging for food? When was the last time anyone saw one of those crappy record producers driving a pinto?

Ok, if one is talking about trickling down to the person that works at a record store, sure, they get hurt, but then they just hire someone else. And that's NOT the complete picture...

Record producers and "musicians" and I use that term loosely are making tons more money these days...do anyone forsee Madonna begging on the street corner anytime soon? Probably not...

These days, anyone can create a song on youtube and it can be a hit just based on how many views...

I am sorry, that's my strong opinion...

I know it's an imbroglio...if a person really want to download songs, one can find a song on youtube and use a converter to convert that to MP3 file

that is probably the safest way....I won't show people how to do that, but you can do a search and probably find it. Just look up converting youtube files to mp3. You can even convert youtube files to MPEG2 files so you can burn it to your DVD.

And if downloading is wrong. Then millions of those songs on youtube should be shut down...seriously...they are downloading movies, tv shows, music left and right and I don't think they are asking the original artists' to see if it is OK

I am not saying it is right. Cause it IS stealing...but if one is to say black and white about one thing, then it should be black and white across the board...

Anyways, I can respect all the opinions but I think the industry needs a wake up call and stop putting out crap...I still buy CD's...but only if I really really like it...I am willing to shell out money for good stuff..if it is something that is a hit today and sleeps tomorrow such as "My Hump?"..forget about it...

oh well, I should've just shut up about this but I have kids that are struggling musicians and I've known people that I grew up with that were struggling musicians and blah blah blah...

OK, will shut up now...LOL

theres a website called Ruckus (http://www.ruckus.com/) and it says you can download free music for college students with a student email. I havent tried it (i dont have my student email yet but in a few weeks) and im going to see how it works out.

i hope its legit.

I don't doubt it at all.

I'm not sure if it was technically "legal" but yes, we all did it. However, it didn't present the problem it does today. And -- it is a question of DISTRIBUTING it. It is illegal to distribute if you are not the legal owner or have permission.

I agree with what you said above completely. Even when Napster first started, it seemed like it was in the same spirit. It really wasn't but it felt like the old days when you would go over to a friend's house and browse through their record collection. There was a potential value to it but it went amuck. For the most part, people don't buy what they can get for free.

The law is pretty clear but even I agree that to a certain extent there's a middle ground. In the most simplified terms, it's related to intention.

Again, I agree! But they don't sell like that anymore. For today's emerging artist it is almost impossible to well...emerge. There's TONS of good music out there that you don't know about. It's out there but it's not easy to find because access to the public is limited. The big companies are "gate keepers".

Well, both the record AND film industry IS hurting as compare to the profit they once made. But forget the big companies' bottom lines themselves -- people are losing jobs. On the music side artists, producers, songwriters and their representatives ARE hurting. Record stores are barely existent anymore. I could go on but honestly, your assessment of what happens behind the scenes is absolutely incorrect. The people you don't see and the creators you never hear of. By making the comment you did above, you're completely buying into why these sites tell you it's okay and it's a big bunch of baloney. If you don't believe creators should be compensated for their work, that's another story. But if you do, plesae understand that when the companies don't get paid, they don't either.

Re: YouTube, there is a huge crackdown. The large companies continue to go after YouTube and/or make deals with them. There are many sponsored sites up on YouTube now by music, television and film companies.

As for putting out crap, it is definitely related but it's a whole 'nother conversation...