What program do you use to DL music?

PREVAILED · Apr 23, 2011

Is there a certain one more compatible with Mac computers?

I have a 27" iMac Quad Core.

Thanks

Doug b · Apr 23, 2011

I think you'll find that most people's answers (here) will be "The iTunes Store", since you said downloading. That's given that most people use iTunes etc... I personally use Songbird, and don't download music at all. For me, it's a waste of money. I don't do one hit wonders, elevator music or top 40.

I purchase vinyl, still buy CD's if they're worthy of my money (I do test albums before I purchase them, but that's another story) and tend to stream my entire music collection on the go, from my external hard drive at home, using the app Audiogalaxy, on my EVO 4g.

If you're asking about file sharing or torrent stuff, don't even bother. This thread will be closed faster than you can say Arrrgh matey !

Doug

cwa107 · Apr 23, 2011

In addition to the iTunes Music Store, I also like Amazon's MP3 Store. But I'm by no means an audiophile like Doug. If that describes you, I would go with his recommendations.

As far as pirating music, Doug's right, we don't discuss that sort of thing here. Besides with the degree to which those networks are being policed, you'd have to be nuts to do it these days.

Doug b · Apr 23, 2011

Not sure I'd call myself an audiophile, but that's mostly because those whom do... are um... *trying really hard to think of a PC way of saying something totally not nice* - - - - - Nope, can't do it. For me, it's just that I have halfway decent audio gear, and can hear all the things wrong with poorly encoded (yeah, even iTunes stuff) digital files, and it bugs me. Just so hard to ignore that kind of thing when you've heard and are capable of outputting so much better.

I'd love it if Amazon or iTunes gave us the option to download FLAC or ALAC files. Mm... gimmie 24bit/96/Khz goodness... Oh yeah, I'd subscribe in a heartbeat.

Doug

bobtomay · Apr 23, 2011

Here's a few places for you Doug.

HD Tracks - up to 192k/24bit
Linn Records
Acousence
Magnatune

I have not tried it yet, but you may want to have a look at Decibel if you're not using Pure Music or Amarra already.

Moss · Apr 24, 2011

Bandcamp is a favorite. There are plenty of small and unknown artists that release their work for free, which I like to listen to, and a few bigger names that I will buy.

bobtomay · Apr 24, 2011

Nice one Moss - another to add to the list.

edit: maybe I should say bad - already found several albums to buy

Moss · Apr 24, 2011

bobtomay said:
Nice one Moss - another to add to the list.

Yup! Always great to have choices when it comes to looking for music.

And I just realized you asked what program!

I could recommend Soundcloud to get music, but only if the person who has uploaded allows for downloads. They have a native Mac app available via the Mac App Store.

chas_m · Apr 25, 2011

Primarily, I buy music from iTunes. I tend to buy single tracks or small collections, and if the band is still impressing me, I'll go to a store and buy the CD (I like having the physical CD).

Some friends have started making their music available through CDBaby and Bandcamp so I'm starting to check those out more often. Amazon and even eMusic are also options.

I was never much for pirating music even back in the Napster days, as I thought it hurt musicians (and everyone else, actually). I just wasn't raised to be that selfish. I'm happy to monetarily support music I like. As for discovering new bands, I'll be the first to admit that Napster (et al) used to be a great way to do that -- but now, what with the 90-second samples on iTunes and the birth of band sites where you can check them out freely, I don't see the point anymore.

Moss · Apr 25, 2011

chas_m mentioned discovering new bands. A good way to go about doing this nowadays is to try the services offered by Last.fm or Pandora. I have a preference to Last.fm, but either one will get the job done. Last.fm occasionally offers you free tracks to download.

robduckyworth · Apr 25, 2011

Last.fm is a PITA in my opinion.

the app is buggy, fails to quit, stays as a background process after quit sometimes. i wish Pandora was available in the UK, I used to love it before they cancelled our use (must have been four years ago at least now.

Moss · Apr 25, 2011

robduckyworth said:
Last.fm is a PITA in my opinion.

the app is buggy, fails to quit, stays as a background process after quit sometimes. i wish Pandora was available in the UK, I used to love it before they cancelled our use (must have been four years ago at least now.

I don't like the program for Last.fm much either, although I do think that the web interface is functional. I haven't had much of a problem with it, at least.

(I didn't know what PITA stood for, for a second. Ahahaha. O:)

)

chas_m · Apr 26, 2011

Rob: Another good source for discovering music (at least for me) is some of the programs on 6Music (BBC Radio). You also have Radio Caroline (not as good as it used to be, but still good).

Best part -- both of these are freely available to people outside the UK. I used to love Pandora, but I got tired of a) them not getting their act together to offer the service outside the US (Soma, Last, Radio365 et al don't seem to have a problem!) and b) their CEO lying to people about that.

Doug b · Apr 27, 2011

Kudos for some of those links bob... I'm just going to guess that the OP isn't interested in anything past pirated downloads, since he/she hasn't responded, but that's ok, turned out to be a good thread nonetheless! I've seen the likes of Decibel before, and it certainly is a better media player than iTunes or Songbird etc..

I'll add to the list of high rez and legit download sites:

AIX Records
Blue Coast records
Bowers And Wilkins Society Of Sound
Cantaloupe Music
Chesky Records
Gimell Records
Hi-Res Music
High Definition Tape Transfers
iTrax And no relation to Apple. OMG ! HOW DARE SOMEONE OTHER THAN APPLE USE AN LOWER CASE I!
Reference Recordings
Rhino

And since audio players have been brought up, I'll contribute to that list as well. I can not take credit for finding these. That, goes to "Currawong" on Head-Fi:

Amarra by Sonic Studio

Amarra :: High Resolution Music Players and VINYL Restoration
Commercial, demo available for download.
Comes in three flavours: Amarra, Amarra Mini and Amarra Junior with varying features and prices. The player integrates with iTunes, or can be used stand-alone importing tracks into a playlist with one click from the Finder or iTunes. For people with a lot of RAM in their computer, it can be used in cache mode where the files are loaded into memory before playback. Includes iZotope resampling software. However, the licence either requires an iLok USB key or the software is locked to a single computer which can't be transferred.

audirvana (Open Source)
Free
audirvana - OSX Audiophile player - Google Project Hosting
The first player to offer a window that looks like a piece of hi-fi gear, it offers device "hog mode" and up-sampling by default. The feature list is otherwise very basic at present.

Clementine Player
clementine-player - A cross-platform music player based on Amarok 1.4 - Google Project Hosting
Free (Open Source based on Amarok 1.4)
This multi-platform player is more of a music organiser than anything, with features geared in that direction (such as having LastFM support), rather than having any audiophile settings. Thankfully, unlike other multi-platform applications, it isn't Java based (using Qt instead), so the user interface is fast.

Decibel by Steven F Booth
Decibel from sbooth.org
Commercial.
The developer of Play produced a basic, high-quality music player known as AyreWave in conjunction with Ayre. This has now dropped any association with them and has been renamed Decibel. The software itself, while basic, allows one-click importing from files selected in the Finder or iTunes, "hog mode".

Ecoute by PixiApps
PixiApps - Ecoute 2 times better, same price !
Comercial
With iTunes integration, including song rating and metadata support, this is the player for people who want a slick, theme-able one-window interface and want to share your listening habits on Twitter, Facebook or LastFM. It also supports the Apple remote control.

Fidelia by Audiophile Engineering
Audiofile Engineering - Fidelia
Commercial.
With a main window that looks like a piece of high-end hi-fi gear, but far more classy than that of audirvana, it has the ability to play music directly from iTunes playlists without needing to have iTunes running. Also included are a selection of on-the-fly resampling methods, including iZotope and remote control software for the iPhone and iPod Touch available in the App Store.

Play by Steven F Booth
Play from sbooth.org
Free.
Until recently, almost the only alternative to iTunes if you wanted a simple music player and nothing else. Allows access to the built-in Mac OS X audio effects filters, which can be very handy if you want a 31-band equaliser, high-pass filter or the like. Since all this is incorporated into Decibel it is probably more worth it to download that instead.

Pure Music by Channel D
CHANNEL D - Pure Music
Commercial, demo available for download.
Based upon Pure Vinyl and using its own playback engine, like Amarra, integrates with iTunes, running in a window alongside and can re-sample music on the fly. Unlike Amarra, it requires iTunes to be running to select tracks, but offers a considerable slew of other options.

Songbird
Songbird - Welcome
Free.
More a multi-platform internet connected media library project by previous Firefox, Netscape and Winamp developers, it might be easier to consider Songbird to music what Thunderbird is to email, yet a lot more, with online integration.

Vox by Alessio Nonni
Vox :: The Lightweight Music App for Mac OS X
Free (donations requested).
Much the same as Play, a slowly developed app that does little more than just play music with a minimal footprint. Like Play, it gives access to in-built Mac OS X audio effects filters.

Some of those need some serious set up instructions, as they're not just plug/play audio players. In iTunes, there is, for example, a 10-band equalizer. However, that doesn't cover the entire audible spectrum very well. However there is a system EQ that can be accessed in any program that can call it. Play and Vox can as they enable the use of the Mac OS X built-in effects filters. In Vox, the second button from the left on the controller window opens the effects window. Clicking on "Add" pops up a menu under which is an "Apple" sub-menu with a list of AUwhatever filters. AUGraphicEQ is the one you want. You can draw curves with it by holding down the control key and literally drawing a curve, the sliders jumping to the mouse location as it passes over. In Fedelia, the main window has three menus below the playback controls where effects can be added.

Doug

robduckyworth · Apr 27, 2011

Doug b said:
iTrax And no relation to Apple. OMG ! HOW DARE SOMEONE OTHER THAN APPLE USE AN LOWER CASE I!

haha, i did Lol at this.

chas_m · May 2, 2011

Rhino has some pretty AWESOME stuff, incidentally.

macmacaman · May 2, 2011

iTunes Store, Amazon and Last.fm for more experimental stuff.

hw96Lgb · May 2, 2011

If you are really desperate, get a program like Grappler (I think there are many alternatives) and download songs off streaming websites like Grooveshark or the Hype Machine directly.
However it will be hard to find tracks with high sound quality with this method; plus it's really lame (despite not being illegal) and I would only recommend it as a last resort unless you have no shame.

If you are asking for torrenting advice, well you'll probably get better answers at a specialized forum anyway, not that I would recommend any sort of illegal file sharing since the potential risks are too great, not to mention the ethical ramifications that come into play.

chrischerokee · May 2, 2011

Seems as if my post was deleted because I mentioned BitTorrent. Even though the moderators on this site or whoever have the power to delete posts have no knowledge behind torrents. Downloading "torrents" does not essentially mean an ILLEGAL form of obtaining music unless the things you are downloading are copyrighted, and shared.

THERE IS MUCH EMPHASIS ON THE SHARED PART.

The copyright law of the United States states in section 1011 that,
"anyone who distributes or offers to distribute, sells or offers to sell, rents or offers to rent, or traffics in any copy or phonorecord fixed as described in paragraph (1), regardless of whether the fixations occurred in the United States.

READ UP ON ACTUAL FACTS ABOUT THE LAWS AND HOW THEY WORK.

Here's a source for the moderators who know nothing.
U.S. Copyright Office - Law and Policy

Aptmunich · May 2, 2011

chrischerokee said:
Seems as if my post was deleted because I mentioned BitTorrent. Even though the moderators on this site or whoever have the power to delete posts have no knowledge behind torrents. Downloading "torrents" does not essentially mean an ILLEGAL form of obtaining music unless the things you are downloading are copyrighted, and shared.

We know the law, thanks.

However, we also know that these types of discussions quickly degenerate into people sharing links to illegal bittorrent sites unless we step in, so that is why we ask that they aren't mentioned.

So let's keep it on topic, we all know the usual suspects, now share something new that is worthwhile mentioning.

What program do you use to DL music?

PREVAILED

Doug b

cwa107

Doug b

bobtomay

,

Moss

bobtomay

,

Moss

chas_m

Guest

Moss

robduckyworth

Moss

chas_m

Guest

Doug b

robduckyworth

chas_m

Guest

macmacaman

hw96Lgb

chrischerokee

Aptmunich

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