Alternatives for music store

hotspur10925 · Jun 30, 2007

Well, I like itunes and all but i cant just keep paying 99 cents a song when i can get them for free somewhere else. The big ones that i see around are Bearshare and Limewire. Are they compatible with Macs? Is one better than the other? Have any other suggestions?

trpnmonkey41 · Jun 30, 2007

almost all of the music on Bearshare and Limewire is illegal.

baggss · Jun 30, 2007

M-F Rules said:
Illegal Activity: We choose to follow United States law in regard to what is permissible to be discussed here. Therefore discussion of illegal file sharing, cracked programs, requests for serial numbers, and any other breaches of copyright or other illegal activity are not allowed in these forums.

Limewire does have a Mac version.

Shannonb · Jul 1, 2007

trpnmonkey41 said:
almost all of the music on Bearshare and Limewire is illegal.

When did this happen? Dear Lord.

On this topic, is Bit Torrent illegal?

James · Jul 1, 2007

Shannonb said:
When did this happen? Dear Lord.

On this topic, is Bit Torrent illegal?

Bit Torrent itself is not illegal, it is a file transfer protocall. Probably the majority of what is being transfered over bit torrent however is...

James · Jul 1, 2007

hotspur10925 said:
Well, I like itunes and all but i cant just keep paying 99 cents a song when i can get them for free somewhere else. The big ones that i see around are Bearshare and Limewire. Are they compatible with Macs? Is one better than the other? Have any other suggestions?

I have a suggestion for you... if you can not afford to buy music you might check into what is known as "Podsafe" music. This is music released by the artist under a Creative Commons license. Many artists around the world are using this license now in order to get their work out and gain audiance.

Under Creative Commons license you are legal to not only listen to the music, but you may make copys of it and share with others. The restrictions mainly are that you may not use the music for commerical gain without getting a regular license from the artist.

Don't make the mistake of thinking just cause it is free that it isn't any good, there are many top name artists who do just this very thing, and a great many artists you never heard of are putting out some top notch music in just about any style you can name.

Here are a couple of places to get started:

http://music.download.com
http://music.podshow.com
http://www.garageband.com

trpnmonkey41 · Jul 1, 2007

Another suggestion is listening to live music from Taper-friendly bands

http://bt.etree.org/
http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=/metadata/creator

Shannonb · Jul 2, 2007

James said:
Bit Torrent itself is not illegal, it is a file transfer protocall. Probably the majority of what is being transfered over bit torrent however is...

I knew the program wasnt illegal but thank you for answering the question.

Shannonb · Jul 2, 2007

James said:
I have a suggestion for you... if you can not afford to buy music you might check into what is known as "Podsafe" music. This is music released by the artist under a Creative Commons license. Many artists around the world are using this license now in order to get their work out and gain audiance.

Under Creative Commons license you are legal to not only listen to the music, but you may make copys of it and share with others. The restrictions mainly are that you may not use the music for commerical gain without getting a regular license from the artist.

Don't make the mistake of thinking just cause it is free that it isn't any good, there are many top name artists who do just this very thing, and a great many artists you never heard of are putting out some top notch music in just about any style you can name.

Here are a couple of places to get started:

http://music.download.com
http://music.podshow.com
http://www.garageband.com

Can you actually downlaod stuff from that site and if so how? All I see is streaming music.

James · Jul 2, 2007

Shannonb said:
Can you actually downlaod stuff from that site and if so how? All I see is streaming music.

Yes you can, what you do is use a recording program. I use one called Wire Tap Pro, there are others too. It lets you record and save streaming music, in fact it lets you record any sound that comes through your computer. Then you just save it in what ever format you want, usually .mp3...

christm · Jul 2, 2007

limewire is illegal - if you download copy protected material such as songs

and all the p2p programs are the same.

but - legal if you only download un copyrighted material.

best to buy it - keep it legal.

baggss · Jul 2, 2007

Other alternatives include E-Music and Audio Lunchbox. I belong to both and have a monthly subscription. No DRM and once you download the music you can use it wherever you want.

Shannonb · Jul 2, 2007

I will say this. The absolute best way to get free and legal music is to go to your local library. Cincinnati(where I live) has a great library and I can find any music i could possibly want from any library or put stuff on hold.