Why Can't I Download MP3's??

I just bought my Mac a couple of weeks ago and I'm only having one problem- if I try to access any MP3 or Sibelius Scorch files through Safari, they don't load. My iTunes is working fine, as is my Sibelius program as a whole, but those files just won't load.

I'm a music grad student, and much of my work is listening to files that my professors post online. The Quicktime files are downloading, and I loaded the VLA Media Player in order to access .avi and .wma files- could the VLA be messing with my MP3 player?

I tried to download the same files on a PC, and it worked. What's my problem?

for avi's and wma's I generally use http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx which will allow them to be played in quicktime.

That being said, what happens when you save the files locally and drag them into iTunes or VLC?

I tried dragging them into the programs, but they still don't load. Maybe I'm not doing it the right way. How do you really save a file without having a two button mouse? When I click on the files, I just get an error message.

you have a two button mouse, you just need to enable it in System Preferences Keyboard and Mouse. Or you hold down control and click on it.

Try saving one that way and see if it plays once dragged into iTunes. You can also right click and open with, then select whatever. VLC shouldn't have a problem playing valid mp3's though.

It's still not downloading- I tried saving the files iTunes and dragging them to VLC, but it says the files don't exist. It just seems odd that the files exist on PC but not on my computer.

Thanks for your suggestions- the two-button thing is a huge relief!

if they've been downloaded from safari, they should be in your downloads folder. Are they?

Yes they are. But right next to the download it says "file doesn't exist"

hrm, have you used terminal before? I'm trying to get more of a feel for what you're encountering and I haven't seen that error before. What I'd like to do is have you open terminal, then type

ls -lh Downloads

then copy and paste the whole line the mp3 file is on, it should look like this...

-rwx------ 1 mike staff 4.9M Aug 30 2007 X - Live At The Whiskey A Go-Go - Johnny Hit And Run Pauline.mp3

hm... it's not showing up in terminal but it is still showing up in downloads.
Here's the exact message in the downloads file: 0 bytes of ?- file doesn't exist

ok, right click on Downloads and click on get info. What permissions do you have?

I have custom access... read & write

Have you tried downloading them thorough Firefox? Just to rule out problems with Safari and its DL manager ...