Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
I'm pretty inexperienced with this stuff so any help would be appreciated.
Can anyone reccomend a good legal online download store for purchasing albums and individual songs? If I keep buying CD's by Bonnaroo artists, I'm going to go broke, but I would really like to get some more stuff on my MP3 player. I've looked around a bit, and the whole online store thing is confusing to me. Ideally, I just want to download MP3s, pay for them, and then use them how I please. Subscription services like Napster do not appeal to me and most of the things I find searching either seem to be:
-subscription services where you can't use the tracks if you stop paying -Use proprietary Apple or Microsoft formats instead of MP3 or -don't give you any kind of information about how you pay for songs or what audio format you get until you "register" or "sign up for a free trial", which always seems to involve filling my computer up with software (jukebox etc.) I don't want or need.
A few other questions: Am I right in thinking that mp3 is noticeably superior to .wma? I assume that's the case since the files are larger. I have a Creative Zen mp3 player which plays wma or mp3 among other things, but if I'm going to pay a buck a song I would rather get the superior format. (I'm familiar with FLAC from downloading shows but for my use I think mp3's are fine).
Am I right in assuming that using itunes is a pain if you aren't taking it to an iPod brand player? Are the tracks you can get there only in the iPod format?
I know there are plenty of ways to do this stuff for free but as a former musician I always feel guilty when I don't pay for it (although I prefer paying the artist to Microsoft or a record label).
Thanks for the tip. Its not a long term solution for me, but I hopped on and grabbed the 25 free tracks. Their selection isn't that great but I got some Devandra Banhart, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas (he has collabs with Bill Frissel, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and Derek Trucks on there), Buddy Guy, Rebirth Brass Band, Bettye Lyvette and Dr. John for my Bonnaroo mix. They are mp3s, which is what I was looking for.
Long term, I think its forty downloads for $10 a month. A pretty great deal if you are interested in the subscription and you like their selection. If you are interested, try canceling your free trial and they offer you a better deal.
You get 25 free. I think if you recommend a friend and the friend ends up a paying member, you get 50 free downloads for that.
I'm liking emusic more the more I look into this. From what I can tell, they are the only paysite I can find that gives you mp3s instead of Apple or Microsoft formats. The extent to which the music industry has their head up their ass on this is ridiculous (they are really getting screwed by Apple and Microsoft's proprietary crap), but what's new?
The emusic library just isn't comprehensive enough for me to pay a monthly tab. There is plenty of cool stuff to get your 25 free tracks from, but there is a lot they don't have (Ben Folds and Death Cab for example).
I've heard nothing but good things about eMusic. I'm holding off until the move though. There's a great cranking a*s fast wireless connection we'll get to take advantage of for free there.
On a semi-related note, you might want to check out...
It's a cd buying "club" owned by BMG/Columbia House, without all the madness of their past incarnations. Every album is $5.99 with free shipping and all box sets/multi-disc sets are $5.99 per disc (so $11.98 for two disc set, etc.) also. I have a friend who swears buy it and has been doing it for about a year. I just started, and while the selection isn't blazing (on par with what you'd expect from a BMG), it's invaluable for remasters and filling in some gaps in your record collection. The only requirement is allowing them to auto-charge and send you one disc a month on the day you select. It's not a bad deal, because you get to pick the disc! You set up a queue (like on NetFlix) and can set up the priority for which you'd like to have them shipped.
Anyway, I sound like a huge street teamer...but I'm not.
I came across that and almost sogned up for it. didnt sound like a bad deal.
The thing with Napster . . . . . ive heard your purchased music stops working if you cancel the unlimited service. What if you burnt it on to a disc, and deleted what you bought and imported it back into your computer . . . . . thats how i get by on Itunes when they tell me i cant burn another CD from music i bought from them, or that i can only use purschased music on 2 more out of 5 computers.
i say go live - hit up a torrent website (etree, dimeadozen, etc.) and download the flacs.... great sharing community and if you're into the jam scene (sounds like you are if you're after Roo bands), the shows are way better than the studio albums. Best part.... they're FREE - and LEGAL.
Post by melikecheese on Mar 6, 2006 12:44:06 GMT -5
I use eMusic and I love it. I am into mainly indie bands so this is great for me. I also got the 50 free downloads email but then told it was 25. A quick email to the support team got me my 25 other free downloads. I love it so far. Highly recommended, plus with this one you dont support any evil major labels hacks who would rather chrage 2 bucks a song. Time to go to court mo-fo's
I also really like emusic. You will have trouble finding tracks by some artists, especially major label acts. But they've got lots of live shows, and their recommendation system is great for finding new no-name bands -- a lot of whom offer totally free tracks to hook ya. Decent selection from this year's bonnaroo lineup.
