# Downloading Music



## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Where do you find the best place for downloading music?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

iTunes or any other site that legitimately resells the product and provides revenue to the artist accordingly.

Anything else is immoral, unethical, whatever nasty description you 
like.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2014)

full concerts from you tube.


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## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

Bandcamp gives the artist the highest percentage of the sale price out of any download sites I'm familiar with.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## Guest (Mar 10, 2014)

Contrary to Mike's assertion that there are only paid outlets that offer legitimate music for download, there are plenty of ways to get music _and_ maintain a clear conscious.

I find live stuff on http://archive.org/ from time to time as well -- though, as pointed out, you'd better like wading through Grateful Dead shows. 

Also, look to podcasts in iTunes. The All Songs Considered series, Live in Concert series and Tiny Desk series casts from NPR in the USA is on iTunes and have FANTASTIC recordings of full concerts and short sets from the NPR station. I have a Radiohead live from the Rosebowl show, some Tom Waits' shows, some Neko Case shows...all from that Live in Concert podcast series, all AMAZING recordings. The Radiohead one in particular is just...stunning. There'll be a bunch of stuff coming out of SXSW on the Live in Concert series this week.

Speaking SXSW, don't forget that every year they drop a MASSIVE bundle of MP3s from every band performing at the festival. It's a super sampler of epic proportions. I had to stop downloading them -- I couldn't work my way through it well enough. You can get it here: http://www.npr.org/2014/02/28/283974226/the-austin-100-a-sxsw-2014-mix

I also get stuff from SoundCloud though it tends to be more esoteric, unsigned band stuff. Just last weekend I found this cool Austrian reggae/ska/dub band called Barefoot Basement: https://soundcloud.com/barefoot-basement/storyteller -- totally random listen and it's killer good.

Most of the time now I use my Rdio subscription to listen to music though. Their catalog is so huge I rarely find myself needing anything else. $10/month.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## doriangrey (Mar 29, 2011)

Milkman said:


> iTunes or any other site that legitimately resells the product and provides revenue to the artist accordingly.


I'm in this camp too...I will check out Bandcamp, as per kat's post...


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

iaresee said:


> Contrary to Mike's assertion that there are only paid outlets that offer legitimate music for download, there are plenty of ways to get music _and_ maintain a clear conscious.
> 
> I find live stuff on http://archive.org/ from time to time as well -- though, as pointed out, you'd better like wading through Grateful Dead shows.
> 
> ...


Live concert broadcasts and recorded studio albums are somewhat different IMO. Providing that the artist themselves have approved the "sharing" of the material, the mechanism for receiving the music is inconsequential to me.

Obtaining free music and deciding that someone's intellectual property is free for the taking are completely different animals.

That's just my opinion of course.


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## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

> Live concert broadcasts and recorded studio albums are somewhat different IMO. Providing that the artist themselves have approved the "sharing" of the material, the mechanism for receiving the music is inconsequential to me.
> 
> Obtaining free music and deciding that someone's intellectual property is free for the taking are completely different animals.
> 
> *That's just my opinion of course.*


I share that opinion. OK, so now we have 20 fingers to fill the holes in the dam....


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Live concert broadcasts and recorded studio albums are somewhat different IMO. Providing that the artist themselves have approved the "sharing" of the material, the mechanism for receiving the music is inconsequential to me.


All of the sources pointed to above provide the music for downloading _with the consent of the copyright holders_.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2014)

ronmac said:


> OK, so now we have 20 fingers to fill the holes in the dam....


plus an extra digit each


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Thank you all for the many suggestions. I'm not interested in the free sites as I don't have time to wade through the thousands of songs from unknown bands. 

I am interested where I can download single tracks rather than whole albums.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## doriangrey (Mar 29, 2011)

Milkman said:


> Live concert broadcasts and recorded studio albums are somewhat different IMO. Providing that the artist themselves have approved the "sharing" of the material, the mechanism for receiving the music is inconsequential to me.
> 
> Obtaining free music and deciding that someone's intellectual property is free for the taking are completely different animals.
> 
> That's just my opinion of course.


Well put - I agree


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

well, i say do it the easiest way possible. that is, p2p go to http://www.soulseekqt.net/news/  download their software. search for specifically what you want, and get it, without dealing with kids, virus assholes, and endless searches that produce unrelated results. 
occasionally you may find something to obscure to give a return, but not often. if it's out there, someone on soulseek has it. 
that said, there is an etiquette when using p2p. if you don't know it, you should learn it before you attempt to use the system. not doing so is like walking into someone's living room and demanding that they give you things. basically, have something shareable they can d/l from you, if they choose, and don't load the same user with a bunch of requests. get a few files or a whole album, or a movie/tv show, or some porn or whatever it is you want, and then get your other files from other users. that way more people get a chance to d/l things, anf the queue moves quicker.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

iaresee said:


> All of the sources pointed to above provide the music for downloading _with the consent of the copyright holders_.



Super. Thanks for clarifying that. I think it's important.

- - - Updated - - -

The term I find most disgusting in this context is "sharing".

When the crackheads who stole your guitar share it with the local pawn shop for $50, all is cool no?

Meh, as has been pointed out, the dam is beyond repair. Severe damage has been done by the false sense of entitlement many people have.

Sorry for the sermon. It's something I feel very strongly about.


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## doriangrey (Mar 29, 2011)

Milkman said:


> The term I find most disgusting in this context is "sharing".
> 
> When the crackheads who stole your guitar share it with the local pawn shop for $50, all is cool no?
> 
> Meh, as has been pointed out, the dam is beyond repair. Severe damage has been done by the false sense of entitlement many people have.


Well said - I agree completely


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Super. Thanks for clarifying that. I think it's important.


I concur -- and I've maintained for years that there's plenty of legit, legal music to be had for free out there that you just don't need to resort to...


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

nkjanssen said:


> iTunes
> 7digital
> AmazonMP3
> Amazon On Demand
> ...


NK, is that all? Thanks! I'll check some of them out.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

If anyone is interested in going through a large number of mostly unknown artists, with varying quality--with some better known names showing up, check out Noise Trade
The downloads are free, but you do have an option to leave a tip, and you can preview the full song/album before you download it.

Also, some record companies will have free downloads of songs from new releases to promote them.
Your choices are limited, but sometimes you get good stuff.
And sometimes they offer samplers as well.


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