Guy Gear
Internet music buying guide
So you finally saved up enough to get that killer MP3 player you’ve been dreaming about. (Maybe it was one featured in the November 2005 Boys’ Life.) Now it’s time to fill the thing up with tunes.
The good news: You have tons of options. The bad news: Well, you have tons of options. It used to be so simple. Just go down to the store and thumb through the CDs until you find one that catches your eye. Today, though, you have access to millions of songs from dozens of Internet music stores — each competing for your business — and it’s all right at your fingertips.
“Do your research before buying anything,” recommends Chris Doyle, pro BMX rider and certified digital music junkie. We couldn’t agree more. Deciding where to shop for music can be dizzying, so we did the legwork for you. Read on and we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know.
CHECK YOUR PLAYER
First of all, the music from certain online music stores works only with specific types of digital music players. For instance, songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes are playable only on iPods, and music purchased from Sony’s Connect service is playable only on Sony devices. Other music download Web sites may be more compatible with a wider range of digital music players; just make sure that the type of music file you’ll be buying (whether it’s MP3, AAC, WMA, etc.) works with your player.
PRICE
Most online stores charge 79 to 99 cents per song. Most people buy individual songs rather than the whole album.
“I’ll hear a song I want to buy, but I don’t know if I’m going to like the entire album or not, so I usually just buy my music by the song,” Doyle says.
That’s why record companies off er discounts if you buy the entire album. You pay online using a credit card or PayPal.
Beware: With music just a click-of-the-mouse away, it’s easy to rack up a major bill before you know it. Some stores let you or your parents set up a monthly music “allowance” to help keep your spending under control.
OWN OR RENT?
With certain services, you have the option of owning or renting music.
For about $6 to $15 each month, Napster, Yahoo! Music Unlimited and other services offer all-you-can-listen type subscriptions that let you download as many songs as you like to your MP3 player. You can play them all month long, but if your subscription runs out, the songs “expire” and become unreadable for your player.
Subscription-based services are cheap ways to sample tons of music, but you won’t own the songs and can’t burn them to CDs unless you pay more (prices are generally slightly less than the standard per-song fee). Before you buy songs from a site, be sure to read the fine print and find out what you’ll be able to do with the song once you’ve bought it (e.g. burn it to CD, load it onto your MP3 player, etc).
SOUND QUALITY
The music available from most online stores is between 128 and 192 kilobits per second (kbps). That’s computer speak for sound quality — and the higher the number of kbps, the better the sound quality. 256 kbps is roughly equivalent to compact-disc quality, but most experts say the average person can’t tell the difference between that and 128 kbps music, especially with the tiny headphones people usually use with their MP3 players.
USER-FRIENDLINESS
All online music stores have nearly the same selection of songs, but ease-of-use can vary wildly. Some services offer community features, enabling you to chat with others, while also providing customized homepages that learn your musical tastes and suggest songs and artists you might like. Before you sign up, spend some time surfing around the Web site to see how easy it is to find specific songs or albums from your favorite artists. Occasionally subscription-based sites even have free trial offers that let you download music for a test drive.
FREE MUSIC?
Some Internet sites allow users to download and share music for free, but these services are often illegal. Since usually only one person pays for the songs but others download them for free, lawmakers consider it the same as stealing music.
That said, there are a number of cool free music sites that are totally legal and full of great music that you can download and share with friends. Check www.oddiooverplay.com for a list of free music services and visit www.archive.org, full of free live music from musicians that support legal music sharing.
Read 5 comments about “Internet music buying guide”
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
THANK YOU 4 THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
thank for the great help!
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
thank you
June 13th, 2008 at 8:06 am
It”s cool you give free stuff a way
June 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
niiiice….