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General discussion

Music Download Service

Nov 5, 2005 4:16PM PST

I was wondering if there is a good service that will let you download as many songs as you want for around $10. Also i need to be able to burn the songs to a cd without paying extra.

Discussion is locked

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That's a negative...
Nov 5, 2005 11:52PM PST

Unfortunately you'll find that if you want to burn the songs to CD, you'll have to purchase them on an individual basis.

Music subscriptions (such as Yahoo's, which costs just $4.99-$6.99 per month) work by having you download a new license for each song every month...if you stop paying for the service the licenses will expire and the songs will cease to play. They also rely on the player supporting DRM (digital rights management), which is what identifies the songs as copyrighted, and will only allow them to be played if a valid license is present. Thus, the base fee allows you to download as many songs as you like and play them on your computer. If you wish to play them on a DRM-compatible MP3 player, you have to pay an additional monthly fee (Yahoo charges an additional $5.00) for the "To Go" service.

However, a CD player's simplicity limits its functionality...they cannot keep track of the current date and time, read the DRM encoding, check for a licensing file, and compare all of the over to make sure it's legit before playing the song. If your burning software allows you to proceed, your car's CD player simply won't know how to handle it and spit it back out. Of course, this was by design...if you were able to burn a song from a subscription to CD, how would they ever force you to purchase a new license the next month? The song would work forever, and defeat the purpose of the license. Thus, in order to burn the songs for general use, you have to purchase the songs, which can be found for $0.49 and up.

Hope this helps,
John

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What about those sites that say $1 month for as many songs
Nov 6, 2005 3:19AM PST

On google you see sites that that aloow to pay a doller a month abd download and burn as many songs as you want. And they say its legal

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Don't fall for it...
Nov 6, 2005 5:33AM PST

I know there are thousands of sites/companies that offer such, but don't fall for it. Here are a few of the types of ripoffs:

* For a small fee they will let you download as much music as you wish. And yes, it's completely legal. However, their selection is mostly made up of artists who are just starting out, just having fun with it, and/or are just not that good. You may find a few songs by big-time artists mixed in their, but those are usually free to download from other sources. Basically, you're not going to get what you expected.

* For a small fee you can have access to their P2P network. You can download as much as you want, but the legality of it is questionable. The music from upstart artists is usually legal, but anything from Garth Brooks, Ashlee Simpson, etc is illegal to download because it's copyrighted. Basically, your paying for a service when you could go with Kazaa, Limewire, etc and confront the same legal issues for free.

* For a small fee you can download as much music as you want, and from any artist, and it's all completely legal. And, after you send me the money for that, I'll present you with another great offer: Send me the deed to your house, and once I receive it, I'll send you the deed to my mansion sitting on ocean-front in Arizona. Basically, I'm going to take it and run, leaving you with nothing.

With so many legitimate music services and download sites, including Yahoo! Music, Napster, iTunes, and Rhapsody, offering subscriptions for as little as $5 per month, and downloads for as little as $.49 each, don't waste your money on fairly-obvious cons, or risk thousands of dollars in fines downloading illegally.

John

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p2p
Nov 13, 2005 5:04PM PST

has anyone had dealings with 24/7cnetdownloads.com I have subscribed for the service but not received my start up codes.All my e.mails to them are unanswered

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No results found...
Nov 14, 2005 12:53AM PST

I ran a search for "24/7cnetdownloads.com" and found that the website does not exist. If that is indeed the site to which you subscribed, they have closed up shop, taking your money out the back door. I then ran a search for "cnetdownloads.com" and found tat it is a domain registered by "Free Domains Parking" (Andrey Vasiliev) of Moscow, Russia. However, attempting to go to the site redirected me through four advertising sites before ending up at a questionable search engine. Again, if you had business dealings with that site, your money has taken a one-way trip to an undisclosed location. Neither of those sites/domains belong to Cnet Networks Inc, which is made up of http://www.Cnet.com, the legitimate http://www.download.com, http://www.tv.com, and other holdings.

I'd like to ask that you provide some additional information, which may help yourself and others. For instance, did you stumble upon the site, receive an e-mail, etc? What exactly did the site promise? Finally, how did you pay? If it was by check or credit card, I'd keep a close eye on your balances for the next couple of months, and alert the companies that a problem may arise in the near future. In addition, you may be able to have the check cancelled if it hasn't been cashed, or a credit placed on your credit card if you explain the situation.

Hope this helps,
John

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p2p by cunnies
Nov 16, 2005 1:13AM PST

thank u 4 ur replies as i suspected it was a scam

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High Quality
Nov 16, 2005 5:30AM PST

I'm in the same boat I am looking for a legal way to download music. I already have a large music selection, but I would like some way to get new music without paying $14-$15 for a CD that only has a few good songs on it. I have tried Limewire but the music on there is getting too corrupted with bad quality and incomplete songs not to mention the whole leagality issues. I would like a good music downloading site where I can get high quality music. I don't want to pay too much, but I am willing to shell out some money. Any thoughts?

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The List...
Nov 16, 2005 8:48AM PST

Some of the most popular sources of fairly-priced, legal music include Yahoo Music, Musicmatch, Rhapsody, iTunes, and Napster. Subscriptions ($5 to $20 per month) let you download/"rent" as much as you want, but you can't burn the songs, sometimes have to pay extra to transfer them to an MP3 player, and will cease to play within a month of canceling your subscription. You can also download/purchase (you own them, but there may still be limitations on burning them, so read the Terms of Service carefully) songs individually for $0.49 to $0.99 per song.

Hope this helps,
John