I lost $6 becuase it closed lol

 

the ONLY reason I haven't replaced my iRiver with an iPod is because the iRiver works with the legal Napster, and it's "Napster ToGo" program which lets me put almost any song from their library on my MP3 player for $14.99 a month

 

allofmp3 was legit while it was around, but I haven't checked out fiesta that much yet.
I'm still depressed that Oink got shut down by the UK po-po. By far the best thing to hit the internet since ****. It was fairly underground (invite only), but had everything in every format and every bitrate...including album leaks 1-2 months before actual release. And all for FREE.
I just got a Zune after too many broken iPods. Trying to figure out a source for new downloading here as well.

 

Napster should work for that too. Definitely worth the $14.99 a month (if you feel bad about $14.99, just put on at least 2 albums a month, and then you're saving money). The only downside is that you have to connect the mp3 player each month to renew the licenses

 

soulseek is sweet. you can dl whole albums for free. takes a bit but its worth it imo

 

Ha, I never thought that I would type 'Napster' again. I haven't used that since the golden days of college in '99 (when it was free and apparently illegal). Ah, those were good times.
But thanks for the advice. I'll check it out. It sounds kinda like the MS Zune marketplace: $15/month for unlimited DL, but you lose the MP3's if you cancel your membership (boooo).

 

For those with video MP3 players, or if you dig watching TV on your computer, this link is a how-to on turning your hard drive into a Tivo (with no cable bills):

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-977...ml?tag=blog.10

I've been using Miro for this for 3+ months and it rocks.
Two words: TOP GEAR

 

basically, nobody (legal) offers flat-rate video downloads (for music videos or tv shows) or ipod-compatible music downloads (from major labels). you want flat rate on ipod, then either you go for what's on youtube and flat-rate mp3 sites for indy labels, or you disregard legality.

apple refuses to play with anyone else's DRM format; itunes, mp3, or bust. nobody does mp3's on a flat-rate basis, except for sites that partner with indy music labels and artists. a few of the major labels are starting to dabble in non-DRM mp3's (using digital watermarks), but this is still on a pay-per-track basis.

there is some alternatives (third-party firmware replacement) that will open up compatability, but then you've basically turned your ipod into "not an ipod".

the overseas mp3 sites are based in countries that have different copyright laws. so while you're not breaking any laws in their country, that doesn't mean a damn thing in the U.S... same as if you went to another country and did things that are against U.S. law, as a U.S. citizen you're still liable under U.S. law, regardless of what country you were in. (most commonly observed with pedophilia-related cases)

if you're willing to disregard the laws, well, plan on transcoding video for your ipod; it's not that big of a deal... if you have a tivo, you can download shows to your PC from your tivo, and use their tivo desktop software to transcode it, makes it fairly easy. (you may have to pay for the 'plus' version, which covers the cost of royalties for the codecs.) there's other software for content downloaded from the internet.

as for sources, "torrent"... is there risk? of course. there's risk to modifying your car and not telling your insurance company about the mods, too. it's up to you to decide what level of risk you want to accept. I would say the lowest-risk source is 'usenet'; do some searching, it's an incredibly useful thing and has been around since the dawn of the internet. (evolution of fidonet, actually, and related to uucp.) your isp probably has a usenet (nntp) server, though they may cap your downloads.

there are many excellent legal music sources for flat subscription billing, rhapsody and napster being two of them. both use DRM (the music labels _requires_ this of any online distribution channel), so it only works on supported players (almost all, except ipod, since apple refuses to eat anyone else's dogfood); you hook your player up once in a while to refresh the licenses, or while adding new songs.

 

how would you lose your MP3's if you cancelled your Napster membership? theres no way they could take them off your player

 

The second site didn't look secure, at least it wasn't a https: page. but idk, if you've had no problem I could try $20.


Sucks you lost all that money at allof. After they stopped accepting the CC's, I just used up the rest of my balance. I think I lost ~$.10.

 

Good choice.