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MP3 players: 2 questions about downloading music
2 questions about downloading music
by Ms.Gadgettes - 8/21/08 11:47 AM1). What are some good sites that you can get free downloads for music, legally. I.e. I currently get the free downloads from iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and Amazon also has some. I like iTunes because I usually find one song or so a month I like and usually a few vidoes. Zune, I like, but not as much, they usually don't have any music I like, I think I've only downloaded a 2 songs since December from them. I like Amazon because they have so much to offer, but I don't really know how to find all the songs they offer. I downloaded a song I liked yesterday and when I went into the actual album there were at least 10 more songs that were free. So, I feel like I'm missing out on alot of songs they offer. I like to use the free downloads to hear new artists and songs, I tend to buy the CD then from the singers after listening to it (I usually start to like listening to new singers after hearing from them for a while on the radio, etc. 30 second clips don't really help me decide if I like them well enough or not)
2). I've never really purchased any songs from any music services. I normally only buy CDs in the store, the downloads have been free songs from sites above and I also won some downloads once, but other than that, I've never purchased online. My question, when you purchase songs online, from iTunes for example, do you pay tax on them? I was thinking of just buying some cards in the store, so I don't have to put credit card or paypal info in, but I know you pay tax on those cards, so I was just curious how that would work.
Sorry for the stupid questions!
Thanks for the help!
download.com's free mp3 of the day
by ktreb - 8/21/08 7:43 PM In reply to: 2 questions about downloading music by Ms.Gadgettes1. I've never really taken advantage of Amazon's free songs, so I can't really comment on that. But did you know that CNET's Download.com has a free mp3 of the day? Here's the link:
http://music.download.com/free-mp3/?tag=MDL_fd_features
There is also a lot of other stuff on the site that you can either download for free or at least stream the whole song. A lot of this stuff is slightly to mostly out of the mainstream, but with a little digging you might find something you like.
2. Regarding iTunes and sales tax. It may depend on the state you live in. I've heard that a lot of states don't but I've heard that some do. I live in California and buy from iTunes and don't pay sales tax up front. If I buy a gift card, I only get charged for the face value. When I buy from the iTunes store, with whatever method, I do not get charged sales tax at that point. However, California wants Californians to add the amount that they would have been charged to their state income tax returns. I can't really comment about whether or not we do.
I don't believe you would be charged sales tax on a gift card. The responibility for sales taxes is supposed to rest on the recipient at the point of redemption, when you obtain your tunes. It should work just like any other gift card from places like Target or WalMart. When you buy a gift card from them, you only pay the face value. Technically there is no sale until the card is redeemed. Those companies don't even consider a gift card purchase a sale in terms of revenue until it is redeemed. Until you have that download, you don't have anything tangible with which to charge sales tax on. Whether or not you get charged sales tax when you buy the songs is really up to your state.
I would have expected to have been charged sales tax, since Apple has a physical presence in California, but that hasn't happened.
As much as I like iTunes, I'm only purchasing from the store because many of my well-meaning friends bought me gift cards and I still have several hundred dollars in store credit. I prefer buying from Amazon because all of their mp3 downloads are DRM free whereas iTunes is not quite there. I don't think even close. Apple only has a DRM-free deal with EMI and independents. That means there are 3 other major labels that it doesn't have deals with. That's a lot of music that still has DRM that I can't put on other players unless I do the burn to audio cd thing. This is a major PITA and you lose a lot of information.
Even with iTunes store credit, I will buy from Amazon from time to time, especially whole album downloads. Sometimes I compare how much iTunes and Amazon charges for whole albums and then I choose the one that is less expensive. And the downloader software automatically opens up iTunes and puts the songs in my iTunes library. They have great deals on some of their album downloads, sometimes as low as $1.99. A lot of it is older stuff, but new stuff comes up every now and then. But at those prices I am more willing to go for the whole album.
http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b/ref=sa_menu_dmusic1?ie=UTF8&node=163856011&pf_rd_p=328655101&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=05461PFE5JK5Z2G9T1AB
(Sorry, I haven't looked into tinyurl to make the link smaller)
Personally, I like subscription services. While I like to own my songs, such services allow me to listen to entire song/albums without having to commit to buying them. I wish iTunes had a subscription service. I currently use Rhapsody To Go. The to go version allows you to put the music on supported mp3 players, but of course not iPod. And I don't even have to download the songs to my computer's hard drive. I open the software, find songs I want to try out, and stream them. If I like them enough, I will add them to my "library", but not necessarily download them, so I have to be online to listen to them. If I want to put them on my player (in this case, a SanDisk Sansa Clip), I just plug it in and do the transfer. Again, I have to be online to do this. But, I don't have to sacrifice hard drive space.
I know I'm paying a little more to have this service, but I like being able to listen to as much music as I want. A lot of the songs I don't care to own ever. I'll listen to them until I get sick of them and then hit the delete key. I don't feel guilty about it and I can load up on some more songs. I will buy songs that I determine are "keepers" (from iTunes or Amazon) and I will continue to buy cds from my absolute favorite artists (only about a half dozen or so).
Thanks for your input
by Ms.Gadgettes - 8/21/08 10:13 PM In reply to: download.com's free mp3 of the day by ktrebI will look more into cnets download.com. I've heard about it, but most of the music isn't stuff I listen too, so haven't paid much attention.
Also, thanks for all the info on downloading music. I don't know how much I will download music, I just was looking into it for future reference. I guess I'm kind of old school because I still like to have the actual CD in my possesion. I guess that comes from too many situations where my data was lost on the computer and going to backups didn't work out quite like I planned. Plus, I like having the ability to put it on my MP3 player, or just put in the CD player. At the same time, I like getting samples of artists before commiting to the entire CD (I have way too many CDs I have no interest in after buying them) and downloading is the best option to get those samples.
Also, thanks for the info regarding sales tax. I wasn't really sure how that would go. I know when you get regular gift cards at a store they don't charge sales tax. But, the other night when I returned my iPod touch it had come with a $30 iTunes giftcard. When it was returned everything got messed up and it returned only the giftcard and added sales tax (it ended up taking nearly 2 hours to get it returned, since I didn't really want to return it anyway, it made it a little harder!), so that was where I came up with it. Either way it isn't an issue, I was just curious how it worked.
Thanks again for all your help!
I like cds too
by ktreb - 8/22/08 6:57 AM In reply to: Thanks for your input by Ms.GadgettesBut after nearly 25 years of "collecting", I had at one time nearly 3000 cds, most of which were purchased because I only wanted one or two songs. Lots of $$$ and waste of physical space. I've gotten rid of over half and I haven't even ripped two thirds of what I have left. And decided that I only want cds from my absolute favorite artists, saving money and space.
I'm pretty obsessive about backing up. My downloads are on 2 laptops, 1 pc, 2 external hard drives and just for kicks, burned to a data dvd. I think I'm covered. However, if I lost all of it, it still wouldn't bother me too much, as long as have cds from my favorite artists. The rest of it, once I've had my fill of the song, I'm pretty much done with it.
Which is why I like subscriptions so much. I know that I'm renting my songs, which is fine by me. I won't lose anything in a system crash, unless I've actually downloaded something and even then, I can redownload them. My only problem with it is that it is not playable on iPods. But I got myself a really nice and inexpensive SanDisk Sansa Clip that satisfies my need to play subscription music. But I really wish Apple would offer subscriptions.
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