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Is it Possible to Download Music Legally Anymore?
Throughout the past few years downloading music on the internet has increased in popularity. At the same time though, it has become illegal through many companies to download music as musicians and artists have been losing money on their CD sales. With many people being sued in the past couple years for downloading music, is it really possible to download music legally anymore? If so, at what price will it cost you to download music?
As music sites such as Napster and Kazaa and many more have attempted to create sites to download music for free, they have just increased the problem that much more. Some of the users of these programs have learned the hard way that music does not come free, as they were sued for illegally downloading music.
Today there are many sites in which you can download music at where they claim it is 100% legal. The latest music file formats used are Windows® Media (WMA), Advanced Acoustic Coding (AAC) and Atrac 3, and are very popular as it increases the sound quality making it closer to an actual CD bought in stores.
Another great advantage is that many sites such as SonicSelector Service on MSN allow you to preview the music before buying it. Many sites today also offer a three-day trial of their music downloading site, and then after that you will have to begin paying a monthly fee. So it is possible to download music legally online, but at what cost?
Pressplay.com offers unlimited music for a price of $9.95 per month and then you also have to install the software from their site. The downloaded music is non-burnable and once your subscription runs out you no longer have access to any of your songs. Rhapsody at listen.com also charges $9.95 per month for non-burnable music, but instead of downloading the music you download a music player that gives you access to the songs.
Now you can download music and you know the basic price per month for non-burnable songs. However, most people download music so that they can burn their favorite CD with a variety of songs. Transferring these songs onto a CD or a personal MP3 player will cost you even more. Many sites offer packages for songs capable of burning as oppose to a set price per song.
For example, Pressplay offers 5 burnable songs for $5.95, 10 burnable songs for $9.95, 20 burnable songs for $18.95, and then on top of those prices you are still required to pay the monthly fee to use the program. MusicNet offers a package for $17.95 a month that comes with unlimited downloading music and 10 burnable songs.
There are other sites such as apple.com/itunes that is priced at 99 cents to download a song and there is no monthly fee, but you must own a Mac in order to do this. Sites such as mp3.com, peoplesound.com, and soundclick.com all offer free music to download and burn. The catch is that these sites offer a majority of unknown artists and songs.
With the exception of the last few sites I have mentioned, you will find a relatively large selection of music to choose from in all of these sites. Not one of the sites offers less than 300,000 songs to choose from with all of the biggest names in the music industry such as Eminem, Britney Spears, and even oldies such as Elvis, The Beatles, and Frank Sinatra.
There are websites out there that are 100% legal for you to download music at. The question now is how much money are you willing to pay to download all of the hottest songs today, and are you willing to pay extra to put those songs onto a CD?
Jeff Schuman is the creator of Best-MP3-Music-Downloads.com where you can buy CD's and find all of the best free music downloads. http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com
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The Record Industry Continues Battle Against Free Music Downloads
Movie and record producers alike are saying file-sharing networks that permit its users the ability to make copies from other network member's computers are infringing on the copyright laws and costing billions of dollars in lost revenue.
The recording industry claims to have lost 25% of it's revenues since computer, so called thieves, have been using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to obtain free music downloads.
The two latest file-sharing companies to be targeted by these copyright lawsuits are Grokster Ltd, known for its Grokster file-sharing software and StreamCast Networks Inc. from which the Morpheus free music downloading software is distributed.
Unlike Napster, Grokster and Morpheus put a spin on the popular file-sharing phenomenon. Instead of indexing the shared files like Napster did, these file-sharing products enables it's network members to build their own indexes - thus allowing others within the network to download free music and movie files.
While some musicians are protesting they are being cheated by these illegal free music downloads - others are speaking out backing how music, movies, pictures and copy are being shared over the Internet.
Some music lovers actually use the file-sharing networks to check out an artists latest release before paying up to $18 for a CD that may only have one good song on it. You still will have those that will never make a purchase and continue to take advantage of the free music download networks.
Many file-sharing network users have said that using these networks is good for the music industry. File-sharing can bring listeners to smaller, independent bands that they may not otherwise hear on radio or in the mainstream.
With the likes of Apple's iTunes store many have turned their backs on file-sharing networks paying 99 cents per song - Apple claims to sell more than 1 millions songs everyday. Although iTunes is limited still, thus giving file sharing networks a void to fill the unlimited access to music and movies that may otherwise not be able from iTunes.
In late 2003 record companies started suing individuals that were downloading free music. With file-sharing networks like Grokster and Morpheus it will be much harder for the recording industry to track down files that are uploaded by individual users.
With the Supreme Court now involved they are expected to make some type of ruling in June 2005 on what if any action should be taken against the makers of file-sharing network software.
The wrong decision could discourage the future development of products like the iPod or other file-sharing software programs that could be used for legal purposes.
Since Grokster and Morpheus do not monitor or have any knowledge of who or what is being downloaded, a federal judge in Los Angeles and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the copyright infringement charges against both these file-sharing networks.
Based on the 1984 ruling of the Supreme Court that stated the use of Sony Betamax, which allowed users to make copies at home of copyrighted TV programs, was legal.
The recording industries angle last week was that the approach companies like Grokster and Morpheus are making by advertising their software will provide access to free copies of copyrighted materials should allow them to be sued and shut down.
While the jury may be out on this one for sometime - file sharing networks and free music downloads will continue with most users not really worrying about getting sued, since most do not download free music in excess of a few files per month.
Copyright 2005 - Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC
MusicHoncho.com
Your Leader for free music downloads, MP3s, CDs, Music Movies and Electronics and many other music related products and services.
http://www.musichoncho.com
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