I play the $10 a month for the basic subscription. The sucky thing is that the files will stop working if you cancel your subscription. I hear that some people use a program called Tunebite (free trial) to convert these files into unprotected MP3s. Seems like a good way to go.
Napster's music selection is pretty good. Not a big fan of the program's interface, but I do like it better than iTunes.
I personally use Tunebite, it's the absolute best software I ever bought. I converted 400 songs into unprotected files in a day while I was sleeping and then at school. The best part was if I bought them from iTunes it would have been 400 dollars, instead I payed for 2 months of napster ($30) and tune bite (17.99).
I don't have to worry about the RIAA ****ting a brick cause it will be 10 years before they realize this software is out there.
I don't have to worry about the RIAA ****ting a brick cause it will be 10 years before they realize this software is out there.
And then, there's little they can do about it. My understanding is that there's some loophole dating back from the cassette tape days that makes analog -> digital recording okay. Or at least, it's held up in court so far.
And then, there's little they can do about it. My understanding is that there's some loophole dating back from the cassette tape days that makes analog -> digital recording okay. Or at least, it's held up in court so far.
Not to mention the fact it's nearly impossible to track it. You've legally downloaded files onto your computer through a private company. Through another private company you legally bought software from. What you do from there can only be seen on your harddrive, and it still takes someone searching that. It's like the little I WIN button against the RIAA.
heh heh heh...im gonna make an note to myself about that...gonna go check this out..ive never heard of it.
//edit
so let me get this right..you play the song through wmp, or and mp..n/m that doesnt matter..and this thing senses when the song starts and stops? how does it know what the meta data is and when to start and stop recording..
i thought that there were app that would directly transcode the files to unprotected...i mean if you do it while you own the license for the music, it leagal to transcode, but only while you own the license...
oh. so does it not have any loss, im sure it has to. because its prob taking the analog stereo signal from your soundcard and looping it back. and there would be some sound degredation that way.
There is technically some degredation. I haven't been able to notice it, though. Think of it like a copy machine. If you keep make a copy of a copy of a copy (and so forth), eventually you'll notice some degredation in quality, but usually not after the first pass.
To help on that front, I record into OGG rather than MP3. I found a review once (haven't been able to find it again) to compared OGG to MP3 at different bitrates to see which was better. OGG seemed to be less lossy at the bitrates I used (160-192kbps).
I just bought Tunebite yesterday while out here on the rig and started a subscription to Napster and Tunebite absolutely roxxors your boxxors!
So far I've d/l'ed and converted 3 albums worth of music today while working and it's neat as hell. It even rips at 4X speed, so a whole album's worth of music doesn't take long.
heh. try 4000 songs in about 2 weeks. thats why i was gone for a while if anyone noticed. heh heh heh, that took awhile for tunebite to chug through.
napster + tunebite =
best thing is that its completly legal, although not nescesarily ethical. but i pay the $10 a month cause its worth it. although i am against illegal sharing of music
I just d/led the trial of Tunebite to try it out and the original song is a lot clearer than the converted song. I wonder if sound card hardware has anything to do with the quality of the converted song.
I just d/led the trial of Tunebite to try it out and the original song is a lot clearer than the converted song. I wonder if sound card hardware has anything to do with the quality of the converted song.
Most definitely, since it is taking the analog output of the sound card and digitizing it. Plus, you need to save the mp3's in a high bit rate too; I use 192kbps bit rate myself. The higher the bit rate you convert too, the higher the quality of the mp3 of course. You might also try saving them as OGG files like Gargoyle said for a clearer copy. Also, your ears might be more discriminating than mine too as I'm noticing virtually no difference myself (laptop I'm using uses the AC97 codec).
Comments
I play the $10 a month for the basic subscription. The sucky thing is that the files will stop working if you cancel your subscription. I hear that some people use a program called Tunebite (free trial) to convert these files into unprotected MP3s. Seems like a good way to go.
Napster's music selection is pretty good. Not a big fan of the program's interface, but I do like it better than iTunes.
I don't have to worry about the RIAA ****ting a brick cause it will be 10 years before they realize this software is out there.
And then, there's little they can do about it. My understanding is that there's some loophole dating back from the cassette tape days that makes analog -> digital recording okay. Or at least, it's held up in court so far.
Not to mention the fact it's nearly impossible to track it. You've legally downloaded files onto your computer through a private company. Through another private company you legally bought software from. What you do from there can only be seen on your harddrive, and it still takes someone searching that. It's like the little I WIN button against the RIAA.
//edit
so let me get this right..you play the song through wmp, or and mp..n/m that doesnt matter..and this thing senses when the song starts and stops? how does it know what the meta data is and when to start and stop recording..
i thought that there were app that would directly transcode the files to unprotected...i mean if you do it while you own the license for the music, it leagal to transcode, but only while you own the license...
idk..
To help on that front, I record into OGG rather than MP3. I found a review once (haven't been able to find it again) to compared OGG to MP3 at different bitrates to see which was better. OGG seemed to be less lossy at the bitrates I used (160-192kbps).
I just bought Tunebite yesterday while out here on the rig and started a subscription to Napster and Tunebite absolutely roxxors your boxxors!
So far I've d/l'ed and converted 3 albums worth of music today while working and it's neat as hell. It even rips at 4X speed, so a whole album's worth of music doesn't take long.
napster + tunebite =
best thing is that its completly legal, although not nescesarily ethical. but i pay the $10 a month cause its worth it. although i am against illegal sharing of music
Most definitely, since it is taking the analog output of the sound card and digitizing it. Plus, you need to save the mp3's in a high bit rate too; I use 192kbps bit rate myself. The higher the bit rate you convert too, the higher the quality of the mp3 of course.