+1 on VLC

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

What a kerfuffle!





VLC is free also. And also cool for Video, very versatile. Give it a go!

Blertles and everyone else: To convert just about any audio into any other audio without iTunes, try a program called Switch (there are mac and win versions). Can do bulk conversions and so forth, very handy.

Anyhow, iTunes sorted it I see. Good on ya!

Cheers

Nutter

Windows media Player used to be good but the newer version(s) of it have fewer features and it's more difficult to navigate. I think this was done in an effort to make the interface more visually oriented. There are more options for album covers and note attchments in the newer version(s). Bah humbug. Search for WMP version 10 and never upgrade it. This means you will have to make changes to how your computer uses Windows Update. The lossless file format in WMP is wonderful but the files are pretty big.

iTunes is good as well and may even be better in some categories such as it's ability to join ripped tracks together into one file but inferior in other ways such as it's limitations in handling very high resolution file formats. It also occasionally misbehaves under 64 bit versions of Windows XP or Vista but appears pretty stable under the standard 32 bit versions of those operating systems. I have no experience with Windows 7 so ....

I experimented with WinAmp a number of years ago I found it to be very good at file handling and could easily manipulate files of various fomats simultaneously but it also was not perfect. I found the player itself to be of poorer quality than WMP.

I have 3 computers, my home computer, my personal notebook and my work/company notebook. I'm running 2 machines on XP. One is 32 bit and the other is 64 bit. One machine runs on 64 bit Vista. They all have different Media players and my favourite by far is WMP 10 under XP32. It has the most features, the most intelligently designed interface, is capable of high resolution lossless files and it's the only one that burns audio CDs with absolutely no errors every single time.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Now guys, dont get angry with me when I ask thease !@$#% questions. When it comes to downloadable music I am still in the land of C.D's and Tape,how can I get myself up to spd. so to spk. and not spend a lot of cash on something I may not use much. Up untill I here you guys talking about it I have been compleatly satisfied with the old stuff, youTube /CD Player and serious Radio/BBKing bluesvill. WHAAAAAAAT Alittle Help Please.
----Danny,

Well, I prefer owning the CDs myself, however if it makes more sense cost-wise or I can't find the CD, I download. As far as downloading goes, there are a few options.

- iTunes store - Easiest to get to/find, puts what you buy directly into your library without any of that "unzip file, drag and drop" business.

- Record label websites - A lot of labels let you download music right from their websites. I prefer this because it's generally a bit cheaper than iTunes (makes sense, cut out the middle man, pay less), and often there will even be missing tracks/editing on the iTunes versions. Only downside is you have to put the stuff into your media player manually, but that takes all of 5 seconds once you know how, and it's EXTREMELY simple to figure out.

- Pirating - It's illegal, it's stealing from talented people, and I generally hate it. However, in some extreme cases you cannot get the music ANY other way. I've only done it twice, once with 3 VERY limited release EPs that had some of my favorite songs by the band, and the other with Big Black's discography (except for last LP which is still in print, so I bought it), since everything is out of print and not available for download from the label. Not going into detail of how to do it, if you get to the point where you need to, you can google it yourself.

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

I hate how everything clips if you turn levels up on the eq on WMP. I have a system that can handle anything I throw at it but even at very low volumes, if I turn the bass up past maybe +2db it clips, and it's definitely a WMP problem; no such issue with WinAmp.

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Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

CDs are still my favorite format for music, but I find myself listening a lot on my computer anyhow, so the cds have gone to the car, and I've been downloading music for listening at home. Get yourself set up with iTunes or something similar, that'd be the best way to get high quality downloads.

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Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

I couldn't disagree with this more. Labels suck, they don't give an artist $@!&, as long as I've been in bands, and everyone I know who has spent their years in bands has always agreed. If it gets you to a show and gets you into bands, download away. $@!& labels, especially now with their 360 plans where they take from every part of you. If you like what you hear buy the LP, buy a T-shirt, some buttons, whatever.

$@!& CDs though these days. I buy pretty much everything on vinyl and every LP or 7" I've bought recently has come with a free download card anyways.

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Take a look at this, folks, then make up your minds.



Or this:



Then you could read this http://www.negativland.com/albini.html (admittedly from the 90's, but not a lot has changed...)

Or this: http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/ ... sales.html

Ah well. Off to dust my gold records.

Nutter

Pirating is the only way some of us would have ever goten beond the live venue. I dont like seing the big name boy's and girls getting riped off. but a little bit of that is going to hapen no mater what. come on, out of all uf us that play, how many got rich. I once had a girl friend and she was very rich looking
----Danny,

Thanks from me to guys, I'm going to have to get myself set up with something so at least I know some of what you are talking about.
----Danny,

Danny, I would like to introduce you to the edit button.

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So then the band is completely f***ed over and even deeper in the hole.

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

You must be a Metallica fan

No, the band is not $@!&*% and deeper in the hole. More exposure=more people buying merch and tix to shows=more money.

Unless you are referring to indies, which is a different situation.

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The "industry" as it was set up and created was done so in order to keep the artist in perpetual debt to the label.

Fuck the RIAA and FUCK the majors

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