Secrets to Downloading Music Revealed
Did You Know That 60% of Web Surfers Are Afraid To Download Music?
We read these statistics in PC World Magazine recently. Did you know the number one reason for not downloading music was the fear of a lawsuit or legal harassment. Well join the club, we could have been counted in that group too!
However, we have discovered the secret to legitimately, affordably, and easily downloading music from the Internet and we will teach you how. Now you can download your own mix of songs, burn them to a CD with one click, and start listening to the music that you love in your car, office, or on a portable CD player.
Let's Talk Legitimate Downloads
Yes there are suspect frëe download sites that you can get in trouble with legally with the various record companies, file sharing sites which may install spyware on your computer, and then there are legitimate resources.
We asked our teenage son, Chris, to review the online sources for ease of use, legitimacy, and selection. Chris likes the Walmart Music Download site the best. He liked this one better than the others and even better then the newly launched Microsoft Music Preview. Chris tells us that Walmart has the best selection of new music and even self-integrates into the new Window Media Player 10 for XP. Well, we consider him the expert!
Let's Get Downloading!
Even though we have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft products and hate their intrusiveness, they have created a winner with Windows Media Player 10. If you don't have XP, sorry, you will be stuck with version 9, but really even that is not bad. The directions that we will give are based on Windows Media Player 10, but would be similar for 9 as well. If you haven't upgraded to version 10 yet, do it now so you can see how easy it can be. Go to Walmart and download their music store interface for best ease of use.
Step One
Now that you have installed Windows Media Player 10, open it, at the far right top of the screen you will see a very light blue grey tab, one for music and one for radio. Choose music if you have gone to Walmart and done the download the store will open right up in the Media Player screen allowing you to shop for songs within Media Player 10.
Step Two
Shop for your songs that you want. Walmart customer service tells us that about 10 song downloads will fill a typical CD. You can listen to the music before you buy it by clicking on the little speaker icon. You will not hear the full song, but an excerpt. Enough of a sound bite to know if you want to buy it. Once you have made your selection, click the buy button to add the song to your shopping cart. When you are ready, checkout using your credit card. Most downloads on Walmart will be between $.88 and $.99. That's pretty cheap!
When you are a repeat Walmart customer, when you click buy, the song will automatically be charged and downloaded to Media Player in one click without having to enter any credit card information.
Step Three
The songs that you buy will automatically appear in the Media Player Library section under Purchase Music and Walmart. You can access that from the top blue grey Library tab on the far left. You will need to open each song first in Media Player to download the license to the song. This is where the record moguls have worked their copyright magic and why your song is legitimate. You will be allowed to burn the song to 10 CDs, then you will need to buy it again. You can listen to it indefinitely on your computer.
Careful on This One!
Make sure that your download is done with the computer that you will be listening to the music with. We found out that it is impossible to play the downloaded music on another computer and store it there, even over a network. If you want to do that, burn a disk and play it as a CD on the other computer.
License Backups
Walmart customer service gave us this tip. Make sure to download to a disk your licenses to your songs and keep a backup copy. You will need the license every time you burn a CD until you hit the maximum number of burn times (10).
Go For 10 Songs When You Burn
We found this out by trial and error, it is best to download all the songs you want on one CD at one time. You will not be able to download and burn one song to a CD and then burn 3 more at a later time. Media Player will simply not allow you to overwrite the disk and so you will end up with one disk with only one song on it.
Step Four
Click Burn and a tab on the top left. Select Edit Playlist and then Fresh Tracks. Your newly downloaded songs should all be there. Highlight all of the songs and make sure that the checkbox is marked and click start burn. Media Player will check the licenses and convert the file format automatically. Then the songs will be burned to your CD. It is that easy and you are done! All this took under 5 minutes. Your CD is ready to take and play anywhere or share with a friend. Oh, don't forget, backup your licenses before your logout. Go to Tools and then Manage Licenses. Choose to save to disk or another location. There is even an option there to restore licenses if you need it.
Wow, It Is Easy
You know it sounds complicated, but it really is not. Media Player does all the work for you. I know because I have decided that maybe I should download the whole collection of Fleetwood Mac songs or ... maybe even Yes, or Led Zeppelin :0).
After you do it once, you will think "why haven't I done this before?". It's cheap, easy, and gives you the freedom to drive your own kids crazy now with your music.
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