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Hey,

I just got my first MP3 player but am kinda confused how I get new music. I'm guessing I download it from a site to my desktop then copy it to the MP3 player. What site do you guys recommend? It's not an IPOD, can I still download music from the Apple site?

Thanks--maybe I should call Haley to explain it to me.

Apple's store uses AAC which is a format only some players can play. However, they also use DRM (used to be for everything, now only for some of the songs), which encrypts the songs so only an ipod or itunes can play them, specifically one "activated" by the downloader of the song.

If you don't mind for-pay sites there's a nice subscription site for smaller artists: http://www.emusic.com

If you are using itunes, make sure to switch the encoder to mp3 from aac if your player doesn't support it, that way you can use your own CDs.

Otherwise there are rumors that you can download stuff with bittorrent

Limewire.com is the shiz for those looking for the free downloads. Just go to their site, and download their file sharing program. Don't download the pro version (costs money). Once downloaded you can run searches (file sharing) for tunes, videos etc...

It's all illegal, so I've never done this of course...

Be careful out there with the tunes cranked, I stopped wearing mine this summer on my trail running excursions because I kept bumping into rattlesnakes. I was having a hard time hearing their warning sound with my pod cranked. Too many close calls. Also you don't get to hear the cool whoomphing sound of collapsing snow (instability) that we experience in the 'Snatch (Wasatch) on a frequent basis in the winter. A season ago Jivestick remotely triggered a very large slide while skinning (Willow) in poor visibilty without even knowing it until the next day- his tunes were cranked as well.

Not sure what else to say other than you shoulda talked to me first (unless it was a gift) and of course this ->

Do what Nothingmuch said about swiching the encoder to the MP3 format and then your fine to use iTunes for your music storage.

I'm hoping you got the Freestyle Audio MP3 player (personal plug).

I got it free when we bought a piece of furniture, it's some knock off brand. Works for me though. I became convinced that I needed a MP3 player when one of my friends said it changed the way they listen to music.

I've had several mp3 players over the year and they've all bit the dust after a while. I decided to help keep bcrider employed and bought myself a nano to see what all the fuss is about. I'm not really in to hording mp3's because my taste changes all the time, but I'm really in to podcasts. Here's a few of the feeds that I subscribe to:

tunes: That sound radio by Dave Cusick
http://www.postmodernrock.com/podcast/rss

Subpop Records:
http://beta.subpop.com/podcast

You gotta get the flight of the conchords tune "business time". Fookin' hilarious!

jabber:
This American Life:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Podcast.aspx

Studio360:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=73799286&s=143441

Sci fi: Escape Pod (do you really think a mechanical engineer wouldn't get some sci fi? Results can be mixed on this one)
http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml

You won't go to jail for having an mp3 player full of podcasts, they all have some kind of distribution license. I used Happyfish RSS reader before I went to iTunes due to the nano. There are all sorts of readers out there.

What feeds are ya'll subscribing to?

Thanks for links Will.

I must admit to being a bit of a podcast geek myself. They're FREE, legal, creative and change pretty often. Mostly I listen to political stuff (newshour w/ jim lehrer, washington week w/ gwen ifel, to the point, ca report, it's all politics, etc.).

A couple music podcasts I also like....

Sound Opinions

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSoundOpinionsPodcast

Stones Throw Records

feed://www.stonesthrow.com/jukebox/podcast.xml

Lot's of musicians also let you download stuff off their website, that's definitely a great way to get tunes. For example...

http://www.djztrip.com/downloads.html

Volcom has some cool snow vids (along with skate and stuff) on their cast.
I recommend the escramble bonus footage for pretty high quality snowgeeking (there is some stellar Terje stuff in one of the first ones).

http://feeds.feedburner.com/volcast

Anyone know of any good outdoor themed podcasts, that aren't just skate, snow video footey?

Eco, mp3 is the way to go, i no longer have cds that are constantly getting lost, scratched, borrowed and not returned. Now I just have 1 device; that holds all my tunes, can go with me anywhere and is easy to keep track of.

Pod Cast are a good way to go. However if you looking to amass a collection of jams you should go over your friends house thats super into mp3s and figure out the easiest way to transfer them, either through a network or cd/dvd burner or any other way of high speed data transfer. Just sit relax and 8 hours later you have 30 gigs of mp3s ranging from Motown classics to a dead show from Germany in 82.

and for those with a live music bend:

bt.etree.org, shnflac.net, and dimeadozen.org all offer free downloads of trader friendly bands most notably the dead, phish, and widespread panic but they also offer less common gems like ray charles, jimi hendrix, and dire straits.

these sites require a bit torrent tracker and .flac and/or .shn decoders to decompress the downloaded music.

dan