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How to Listen to Music Without Breaking the Law

33 Responses (Add) | Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 8:21pm

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Honeytoast is a regular member of our live community. He wanted to send me his top 5 ways of getting and listening to music legally, conveniently, and inexpensively.

Subscribe to Rhapsody or another streaming type music source. This is Chris’ favorite, and is by far the cheapest way to buy your music. Sometimes, it can be more convenient with having accessibility from any computer with an Internet connection. The biggest downside to this would be the limitation to using something like a computer, instead of your iPod or mp3 player. Another downside is the loss of quality. Most listeners, like myself, would not have a problem with streaming quality, or slightly lessened quality. Some listeners prefer having the highest possible quality. If you don’t need perfect CD or better quality, and don’t always need to take your music with you, Rhapsody is one of your best choices. You can even take the trial for a ride and see if you like it before you have to spend a cent.
Use an online radio. One of my favorites that I am really starting to use is Pandora. It is free, and you can choose your favorite genres and create a station that will play music similar to any particular artist. These are great because if you don’t want to have to pick a song, you can just sit back, and a song that you will probably love will start for you. With Pandora, you can also create multiple stations, so you can listen to a few fast paced rock song before school, some quick Techno songs before work, and a folk or indie song before bed… or even mix them all together on one station. The biggest downside to this is once again, inability to bring the music with you everywhere. However, some online radio stations are providing support for cell phone streaming. Even a PSP with a wi-fi connection can play online radio now.
Mix it up a bit. If you’re not too involved in music and only enjoy a few songs by some more popular artists, but like a tune every now and then, try to have a easy, cheap, and convenient way for music. If you’re at home and want a quick song, try your favorite artist’s Myspace page or Website. Most artists have their more popular songs up, which are probably the ones you want to hear. If you love a few different bands, spend a few bucks on their albums to listen to in the car or on your iPod when you want. You don’t have to spend a fortune on these, just to have something to listen to. If you want to get a single song instead of the full album, but still want it for the car, just try the iTunes or online music store. You can burn a mix of your purchased music, or put it on your player for your convenience. You once again don’t have to spend a fortune if you’re just looking for 10 or 20 songs. Even listen to the radio if you want. If you like more popular artists, there’s a good chance that that artist will play soon. If you don’t get involved enough with music to pick one single way to get your music, you should try to mix it up.

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33 Comments

Windows Vista Torrent

March 12th, 2008
at 5:59am

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Surferwoman

March 12th, 2008
at 4:29am

Technology & Marketing Law Blog by Eric Goldmanwrote an interesting post today on Here’s a quick excerpt Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed Honeytoast is a regular member of our live community. He wanted to send me his top 5 ways of getting and listening to music legally,

stryper2000

March 11th, 2008
at 9:28pm

not to nitpick, but i only see 3 things, not 5

Ben

March 11th, 2008
at 10:41pm

Yeah I agree. I actually truly feel bad for ripping off limewire as i feel it is the easiest thing to do. Buying your music or paying monthly for unlimited songs gives you peace of mind and appreciation for your music.
I think I’ll give rhapsody a try and hopefully and can enjoy this new path!

Brady (computernerd)

March 12th, 2008
at 12:09am

Hey Chris,

I thought I’d share one of the things I use for playing music legally. This thing is called http://www.playlist.com. It is just a compiling of songs from many other sites, but it works great. It may take a couple tries to get the full version of the song you are looking for, but it is a great LEGAL way to listen to music.

Just thought if I could help just one person it was worth a simple comment!

Joe Kim

March 12th, 2008
at 5:44am

http://www.last.fm is a pretty good internet radio as well, it has all of the features of the internet radio station mentioned in the video, but it also has one more plus: it also allows you to compare your musical tastes with your friends. Basically think of it like a facebook but just for music.

FallenLeafProduction

March 13th, 2008
at 5:58am

LEGAL people. I meant LEGAL.

podcastbard

March 13th, 2008
at 7:25am

#6. Music Podcasts. There’s a lot of good new music there.

4tneerg

March 13th, 2008
at 12:56pm

if not legal,limewire ftw!lol

agentgamma

March 13th, 2008
at 10:23pm

torrents xD

NintendoKid162

March 14th, 2008
at 9:49am

\0/
|
|——YEAH!
|
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/ \

axxelander

March 14th, 2008
at 1:25pm

I use ares galaxy or torrents
=D

better than buying music

kosta224

March 15th, 2008
at 3:54am

at around 2:20-2:30, the ipod touch has itunes already on it

Texasredfish5114

March 15th, 2008
at 8:13am

i just buy the cd…not so hard guys.

thexperience

March 15th, 2008
at 11:48am

Thank you so much for this information. It is very helpful. I can admit I used to get my music from limewire and bittorent (I didn’t know it was illegal). And then I heard it WAS illegal and I took every single song I got from bittorrent and limewire off my computer and satarted buying my songs from iTunes. Now I know other places I can go for music.

11spiderpig11

March 16th, 2008
at 7:17am

limewire

perfectly legal

ak56789

March 16th, 2008
at 8:11am

iTunes is the best!

ak56789

March 16th, 2008
at 8:18am

The only bad thing about subscription music is that, if you are a kid like me who can’t have a job yet, you can’t pay 20 dollars a month for music that you can’t even put on your iPod. I like iTunes better, because as soon as you buy it, you own the music forever, and you don’t have to pay for it every month. Yes, it does take up hard drive space, but you can easily place iTunes music onto an external hard drive or flash drive that can be dedicated only to your iTunes library. Nice vid Chris!

seth556

March 16th, 2008
at 8:52am

The Library. Go check out 10 cds, rip them, then take them back and get some more. Spyware not included.

robmation

March 16th, 2008
at 11:34am

i hate you

axxobunny

March 16th, 2008
at 12:10pm

that’s still illegal lol u dun have the permisson to rip the music

chrismc20050

March 17th, 2008
at 4:47am

Limewires the best. its the non computer Lit who get virus’s. like if a music track is 12kb. den thats a virus

zeldadevideos

March 17th, 2008
at 6:03am

limewire is legal

didnt know that

zeldadevideos

March 17th, 2008
at 6:09am

what programs

want to do that

zeldadevideos

March 17th, 2008
at 6:11am

cris listen to metallica

1337DementedOne

March 23rd, 2008
at 9:53am

don’t get why downloading music is illegal. the more you download stuff the more you pay for internet subscription. that extra money belongs to the artist who’s services you use by downloading his/her songs. problem solved

1and1isme

March 28th, 2008
at 1:13am

I prefere staying far far away from LimeWire if you want to get viruses on your computer then you use LimeWire… -.- I just buy the CD’s I prefere to have CD’s so even if my hard disk gets broken for some reason I still have the music :)