entering the 21st century

[anotheranon]

D. got me my first MP3 player today.

It's a total surprise as I did not ask for nor expect - I thought he'd got it for himself to use as a "brain on a stick" to replace his old voice recorder!

I like very much, but I'm kinda intimidated by it! I think I keep comparing it to my ancient (and probably in storage somewhere) first Walkman, and the last portable music device I had, a CD player - both kludgy, sensitive beasts that were inconvenient and fussy besides - move the wrong way and they'd unplug, or skip, or otherwise not work.

This... this is slick. And tiny - rather like a chihuahua, a pet that I would never have because it's so small I'm afraid I might lose it!

It's charging now, and talking to my computer to see if I have any files to play (alas, none) - where can I find such things?

I think I need to read the manual....

Comments

[hadesgirl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, shiny!!! I have a Sandisk and absolutely LOVE it!!! I have a ton of songs uploaded to it and just jam my little heart out all day at work. Tis very kewl.

Things and stuff

[geekchick]

http://www.emusic.com/ is a nice music subscription service, they provide your files in DRM-free MP3 format which you can play anywhere.

I'm rather fond of the iTunes music store myself, but those files will only play in iTunes or on an iPod unless you hunt down a converter to turn them into MP3s.

Bleep has got some good stuff at a higher per-track price than iTunes, but full albums seem roughly comparable. Also, they sell cross-platform MP3 or FLAC files.

If you heard about the infamous Russian music purchasing/download site AllofMP3.com, they've been shut down. However, they appear to have been reincarnated (like, immediately) as MP3Sparks.com.

There are good MP3/music blogs all over the place. I like Stereogum, My Old Kentucky Blog, Little White Earbuds. And EmptyFree for a healthy dose of "WTF?" I've got some stuff tagged on Del.icio.us, and Hype Machine's got a good list of various blogs. On LJ, there's audiography, among many, many others.

A Night at the Hip-Hopera is one of the best mashups ever, IMO. Also, you might like DJ Earworm.

Re: Things and stuff

[geekchick]

Oh yeah, I dug this up from the archives:
http://geekchick.livejournal.com/730381.html

The Amazon downloads seems to have gone away and rbally's gone again, but I think most of the links are still good.

And there's the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive, which I've snagged lots of stuff from.

Re: Things and stuff

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Earworm looks truly twisted - thanks for the reccomendation!

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

I think there is nice converters for free to pick up at www.tucows.com, converts your CDs to mp3 on you computer and then load them into the player. Myself I use a little plugin to WinAmp.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

That there might be a very useful plan.

Now if I could just convert all my vinyl...

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the vinyl ... I'm glad I got the ones I did converted before the local CD shop that offered the service shut down (business was good ... they just decided they wanted to do something different)

However, if you own a functioning turntable (which I don't any more, otherwise I'd have been doing this myself), it is possible to hook it up to your computer and copy your vinyl in .mp3 form.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

I use Windows Media Player to rip files, built right into the system (Unless you have a Mac, and then you just use i-tunes). I routinely send Gigi a DVD full of .mp3's. I can get a dozen albums or more on a DVD, then load them onto my computer or backup drive. I use a Rio mp3 player and it has its own software with it, too.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Media Player has been flaky for me - I'm using a free doodad called Media Monkey, and I'll see how that goes.

For work I'm looking at mostly audio books as if I listen to music I'll likely want to get around and dance at my desk :P I suggest libravox.org - free audio books.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

There's another free audio book link in my ebooks list entry over at catdesk ... name escapes me at the moment, but it should be easy to spot.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Another source of .mp3s: individual musicians and bands often have a downloadable free track or two on their websites ... a carrot hopefully luring folk who like the tunes to go out and buy the whole CD (heck, it's worked on me with Ed Alleyne-Johnson and Sophie Solomon, to name the most recent)