I've thought of that. my card has optical and coax spdif inputs and outputs. i could play the song, and record via spdif in.

if that didn't work, worst case is i could just have them be separate pcs!

thus, you could subscribe to all you want, and record each song digitally.

 

wma is a better format than mp3. You purchased a player that only supports one format. Hopefully, more manufacturers out there start supporting multiple formats. Diamond/Rio already do, as do a number of other makers.

Bottom line, Napster doesn't suck, ignorant consumers who think they're getting a ton of stuff free because they can't read, suck. Paying $.99 for a downloaded song sucks, and only ignorant consumers do so, kind of like the retards who pay for ringtones.

 

JoeKing

I cant take credit for this info, its from another forum I frequent, but I think you should edit your original post to contain this info, as most people wont read all the posts to get to mine.

NTG = Napsters $15 dollar plan.

Basically, if you have a Dell mp3 player and get Napsters service, Napster chages the firmware on the player to only support Napsters copy protected material. And it is not undoable (as of now).

 

If you are going to pay for music, use Itunes. its 99c a song, and no monthly charges. Unlimted burns...BUT...its in mp4 format. All devices see it as mp3, but its a protected format. The song will only be allowed to reside on 4-5 computers....etc.

I still get all my music for free. I dont see why I should pay these monkeys anything, when it costs me 5c to copy. Drop CD prices to 5 bucks, and Ill buy CDs again.

Oh, whats that you say, they cant do that?? They can, just that the artists wont be making 20 million of their record, while ripping me off.

I just want to send a big FVCK YOU to RIAA, and the entire music industry.

Oh, as for converting....

The best program is ADVANCED WMA WORKSHOP.

Its 20 bucks, (you can get crackz for it if you know how) and is the BEST program of the like you can get. ANY audio format ---->ANY audio format......takes about 10-25 seconds per song.


Just tried mp3search.ru

Bar none, the best site ive ever used. $1 an album, perfect, unrestricted quality, fast a$$ servers.

 

costs about $6-8 per CD, including printing, cases, the disc itself, mastering, etc. The more you make, the price falls per disc. Labels have to pay for studio time, advances to the band, marketing, basic business administration tasks, etc. out of the "profit" from each sale, and each retailer needs a cut to make it worth their time and shelf space. When band plays live, the travel costs come out of what the label hopes to make on record sales, and the money made from each performance can cover these costs, but not necessarily in every town. Many bands play live for the money, but there isn't enough of that to cover music publishing costs, so unless you want to pay $50 to see a live show in a small bar, the bulk of the costs need to be recouped from CD sales.

IOW, $5 CDs are not going to happen, except from bands just starting out, who don't mind spending their own money to get their music out there, and aren't interested in profit at this point.

I think a label could reap some nice profits fom selling albums as digital music files for ~$5 from their website, but then they have to invest in hardware to support high-volume internet data transfers to many, many simultaneous users. This costs money. The Allofmp3.com payment options, whereby the users pay for the download by bitrate, could certainly offset these costs, but the infrastructure here in the States will still cost a pretty penny. I think that 99 cents a song is the best we'll see for legal downloads for now. It would take a serious amount of money, a talented and dedicated group of people, and innovative marketing to change that, IMHO. The idea would have been a runner in 1999, when people fell all over themselves to invest in potentially unprofitable ventures, but these days, the risk is still rather high, and investors are more cautious, even if the install base of broadband makes the concept more feasible.

 

converting from one format to another seriously degrades the quality. If you want digital music files, and don't mind paying 99 cents a song, buy the CD, and rip your own. You can get any audio format, and get all the artwork as well as a much higher quality hardcopy in a storage case to boot.

 

I own a portable mp3 player that is probably one of the "50" on Napster's list. It's the iRiver HP340, and it is truly a sublime gadget. The first day I got it, I flashed the firmware to the Korean v1.27 which is the most advanced firmware version out there. That action also disabled the device's cababilitly to handle any DRM music, and it is not reversable. I couldn't care less. I have no interest whatsoever in DRM, and I would never consider using the RIAA-vetted Napster, or iTunes, or anything else of that sort.

If I want to "buy" music, I'll buy a CD. Unfortunately, CDs are too expensive to warrant that purchase, so I don't buy much music. The RIAA could solve their whole piracy problem in ONE DAY by lowering their prices to a reasonable level. I would instantly resume buying CDs, and they would make their profit back in volume. That's not going to happen because there's no one in the RIAA with any intelligence or vision.