Where do you buy music?

[Beancounter1]

My New Year's resolution is to bring more music into my life.
I've just ripped my entire CD collection onto my laptop, and transferred to MP3 player. I never played the CDs, but now I can play random tracks on shuffle, and delete album tracks I don't like - so much more fun.

Where is the best place to buy songs or albums online, preferably wma format?
I am not interested in streaming, as I want to own the tracks and play them offline.

I don't understand your POV op. You want more music? Pay a small monthly fee and get all the music you could ever want, online and offline.

I will Google these. Can you say more?

You can purchase and downoad digital tracks from Amazon, don't have to buy the CDs

I held off Spotify for years because I don't like subscriptions but, I must say, I'm converted. Not only can I listen to whatever I want, it's great for finding new music too - it suggests playlists based on songs/artists you like, and makes specific mixes for you. It's broadened my horizons massively. It's now also where I get all of my podcasts, too.

I only got it because my phone came with a three month free trial, but they hooked me good and proper.

It is absolutely not like owning rather than renting a house.

Okay that was a rather dramatic analogy. Perhaps it is like owning my own power tool instead of hiring one from the tool-hire shop.
I think ownership matters.

@beancounter1 but you're not going to own it. You'll be buying a license to play it.

So going by your reasoning - you would rather be paying track by track for a license to play music rather than pay for a monthly license to play endless music.

What you want to do is pay more for the same thing - seeing as you can't download music to own it. It makes no sense. But you do you!

I buy individual songs or occasionally a whole album from iTunes - then I make my own playlists. So I own them !! My DD tells me I’m extremely old fashioned & no one does this anymore 😂🤣, but it suits me !! I don’t want another monthly subscription.

Does anyone remember Brittania music club? My mum used to get all her cassettes from them back in the day haha. I think Spotify or any subscription based music platform is the way to go.

I still don't get this - if I download a track (a file), it is mine. I can copy it to a usb stick, or any other device or storage, and the vendor cannot stop me, because I have the file.
Are you saying that with Spotify you don't actually download files?

You can do, but onto a device with the app on.

Nevermind op. Crack on! Good luck with your digital collection

I know what you mean OP

I still have some stuff on I tunes

I really miss having physical copies of music, and whilst I LOVE Spotify for the discovery aspect of it, my last account was hacked and they refused to give me access to it- about 7 years of music collection lost. I hate being dependent on my phone for music. Battery life/internet connection. Rubbish.

Can I ask what MP3 player you use, OP? My iPod Classic has finally died, I’m gutted, and can’t find anything similar.

Spotify premium here too. I sold my entire CD collection a few years ago. I am listening to so much more music now.

OP, I totally get you. I too want to have the mp3 (or wav) files that I want, saved on my hard drive so I can play them anytime I want, even if the internet is down, and copyable onto a USB stick so I can put them on another device. I also want to be able to play them via (eg) Win Media Player (where I can set the EQ to the way I like it etc).

Unfortunately there aren't many 'mainstream' ways of downloading mp3's for free...you have to get a little bit techy, but by that I'm only talking about downloading a few add-ons or apps, not learning to code or anything!
For example...Youtube has almost every album or track you could ever want to hear, including loads of semi-obscure stuff you won't even get on Spotify. There are numerous apps and browser extensions which let you rip the audio from YT vids.

The brand is AGPTEK. Sansa is also good.

Perhaps it would be useful to explain a bit just why I want to download files instead of stream or have a subscription.

We have an old music system, which we call 'the stereo'. It is a stack of matching modules: amp/receiver, cassette tape deck, CD player, and turntable for vinyl on top. Just about every home had one in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Attached to the amp are four wall-mounted speakers.
There is nothing like the quality of this old equipment. If you inherit some or are given it, think twice about getting rid. This link explains why:

www.popularmechanics.com/culture/music/how-to/a7270/how-to-play-mp3s-through-a-vintage-stereo-receiver/

So I bought a lead for about £20, which has the red and white plugs on one end to go into the back of the amp, and the other end plugs straight into the headphone socket of my MP3 player.
Voila! The matchbox-sized device now produces room-filling, full-spectrum, high-quality music, just as its creators intended it to be listened to. The tinkly sound of laptop speakers or headphones, or even a smart speaker, doesn't come close.

However, the old equipment has no wi-fi or internet connectivity. You have to plug in a device. And as it is on the other side of the room from the sofa, I don't want to plug in my phone which I need to have to hand.
Hence the need to transfer files to the MP3 player.

I do indeed remember Britannia. Ex-partner was a member. I recall it was a bit expensive as you had to buy something every month, or some such contract.

Spotify :-)

This sounds promising. Do you have any names of apps or web extensions I could google?

Yes you definitely have a point about quality of music

I have one too (more modern but also no WiFi. You can get a Google chrome audio dongle thing which you plug into the aux out which allows you to connect your phone or tablet to the amp and play music through the speakers. They stopped making them (as they were FAR too useful!) But you can buy for 80 quid on ebay and they may be set to make a return this year.

In answer to your ownership thing, Spotify will help you to fill your life with music. Not least because it's so portable as it allows you to connect at home or in the car, play podcasts etc. I recommend Rockenteurs if you love music 😀

But best of all it is SO good at algorithms and knowing what you will like. So it's much more than just having access to the digital form of the tracks you already like. It is helping you explore and expand.

Give it a try.
Also, you can do what lots are doing now and support artists by buying the vinyl of the stuff you love.

But small bands get much more money if you buy cd from them rather than steam on Spotify

I must say I agree that the quality of music through a smart speaker cannot compare with a proper set up, I subscribe to Apple Music because we have HomePods which are on the higher end of quality but it's not like a full music set up from the 70s and 80s. Streaming also works out very expensive if you don't want to list to a wide range of music, I pay £99 a year for Apple but doubt I would buy 10 albums a year, I tend to listen to the same things a lot

If you download a song on iTunes you can transfer it to your computer and convert it.

Some MP3 players would automatically convert mp3 to wma when you transfer, does yours do this?

You can convert your download to another format within iTunes and then that copy is the one that doesn't have any restrictions and you can drag to your desktop etc and use as you intend