mp3 question

[rampart]

1. her mp3 player came with a $10 card on emusic.com, but when i went there i was redirected to a 10 day subscription (available with the card or not) and a request for a credit card number, which i am reluctant to place on line. are there any places to download these files free?

2. alternatively, can i buy a card for limited downloads anywhere like a prepaid mp3 deal?

3. how about the music on her cds. what is good software to convert her existing cds to mp3?

sorry to be so painfully technologically challenged, but age is a disadvantage in these matters.

[Norrin Radd]

1. Good software for ripping CD's:

Paid:

dBpoweramp http://dbpoweramp.com/

Free/Open Source:

CDex
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/

Exact Audio Copy
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (more advanced user)


Amazon MP3 gift certificate:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000323481

You can get Napster gift certificates as well, at places like Best Buy or some grocery stores.

[geckosfeet]

4. exactaudiocopy download appears to have some kind of virus/malware infection

[caduceus111]

5. Likely false positive.

Used it for years. If there was a virus, surely someone would have posted it in their forum. Lots of antivirus programs get persnickety when it comes to installers that contain drivers and such.

[caduceus111]

2. MP3's

I can't help you with emusic.com as I'm not familiar with them. I believe Amazon, Yahoo and Google all have music services that supply them in MP3 format. Amazon gift card maybe?

Ripping music from CD's is easy. The best free program I know of is Exact Audio Copy: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Good luck!

Edit: Norrin Radd, you beat me to it

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Don't waste your time with emusic.com

The have virtually nothing. The best way to *buy* mp3's is thru Amazon.

Here's an article that talks about the top 5 DRM-free mp3 retailers: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/01/12/top-5-mp3-retailers-finally-some-good-options-to-download-music-legally/

(DRM- Digital Rights Management - it's how they can control what devices you play your music on.)