But I don’t want to use iTunes, seems a bit invasive with all the organising crap. I just want to click and download a number of MP3 files – that’s it. I would also like a wide selection of old and new releases.

What do you reckon?

Amazon?
Puretracks?

I use Amazon. It downloads to a “bought tunes” folder but you can just organise it from there.

takisawa2 – Member
Legalsounds.com

Been using for years now. Works great.

Except for the fact it is NOT a legal site, so you may as well not pay for them mate

Amazon is alright and convenient, but I found the quality of a few of the tracks I bought was a bit crap.

Except for the fact it is NOT a legal site, so you may as well not pay for them mate

Meh – most folk seem to struggle with avoiding the crap torrents, so it’s worth it for them to pay a wee bit for a half-decent user experience on one of the legally grey sites instead.

Hmm I’d expect legally downloaded paid-for tracks to be good quality…

Gordy – Member

Meh – most folk seem to struggle with avoiding the crap torrents, so it’s worth it for them to pay a wee bit for a half-decent user experience on one of the legally grey sites instead.

There is no grey area, this is an illegal site, I’m baffled its still running tbh

Edit: Its Russian, no longer surprised…

I’d be baffled if I had time to give a shit. In the meantime it’s somewhere to send the folk who don’t want iTunes that avoids them getting zapped by a malicious torrent.

Aye, it seems that “legally grey” = foreign these days. Music stars the world over are crying into their millions about it.

Ignorance is bliss hey Gordy 🙄 good job you don’t do Karma! 😉

The VPN timer says I’ve done 3:47:12 of work I’m not getting paid for tonight. 😉

I use Amazon – quick & easy, and usually cheaper than iChoons

Gordy – Member
The VPN timer says I’ve done 3:47:12 of work I’m not getting paid for tonight

Whats that got to do with the price of fish?

Karma, timc. It was by way of a joke.

Off to bed. Night.

Amazon are great. Everything I’ve had from them is high-bitrate (average 260ish VBR or 320 CBR) and all properly tagged with album art – basically the same standards I’d rip to myself.

Their downloader will optionally put stuff into iTunes for you as well.

Ignorance is bliss hey Gordy good job you don’t do Karma!

Totally agree about the karma thing, I had loads of photos stolen legally with little or nothing I could do to get compensation or the thieving b*stard to remove them. How do I feel about using a grey site? Like you say there’s a karma thing going on. 😀

Paying for pirated music?!? The mind boggles…

I’ve a feeling that Timc works for a record label, so illegal download sites are probably a bit close to the bone. Had a similar conversation with our label manager yesterday when I commented on all the great work he’s done recently. Doesn’t pay the bills apparently 🙁 Even legal new media outlets like Spotify aren’t great. 120000 plays = £80!

Amazon and 7Digital seem pretty good.. and try TuneChecker to shop around for the best price…

One thing about Amazon is that it doesn’t act as ‘music vault’ – ie. your purchases aren’t available to download again if you lose them (although with a bit of effort via Amazon Support they will reenable them for you).

I tend to make a judgement call on each album if I think a band can afford it ill torrent if they are new then ilk pay
unless albums are priced reasonably eg 3 quid then ill just buy em (if all albums cost 3 quid there would be no piracy imho)

and I use amazon when I pay

junodownload.com
emusic.com (monthly sign up fee)

Hmm I’d expect legally downloaded paid-for tracks to be good quality…

Me too but as they’re only 99p I couldn’t be arsed to put in a complaint or anything. To be fair most of the ones I’ve downloaded have been fine, it’s just the odd one or two that haven’t sounded great.