Buying music online

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have been fighting with the Zune program long enough. Now I get some jazz about needing to sign into my Zune Passport to access 43 of my songs, most of which have worked fine for over a year. The Passport is the thing you buy for so long and can download all of the songs you want. I have never done that, I just buy the cards at Wal-Mart or Target and enter the code to get points; I would like to stay with that system if I could.

I want to buy my music free and clear from now on, if I have to buy a CD to do that I am fine with it. I got tired of that because you buy so many extra songs when only one or two are actually any good… but at least they can’t deny your rights on random tracks for no reason.

I have been researching other places to buy music, ITunes is supposed to be DRM free, is it really? Will the songs play ok on my Zune? (no freaky exclusive formats?) Is there a way to convert the songs I still have to prevent them from going down the tubes too?

 

[brandonwh64]

I know alot of places like ZUNE and Itunes will let you buy songs but the will not play on other computers without logging into the softwares website

 

[Ranger#1]

limewire

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I know alot of places like ZUNE and Itunes will let you buy songs but the will not play on other computers without logging into the softwares website

I only need it on one computer and my Zune.

There was a thing in the news a couple months ago that ITunes was doing away with the DRM crap. I don't mind it, but if they can't keep it straight what I have bought it is a rip off.

 

[lone-wolf]

Don't they have customer support?

iTunes has pretty good cx support(At least when I was one of them )

 

[brandonwh64]

limewire

X2

 

[Jay FX4]

Isn't the recommendation of peer-to-peer software essentially condoning piracy?
I'm not a fan of P2P, I prefer Usenet.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Don't they have customer support?

iTunes has pretty good cx support(At least when I was one of them )

I haven't sent them an email yet. I was browsing their forums on the Zune website and found a thread from a year ago going up to a week ago with people having the same problem and Microsoft not being able to figure out what happened so I don't have really high hopes that they will be able to do anything. They probably just write it off as people with the pass trying to get free songs.

Isn't the recommendation of peer-to-peer software essentially condoning piracy?
I'm not a fan of P2P, I prefer Usenet.

What is peer to peer and Usenet?

 

[willied]

The songs you buy from Zune are DRM-free and you can play them anywhere else.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The songs you buy from Zune are DRM-free and you can play them anywhere else.

I have to be signed in to play them, and they can't have screwed up the DRM rights for them to work.

 

[willied]

I'm talking about buying songs individually, not using the Zune Pass.

EDIT: I don't think I understood you properly. Did you say you did buy each song individually without using the Zune Pass? You might have bought them before they stopped having songs with DRM. Burn those songs to a CD and then rip them back to your computer and see if that fixes your problem.

 

[GeorgiaBoy 87]

itunes is DRM free. I've been using it for the last couple months, got no complaints. Theres also amazon.com

 

[Jay FX4]

What is peer to peer and Usenet?

Software like Limewire is P2P. Basically how that works is you download stuff right from other dudes computers. I used a P2P program a few years ago (can't recall the name of it) and I hated it. I'm not sure how far it's come along in the last few years, but when I was using it, download speeds were very erratic, there were frequent disconnections, and the ability to download anything required the other user(s) to be connected. Again, this was a few years ago and it could be a better experience now.

Usenet FTW!!! If you're interested, you can google Usenet and/or check out Giganews. I probably can't say too much in public, but it's basically the ultimate resource for music/movies/software. Download speeds as fast as your ISP allows, and all your download/upload traffic is encrypted to ensure anonymity. It does require a monthly fee but it's worth every penny - nothing else even comes close.