[vox] Mp3 Music For Linux?

[Peter Jay Salzman]

On Tue 26 Dec 06, 11:32 AM, Bob Scofield <scofield at omsoft.com> said:
> Please forgive the naivete that pervades this message.
> 
> While I listen to streaming radio on Linux I have not been interested in 
> playing mp3's.  Recently I've had some discussions with my son, niece, and 
> nephew about music.  And I've concluded that the present generation of 
> college students only listens to music CD's when they are in cars.  From 
> this, coupled with Tower going out of business, I've concluded that there 
> will be no music CD's in the future; all non-radio music will require a 
> computer to access.

I'm fairly certain this is overstated.

> Therefore, I'm trying to learn about playing mp3's.  Last night I learned how 
> to make a play list for XMMS.  Some Dixie Chicks fans sent me two Dixie Chick 
> mp3's, and so I made a two-song-playlist.  Now here's the problem.
> 
> I'm trying to learn how to use mp3's legally.  But it doesn't seem possible.  
> All I'm trying to do is to download mp3's to play with and learn from.  I'm 
> willing to pay for the files.  But I can't do it.  When I go to a legal 
> website it seems like I cannot access music without a commercial software 
> program, and these programs do not run on Linux.  Is there some place where 
> someone can legally download mp3 music files straight onto a hard disk 
> without using some program for Napster or Itunes?

Have you Googled?

I did a Google search on "legal free mp3".  The first return was:

   http://mp3.about.com/od/freemusicdownloads/tp/freeandlegalmp3.htm

I was able to download an mp3 very quickly from:

   http://www.matadorrecords.com/music/mp3s.html

I did another Google search on "garageband mp3" which yielded very
interesting results.  Also, myspace has tons and tons and tons of mp3s to
download.

Finally, why not create your own?  Despite what the RIAA says, you can still
convert your own CDs to mp3 format.  Tr ythis:

1. Open up an xterm.
2. Put a CD into your CD drive.
3. type this: "cdparanoia foo.wav"
4. type this: "lame foo.wav foo.mp3"

and you now have your own mp3 file.  If you don't have cdparanoia, do:
"aptitude install cdparanoia".  If you don't have lame, do: "aptitude
install lame".

To play this file, do one of the following:

1. mp3blaster foo.mp3
2. alsaplayer foo.mp3
3. play foo.mp3

There's tons others.  If you don't have mp3blaster, do "aptitude install
mp3blaster".  If you don't have alsaplayer, do ... well, you get the idea.

If you want to purchase mp3s, again, I really think you're not looking hard
enough.  IIRC, I downloaded mp3s from "emusic.com" ... ummm... 6 years ago?
Maybe they changed, but I remember them handing off mp3s via a webpage and
you save the file to disk.  I think amazon has the same thing (although I
wouldn't swear to it).

I'm at work right now, and I don't want to trip off our web "adsense", so I
don't really want to open a browser to mp3 download sites at the moment.  It
would suck to get fired before my bonus check gets mailed.  But if you're
still having trouble finding legal mp3s to purchase (as opposed to getting
them free or creating your own as I outlined above), I'll do some legwork.

> (Of course I could use a program to download mp3 files in Windows, reboot and 
> copy to the files to Linux, but I am trying to break my dependence on 
> Microsoft.)
 
You realize that april is still a long ways away, right?

Peter