Best LEGAL download site

Norfork Nights

Im looking to download top 40 stuff on a weekly basis for something I'm doing.
I want to get onto a subscription service where you pay a few quid each month and you can download as much as you want.

Anyone got any idea's which is the best and has the most variety?
And more importently is available in Ireland!

Thanks

aidan_walsh

www.apple.com/itunes

Norfork Nights

do there offer a subscription service for ireland like napster ?

aidan_walsh

You buy on a per track\album basis.

Norfork Nights

na thats no use... i want a subscription service where i can download as much as I want a month for 25euro or something like that!

Rollo Tamasi

whats wrong with the illegal route?

djmarkus

i know an mp3 site which is legal in its country, but probably not here, is it allowed?

TCP/IP

http://www.allofmp3.com/

But check legality issues

the_syco

TCP/IP wrote:

http://www.allofmp3.com/

But check legality issues

Illegal/gray area. Its legal in Russia, as they have different copy-right laws to here.

Fighting Irish

TCP/IP wrote:

http://www.allofmp3.com/

But check legality issues

If i ever decided to download music legally i don't think i'd pick that site, i doubt very much its legit.

**Timbuk2**

I use allofmp3. I know its not 100% legal but all the downloads are fine on it, never had any viruses or anything with them. I would prefer to use them than use KaZaa and get my computer full with viruses

Besides their prices are riduclously cheap... 2c/mb

Norfork Nights

do u have to pay by cc ? is there any sites based in uk or ireland offering a subscription service ?

Norfork Nights

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

whats wrong with the illegal route?

Do I need to answer that ?

Thumper Long

Norfork Nights wrote:

Do I need to answer that ?

No, but I will, one of the old ladys friends was fined 3000 Eur for illegal downloading, although it wasn't her it was here two teenage daughters, still 3 grand is a fair old whack to have to pay, until i heard that i though they were scare stories, they had a very comprehensive list of the downloaded tracks and they had used a number of the most popular p2p clients, so it looks very much like illegal downloading has just become tooooooo much of a risk :eek:

Rollo Tamasi

so no harm done then, i would recommend the illegal route.

Fighting Irish

**Timbuk2** wrote:

I use allofmp3. I know its not 100% legal but all the downloads are fine on it, never had any viruses or anything with them. I would prefer to use them than use KaZaa and get my computer full with viruses

Besides their prices are riduclously cheap... 2c/mb

Maybe if you used kazza and didn't download .exe files :rolleyes:

Fighting Irish

Thumper Long wrote:

No, but I will, one of the old ladys friends was fined 3000 Eur for illegal downloading, although it wasn't her it was here two teenage daughters, still 3 grand is a fair old whack to have to pay, until i heard that i though they were scare stories, they had a very comprehensive list of the downloaded tracks and they had used a number of the most popular p2p clients, so it looks very much like illegal downloading has just become tooooooo much of a risk :eek:

Yes but i heard they target people who are uploading, people should set their P2P so when they download something it isn't being shared with other people

ball ox

Fighting Irish wrote:

Yes but i heard they target people who are uploading, people should set their P2P so when they download something it isn't being shared with other people

if people did that there would be no files to download...........

8T8

Well legal wise Yahoo Music Unlimited are considered the best subscription service or so I hear but you cant get it in Ireland.

The only other one I know of is Napster.co.uk who also offer a sub service for £9.95 a month.

**Timbuk2**

Fighting Irish wrote:

Maybe if you used kazza and didn't download .exe files :rolleyes:

LOL!!!

Viruses can be contained in mp3 files as well. You do not need to download an exe or zip file to be flooded with viruses

Viruses can even be put into text files... Yes... believe it or not

I you want me to I can teach you how

RoyalMarine

very true about virus's in non exe files.
spent ages scouring a computer i was asked to fix for non recognised files.

took me ages and then i realised they were not all .exe and .zip files...
ended up deleting loads of music that wasnt "safe" and several otrher files etc.

even .dll files can have em.

Rollo Tamasi

jpegs and gifs can have them no aswell. Kind of scary to think that you could be surfing the internet, come across a site, it gets cached to your computer and bang you have a virus.

Khannie

Anything can contain a virus, but that's no use (from the virus creators perspective) unless the file is run / interpreted in some way.

hobie

The only other one I know of is Napster.co.uk who also offer a sub service for £9.95 a month

Are you sure about that? .... I downloaded Napster a few weeks ago and as soon as I tried to buy anything I was politely told "we don't service Ireland .... sorreeeeeeeeee!!!! "

Does anyone know where I can buy Treaty by Yothu Yindo (legally) ???

SeanW

you could try www.mycokemusic.com

they're the only ones other than ITunes AFAIK that serve Ireland.

Other than AllOfMp3 which are really great and semi-legal.

Still don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to buy stuff online.

Peteee

yahoo music has a subscription site. Not sure if its america only though

EDIT: Its america only

8T8

hobie wrote:

Are you sure about that? .... I downloaded Napster a few weeks ago and as soon as I tried to buy anything I was politely told "we don't service Ireland .... sorreeeeeeeeee!!!! "

Does anyone know where I can buy Treaty by Yothu Yindo (legally) ???

I never used it myself I just assumed they would allow Irish customers, I guess not..

Mutant_Fruit

**Timbuk2** wrote:

Viruses can be contained in mp3 files as well

Nope, they can't. But viruses and suchlike can be linked to in windows media files and downloaded unsuspectingly by users trying to get a valid license to playback a "copyright protected file".

**Timbuk2** wrote:

Viruses can even be put into text files... Yes... believe it or not

Sure, they can, but they simply cannot do anything or damage anything unless the user is stupid enough to rename the file to .exe and then executes the file...

Fighting Irish

ball ox wrote:

if people did that there would be no files to download...........

let the stupid people share their files

Fighting Irish

**Timbuk2** wrote:

LOL!!!

Viruses can be contained in mp3 files as well. You do not need to download an exe or zip file to be flooded with viruses

Viruses can even be put into text files... Yes... believe it or not

I you want me to I can teach you how

No they can't(virus within an mp3), i have been downloading music(only .mp3s) from p2p for years and have never got a virus from them

**Timbuk2**

Generally, because you didn't get a virus doesn't mean its impossible

Viruses scripts can be downloaded as .mp3s, and if you have a program (virus) on your computer that will change the .mp3 format into some readable, execuatable file then that can cause a problem. The same applys for text files

djmarkus

The worst an mp3 file can do to your computer is crash your media player(if its a crap one), but nothing within an mp3 file is actually executed

**Timbuk2**

But then you have that wee problem as well

It may not be an mp3... it may just look like one

Parsons

Forget Kazaa and the likes...Limewire is safe though it's P2P and uses Java. Great interface too. Any comments on getting music through mIRC guys?

ntlbell

Parsons wrote:

Forget Kazaa and the likes...Limewire is safe though it's P2P and uses Java. Great interface too. Any comments on getting music through mIRC guys?

You're not getting music "through mIRC" mIRC is just an IRC client.

So we can't comment on random IRC users who share music.

Parsons

ntlbell wrote:

You're not getting music "through mIRC" mIRC is just an IRC client.

So we can't comment on random IRC users who share music.

That's what I implied, downloading with the help of mIRC. Anyway thanks dude:D

andrew163

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Sure, they can, but they simply cannot do anything or damage anything unless the user is stupid enough to rename the file to .exe and then executes the file...

That's not entirely true. There are two other ways that I can think of... firstly is a bug like the WMF bug a while back - a non-executable file format from yonks ago actually contained an executable portion..that people had just forgotten about. Second is through buffer overflows. These can infect any file in theory. Any file. It depends on how secure the program opening them is - remember all programs can contain bugs.

(buffer overflow... if I understand them correctly.. is when too much data gets loaded into the data (er.. information storage) area of memory and overflows into the code (executable) area of memory... the data is then accidentally executed by the OS... same kinda idea as the blaster and sasser worms..only coming in through a file instead of a TCP port.. if anyone wants to correct me on that go ahead.. I'm not completely sure about it.)

Moral of the story is... use a virus scanner.

zilog_jones

The WMF exploit was fixed by MS *ages* ago - if someone hasn't updated Windows since then they deserve to get their PCs ruined (if they're looking at websites/downloading junk they obviously have the means to update Windows).

Wertz

Over all my years of P2P the only virus I ever got was after going looking for (and finding) a noCD crack for HL1 (which I legitimately owned, but it refused to run on my DVDrom after installation)
With over 2000 d/led mp3s, not one of them has been a virus, although plenty have been corrupt and some even contained what I could only describe as speaker-busting noise

I'm shocked that the OP's question has only gotten him itunes and allofmp3 as suggestions; a sad indication of why people still feel the need to go and find it illegally.

Rollo Tamasi

Wertz wrote:

a sad indication of why people still feel the need to go and find it illegally.

couldn't agree more. if i get caught i'm going to blame the likes of iTunes for not providing me with a subscription based mp3 service.

Fighting Irish

Parsons wrote:

Forget Kazaa and the likes...Limewire is safe though it's P2P and uses Java. Great interface too. Any comments on getting music through mIRC guys?

:rolleyes: gtfo the internet

Fighting Irish

**Timbuk2** wrote:

But then you have that wee problem as well

It may not be an mp3... it may just look like one

So you could put a virus in a .mp3 file and when the .mp3 file is run on a PC the virus goes to work?

Fighting Irish

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

couldn't agree more. if i get caught i'm going to blame the likes of iTunes for not providing me with a subscription based mp3 service.

Ye that'll sure save you

Wertz

Fighting Irish wrote:

So you could put a virus in a .mp3 file and when the .mp3 file is run on a PC the virus goes to work?

I'd think it's more a case of naming the virus ******.mp3 and hiding the extension somehow....of course it doesn't take sherlock holmes to figure out that an 88kb mp3 isn't going to be exactly FLAC quality, to say the least. In fact it might be safe to assume that anything under 1mb isn't actually the song you were searching for at all...

On the legal d/l thing; it'd be very interesting to see how many tunes in my shared folder are available for legal purchase d/l on iTunes. Since the vast majority of it is older stuff from various dance genres, I doubt I'd get a 25% match rate, if even. Fair enough, that doesn't represent the norm, but for many people with left of field tastes, P2P is still the best option when you're looking for stuff...

[edit] Sorry for OT; since the OP is looking for top 40 stuff, legal is defintely the only way to go, but finding a subscrip service is tough going

Charlie

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

couldn't agree more. if i get caught i'm going to blame the likes of iTunes for not providing me with a subscription based mp3 service.

Are you having a giraffe!? Thats like someone claiming they're innocent of shoplifting because Tesco's didn't offer a subscription service. You'd get laughed at in court if you even attepmted to say such a thing. Its people like you who are sponging of the rest of us and costing me more when I decide to buy music. Grow a pair and start paying for your music insted of being a sneaky little tea leaf.

Rollo Tamasi

Wertz wrote:

I'd think it's more a case of naming the virus ******.mp3 and hiding the extension somehow....

by default on windows the extension of files isn't viewable so a person could create a .exe and name it thebeatles.mp3.exe and it would show up as thebeatles.mp3 and the icon of course can be changed to simulate a windows media file icon. thats the way i would do it

Fighting Irish wrote:

Ye that'll sure save you

damn straight its a fool proof plan.....

charlie mchugh wrote:

Are you having a giraffe!? Thats like someone claiming they're innocent of shoplifting because Tesco's didn't offer a subscription service. You'd get laughed at in court if you even attepmted to say such a thing.

......do you think? mmm

charlie mchugh wrote:

Its people like you who are sponging of the rest of us and costing me more when I decide to buy music. Grow a pair and start paying for your music insted of being a sneaky little tea leaf.

people like what? i have over 300 cds in my collection you panda, thats a sweeping generalisation if i ever heard one and to tell you the truth i'm fairly hurt by it.

Mutant_Fruit

**Timbuk2** wrote:

Viruses scripts can be downloaded as .mp3s, and if you have a program (virus) on your computer that will change the .mp3 format into some readable, execuatable file then that can cause a problem. The same applys for text files

So what you're saying is that if you have a virus, you can get more viruses? Well, thats right. No problems there! I agree 100%! If you have a virus (program) on your computer, it can easily download innocuous looking ".mp3" files, then rename them and execute them without you even realising.

However, if you download a file that ends in .mp3, and double click on it, there is NO CHANCE IN HELL that you can get a infected by a virus. You could get 100 of the worlds most lethal viruses, rename their programs to .mp3, and double click em all and i guarantee you that you will not be infected. Worst case scenario, the mp3 playing program refuses to play the invalid file.

Mp3's are decoded, not executed. Theres a big difference.

As for buffer overflows, i agree. Any badly written app can have an exploitable buffer overflow, but thats a buffer overflow exploit. Its a bit different to getting a virus by opening a text file (which can't happen...).

EDIT: For more info on the "virus.mp3" screenshot posted above, check out this link: clicky linky

Winning Hand

Eircom do a music download service thats based off the ODD software. Prices can be reasonable and they have a pretty decent selection. However I have had problems with digital rights, with them stating that I dont have the rights to music I paid for which means the song wont play. That and I have had problems with my Iriver for the same thing, although I am not sure if it is the music or player thats borked there. Not sure I would go back to them after the problems I have had but by all means check it out
http://home.eircom.net/html/music/registration.html

Saruman

SeanW wrote:

you could try www.mycokemusic.com

they're the only ones other than ITunes AFAIK that serve Ireland.

Other than AllOfMp3 which are really great and semi-legal.

Still don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to buy stuff online.

Emm do Eircom not still have theirs running?