About Digital Music

Thinking of Buying an MP3 Player This Holiday Season?

2009-11-25T09:00:25Z

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us and Black Friday just around the corner, you may already be thinking about purchasing electronic gadgets this holiday season. However, if you have suffered financially this year (due to the world recession for example), and money is tight, then you may think that purchasing any electronic gadget is way off base -- not so! For instance, if you're looking to purchase an MP3 player, then you may be pleasantly surprised to know that you can pick up a budget player for as little as $20. In fact our Budget MP3 Players guide lists a series of top portables (iPod and MP3 player alternatives) that retail for well under $100 -- in our guide you'll also find in-depth reviews to read before taking the financial plunge. Whether you're thinking about purchasing an MP3 player for a friend, family member, or even yourself, there's a whole range of 'cheap and cheerful' portable players on the market these days to fit practically any budgets.

For more information on budget MP3 players, be sure to read our guide to Top Portables for Less Than $100.

Image © Camila Schnaibel.

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Thinking of Buying an MP3 Player This Holiday Season? originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 09:00:25.

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Free Music Downloads This Week

2009-11-20T09:00:53Z

This week we bring you another selection of free tracks for your listening pleasure. As always, the free MP3 music is full-length and will hopefully give you a good idea about the sound that the artist/band produces before you purchase their music. This blog is also about trying to bring you new music that you might not have otherwise discovered; listening to the following free music will hopefully broaden your musical tastes and introduce you to some new undiscovered genres. The free music downloads this week are:

Dada Life

Audacity of Huge (Dada Life Remix) by Simian Mobile Disco (4:26)

This free remix showcases the mainstream electro-house genre that Dada Life produce. If you like this type of music then you'll also be interested in Dada Life's website which is currently offering a huge audio mix for free download -- it contains 15 tracks and is 42 minutes long! This mammouth mix entitled, November 2009 Mix contains tracks from various artists and also has a remix track (Let's Get Bleeped Tonight) from Dada Life's new album, Just Do The Dada -- now available digitally on iTunes or as a physical from Insound.com.

Kissy Sell Out

Apple Jelly (4:17)

For electro-pop fans, the free promotional track, Apple Jelly, is a good example of Kissy Sell Out's energetic and fun sound that can be likened to artists such as Lily Allen; there's also the This Kiss music video that you can watch via YouTube. For more remixes by Kissy, there's also his offical podcast website that you can use to stream and download tracks from. Incidentally, the UK-based producer and DJ's debut album, Youth, which the free Apple Jelly track is from is now available for download.

Scanners

Salvation (3:23)

The free music download called, Salvation, is by UK-based rock band Scanners and is taken from their upcoming new album, Submarine, which is slated for release Feb. 2010.

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Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 09:00:53.

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Are You Missing Album Art in Your Music Library?

2009-11-18T09:35:12Z

Whatever software media player you use for organizing and playing your digital music, you may have already been annoyed at seeing incorrect album art assigned to your music collection -- or even worse, no album art at all! This annoying problem can happen for a number of reasons but thankfully can be easily fixed using your software media player's built-in tools. If you have a large amount of album art to fix then you may find that using a dedicated software program is a much easier and faster solution for filling in this missing information. Media Monkey is a good example of a third party software program that can automatically fix album art as well as being a good music manager.

If you use Microsoft Windows Media Player and are having album art problems then our guide on How to Download Missing album Covers Using Windows Media Player 11 will hopefully prove an invaluable aid in fixing your issues.

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Are You Missing Album Art in Your Music Library? originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 09:35:12.

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Free Music Downloads: Lily Allen's Remixed Album

2009-11-13T09:00:08Z

This week we are covering Lily Allen's Remixed Album which is free to download from the official Lily Allen Remixed website. If you're a fan and haven't yet discovered the free promotional digital album, then you'll no doubt find the 12 special remixes on it a very welcome addition to your music collection.

There are several ways you can download Lily's album, these are:

BitTorrent -- if you haven't got a file sharing program, then see our Top 5 Free BitTorrent Programs for more information.
Online file storage sites such as Megaupload and Sharebee.
Directly downloading the individual tracks from the Lilyallenremixed.com website.

As well as the music, there's also a high quality album cover (in PDF format) that you can print out along with a selection of wallpapers at various resolutions.

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Free Music Downloads: Lily Allen's Remixed Album originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 09:00:08.

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Multisession Discs: Burn MP3s to The Same CD or DVD More Than Once

2009-11-11T09:00:52Z

If you prefer to backup your music library to CD or DVD, then have you tried creating a multisession disc? Simply put, a multisession disc makes it possible for you to add data to the same CD or DVD using more than one burning session; if there is free space still left on the disc then you can add more data to it at a later date. There have probably been times in the past when you've been frustrated by not being able to burn more information to a disc that still had free space on it. The obvious advantage of using a multisession disc is that you don't have to fill up a disc in one go, but you can burn chunks of data until your CD or DVD is full.

Popular CD and DVD disc recording programs such as Nero can create this type of format enabling you to burn your media files at your own leisure. Even though this method isn't as space-efficient as burning all your files in one go (a small amount of space is lost using a multisession disc), it's a lot more user-friendly and is well worth doing if you don't currently have enough data to fill an entire disc.

If you're interested in finding out more, then our tutorial on How to Create a Multisession CD or DVD using the free CDBurnerXP program will get you started.

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Multisession Discs: Burn MP3s to The Same CD or DVD More Than Once originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 09:00:52.

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Free Music Downloads This Week

2009-11-06T09:00:14Z

In our music discovery spotlight this week, we showcase another selection of free promotional tracks that cover a wide range of genres designed to broaden your musical horizons :

Via Tania

Become Forest (Grafton Primary Radio Edit) (3:57)

For Via Tania fans, here's another free track following on from the promotional Wonder Stranger song that we covered previously. This track is also an example of her unique sound that mixes Bj�rk-style vocals with dreamy melodies. Via Tania's new album, Moon Sweet Moon, (The:Hours) is now available from the iTunes Store.

Dragonette

Pick Up The Phone (Richard X Remix) (3:45)

This free track is a remix of, Pick up The Phone, from Canadian electro-pop band, Dragonette. The music video of this song can also be viewed on YouTube. Dragonette's new album, Fixin to Thrill, is due out early 2010.

Little Dragon

Blinking Pigs (3:39)

Taken from their new album, Machine Dreams, this promotional track showcases Little Dragon's electronic music style. Blinking Pigs serves up a mix of 80s-style synth and dreamy electronic effects to produce a unique futuristic sound. The Swedish band's new album is now available from leading digital music services.

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Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 09:00:14.

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iTunes U: Free Educational Audio and Video Downloads

2009-11-04T08:17:29Z

If you're searching the Internet for free educational downloads, then how about using iTunes U? This is a free service that is built into the iTunes Store and provides over 10, 000 free audio and video lessons on a wide range of subjects. Whether you're looking for video lectures or audiobooks on a particular subject, iTunes U has a good selection of categories that you can choose from; science, mathematics, language, and fine arts are just some of the subjects on offer.

The material that iTunes U hosts is of a high quality and has been created mostly by universities, colleges, and other educational organizations. There's a 'Top Downloads' section too which is useful to see what the most popular downloads are and it can give you an idea on what you'd like to study next. One of the best things about using iTunes U for your studies is that all the files you download can then be viewed at your leisure - either on your computer or transferred to an iPod/iPhone for learning on the go!

For more information on using iTunes U as a free educational tool, read our iTunes U Guide on how to get started.

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iTunes U: Free Educational Audio and Video Downloads originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 08:17:29.

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Free Music Downloads This Week

2009-10-30T07:16:11Z

Here's another selection of free music tracks that you can either download or stream. Hopefully these full-length tracks will give you a good idea about the type of sound that the band/artist produces before you decide to purchase their music. The free promotional songs this week are:

Boat

We've been friends since 1989 (2:31)

This free promotional track by the band, Boat, is taken from their new album, Setting The Paces. This track is a good example of Boat's unconventional and sometimes chaotic indie sound. Their new album is now available digitally from the iTunes Store.

Blacklist

Flight of the Demoiselles (4:20)

For indie music fans this week, Blacklist are another band that you might be interested in. The free music download, Flight of The Demoiselles, is an indie track that also has a blend of rock guitar riffs that give a nice 80s style feel to the track; similar to bands such as U2 and Manic Street Preachers. There's also the Flight of The Demoiselles music video that you can watch on YouTube or via their website. Their debut album, Midnight Century, (Weird Records) is now available from digital music services such as Amazon MP3, Emusic, and iTunes.

Midnight Juggernauts

4 Remix Tracks (27:16)

This set of free remix tracks by Australian band, Midnight Juggernauts, showcases their multi-genre sound that encompasses electro-pop, electronica, alternative dance, and a few other electro-orientated styles. The remixes that you can download via Off The Radar are a taster for their new album, The New Technology, which is available as a limited edition physical from Acephale Records, or as a digital download from the iTunes Store.

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Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 07:16:11.

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Google to Launch 'Search and Buy' Music Service

2009-10-28T11:52:10Z

According to an article published by NPR, Google will shortly be announcing the launch of a new music search service that you can use to buy songs. Rather than directly providing a music library, Google will be extending its search facilities to provide links to songs that can be purchased from select digital music services.

Google are hoping that consumers who already use the popular search engine to find resources on the Internet will like the familiarity of their interface and use it for purchasing digital music too. Google is certainly a mighty power on the Web, but can it really compete with the king of the digital music services - namely the iTunes Store?

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Google to Launch 'Search and Buy' Music Service originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 11:52:10.

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Free Music Downloads This Week

2009-10-23T09:00:29Z

In our music discovery spotlight this week, we showcase another selection of free promotional tracks that cover a wide range of genres designed to broaden your musical horizons :

The Prairie Cartel

No Light Escapes Here (4:46)

The free music download, No Light Escapes Here, is a track from the electronic band, The Prairie Cartel. There's also the No Light Escapes Here music video that you can stream or download. Incidentally, their music has also been featured in the video game, Grand Theft Auto IV. The Prairie Cartel's new album, Where Did All My People Go is now available via their MySpace page; the digital release is slated for release on Oct. 27.

The Toxic Avenger

Toxic is Dead (5:11)

Not to be confused with the 80s American cult classic comedy of the same name, The Toxic Avenger is a French electrothrash producer. The free promotional track, Toxic is Dead, is a hardcore mix of electronic sounds ranging from fat bass lines to distorted synths - similar in style to the Bloody Beetroots that we covered in a previous blog. The new album, Scion CD Sampler Vol. 26: The Toxic Avenger, which also features remixes from: Designer Dr*gs, The Juan Maclean, Ladytron, and others, is now available from the iTunes Store, AmazonMP3 and other top digital music services.

French Miami

God Damn Best (2:48)

The free track, God Damn Best, is taken from French Miami's self-titled debut album. This free song showcases French Miami's unique sound of post-punk mixed with synthetic sounds. The French Miami CD/LP album is in stores now and is also available digitally from leading digital music services.

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Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 09:00:29.

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