Your Guide to Digital Music
In the old days of the
Internet (about a year and a half ago), only very nimble Netizens had
music living in their computers. Now a working knowledge of the Web is all
you need to build your own House of Blues on your hard drive, thanks to a
proliferation of Web tools, services and sites that has made MP3s not just
easy to understand and use but also legal as a form of musical
entertainment. Those who want more than the obvious music sites can
deliver will have to contend with sometimes mysterious FTP links and
frequent rejection from temperamental FTP servers -- but if you're up to
the task, there's help out there for you. Here's our list of the places on
the Web that every aspiring desktop deejay should visit:
BEST SITES:
1 Mp3.com An essential first
stop for MP3 newbies, and everything's legal. Because of its strict policy
of posting only those songs authorized by the copyright holders, you won't
find Barenaked Ladies or the Austin Powers sound track. But there are an
extensive library of songs by independent artists in all genres and the
occasional treat from some better-known ones. The FAQ is a good primer. The
software section rates dozens of players and related apps and provides
links to each download site. The hardware section gives the scoop on
portable players, sound cards and speakers.
2 Mp3.lycos.com digs up
digital songs posted all over the Net, including those hard-to-reach FTP
sites, and handicaps the returns using its own "reliability guide" (links
are listed in order of how likely you are to access them). Keyword
searches are tough to fine-tune: Search for "Hole" and you get Courtney
Love's band as well as the Butthole Surfers -- an embarrassment of riches
you may not want.
3 Bigredh.com is a
terrific tool for navigating the cyberworld beyond the Web. Download the
free Hotline software and head into a parallel universe, where MP3s roam
free. The search engine tracker-tracker.com delivers IP
addresses and other data you need to connect. But be warned: search
results might turn up porn sites that happen to be hosting MP3s.
