Music Downloads 101

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Music Downloads 101

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Downloading Music is Quick and Easy!
Downloading music using your broadband Internet connection is one of the coolest things you can do online. Many music download sites have hit the Internet in the last year. Most charge 99 cents a song or less, and with a broadband connection like AT&T High Speed Internet, you can groove to that hot new song on your computer or portable music player in less than a minute! There's no further need to go to the record store if you don't want to; whole albums are often times available for around $10 each.
Get Your Music at Blazing Speeds
Still using Dial-up? Run out of ways to pass the time while your music sluggishly downloads? Upgrade to AT&T High Speed Internet where there's no dialing and no waiting to connect. Welcome yourself to a world of streaming music, video and media where your lightning speed connection is instantly available to download your favorite music
Putting Your Tunes on Your Portable Player
One of the greatest benefits of downloading music is the ability to take that music with you, whether you're transferring it to a portable music player or recording it onto a CD. Here are some tips to make sure everything works together:
• Know the Format - Music download services offer different music formats. Most offer .wma files but some offer .aiff files. Make sure the format works with your portable player. Music downloads from some services only work on certain portable music players; most of which also play .mp3 format.
• Learn to Burn - Most all music services allow you to burn regular music CDs from the songs you download, but different services have different limits. Find out how many CDs you can burn from one playlist, for example: Once you reach the limit, you may be able to change the order of the playlist to burn more. Most music services offer built-in CD burning. If you're using a different CD burning program, make sure you're set to make a music CD, not a data CD, so you can use it on most stereo systems or in your car.
Making Sure it's Legal
Reputable music stores like MusicMatch, MusicNow, iTunes, Napster and Wal-Mart are legal ways to download music because they, in turn, pay the owners and artists who create the music. That is probably not the case with songs downloaded from peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. While P2P software provides you with the ability to share songs, it does not necessarily provide you the authorization to do so. The important distinction between legitimate music sites and music traded informally over P2P networks is that, chances are, users who make songs available to you over P2P are probably not authorized to do so.
This type of music swapping is not only against the rules of most Internet Service providers - including AT&T Internet Services - but it is also illegal. Technically, it's called copyright infringement; big words that mean you can be prosecuted under criminal law, and the artists and record companies can file a lawsuit against you. Record companies scan the Internet for potential illegal file swappers and take some of them to court. If you don't think it can happen to you - you are wrong. Thousands of Internet users just like you are finding that out as the record companies are filing lawsuits all across the country. Trust us; paying around a dollar a song to download music legally is a much better option!