MP3 Music Downloads--Your Guide to Creating Personal PackagesWritten by Larry Denton
MP3 music downloads have taken music world by storm. In 2004, legal music downloads, worldwide, increased tenfold to more than 200 million. With ease of downloading your favorite tunes directly onto your computer and then burning your own CD, people have really accepted MP3 format for music downloads.MP3 music downloads work very simply. Find a site that offers MP3 music downloads--there are hundreds of sites offering free music and there are subscription sites available as well (just search Web for your personal favorite)--scan inventory of songs available, select songs or albums you want, and click on it to download it to your computer. Truthfully, why do people download music from Internet? To hear NEW music that is not available in any other form or to listen to records that have been deleted by big label companies and are no longer available for purchase. The primary goal is not to save $5 in used CD bin at your local record shop, but to hear music they simply can not find any place else. And let's face it--most people don't want to spend $17.95 to experiment on a CD they may not like or a CD that has only one good track. Who gets hurt by Internet downloads. Besides a very few super-stars like Celine Dion, not many. In fact most artists actually benefit. The primary way that an artist becomes famous and successful is through exposure. Without exposure, no one buys tickets to concerts, no one buys CDs, no one buys T-shirts, beer mugs or posters. Downloading music gives an opportunity to newcomers and those struggling to make it "big." While Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sheds crocodile tears over file-sharing programs they claim "rip off" recording artists, truth is, on average, a musician makes 41 cents on each CD sold. The record shops earn a couple of bucks per CD, and greedy record companies accumulate astronomical and shameful profits.
| | Six Things To Know Before Joining A CD ClubWritten by Deal Dude
(1) The BMG Music Club offers best deal you'll find online, which is receiving 11 CDs for price of shipping ($2.79 each) when you buy one CD at full club price, which is typically about $15 plus shipping. However, selection may not be as extensive as its chief competitor, Columbia House, which has many of its own exclusive artists. If you purchase only minimum, you will pay just $4 per CD at BMG and about $8 per CD at Columbia House. (2) When you join club, you will receive a catalog in mail about every three weeks, along with a postcard that highlights a "featured" selection in genre you selected when you joined (e.g., rock, country, jazz, classical, Christian, rap, pop, Latin). You must return this postcard by due date or club will send you featured selection. You can now decline (or accept) your featured selection online, however, by logging into your CD club account. This makes process much, much easier. Once you have been a member for a while, you also can call clubs and ask them to change your membership from an "order-only" option, or from "negative option" to "positive option." This just means you won't have to return card. (3) If you forget to return card and receive a CD you don't want, clubs are good about letting you return it. But beauty of this system for clubs is that this happens often enough and many people don’t bother sending it back. They just pay bill. (4) When clubs advertise in magazines or newspapers, they only list a limited selection of their available titles. If you don't see CDs you want, visit their online sites to browse all titles (12,000 or more) when making your selections. Then copy down item number of CDs into form. Be aware, however, that some CDs will not be available as free selections. This is often because of contractual obligations with clubs and artists that don't allow them to give away certain CDs. Also, clubs usually do not have latest and greatest albums until three or six months after their release.
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