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AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → Where do you get your music?
@Figment: fair enough, we'll agree to disagree. But I thought you said it wasn't about your hatred of Apple or its customers. 
Indeed. Paying for music means, if nothing else, that *some* of the money goes to the artist. Pirating absolutely guarantees that *none* of it does. That's why I buy. It depresses me to no end that this means supporting many of the very things I hate, but alas, the "Free" market allows for no middle ground.
Whew! My 32 GB SD card for the Victor Reader Stream arrived yesterday, so I spent the whole day rearranging my music collection so I could use folders instead of having to create playlists. Its the same method Dark uses, he told me about it, and I liked it. Thanks, Dark!
It was a long task to with 2100 individual tracks scattered into 350 folders. Some folders only had a single track in it and some had whole multi disc albums. Most files needed renaming, either to remove the track number from the name, or to add it, if it was part of an album I wanted to keep intact. But I got it done and loaded it and all my BARD books (talking books in encrypted MP3 format), some books from Book Share books (DAISY text), and about 30 podcasts, and still had 10 GB left.
And the best part is, it's all more accessible than it was when it was on an iPod, and I no longer have to fuss with iTunes, it was a joy to run its uninstaller!.
Sebbby,
No, I don't hate Apple, nor do I hate its customers. I just don't like the way they do things and expect you the customer to heel like a good little doggy to their way of thinking.
They're not alone, I don't like decisions Microsoft has made regarding Internet Explorer. Such as removing the option to disable tabbed browsing in IE 11, Or beginning with IE 9, to moving the download query from the very accessible dialog it was in to the not so screen reader friendly notification bar. But at least with IE I still had a choice to not update to those versions I didn't like. I decided to live with the notification bar, so I'm using IE 10.
With Apple's iDevices, you have no choice if you want to load your media library on your iDevice. You have to use iTunes or nothing at all, an no media library on your iDevice if you choose not to use iTunes.
You could do something like uploading your library to something like dropbox or sendspace, but if your internet speeds aren't super fast, even a small library could take a while to upload and then download. Not very efficient.
Excellent.
Now back that content up; you don't want to lose your hard work. And buy a second SD card (they're cheap) and a fast card reader. Also get some decent speakers and/or headphones, if necessary, for round-the-house roaming. I'm only sorry the Stream doesn't have Bluetooth.
Reset the iPod: Settings, General, Reset. Erase all content and settings. Now you can flog it. As an added courtesy, flash it to the latest firmware using ... uh, never mind.
Clear up your iPhone. Settings, General, Storage and iCloud usage. Check out what you have, and delete anything you can't get from the cloud (i.e. the stuff you sync across that can't be obtained from Apple's stores or from content-downloading apps such as Podcasts). You lose this content by performing a full reset as above, so make sure the cloud is on for anything you need.
Now look more closely at the list of apps on your PC. Apple Software Update and Quicktime merit special attention.
Now look through your PC's filesystem and possibly also the registry. Purge every last trace of Apple you can find. Make sure, of course, that you intend to do so first; for example make sure the stuff in your library is all accounted for.
And, as you Merkins delightfully put it, you're done! I'm glad you've found your happy place.
My main music library is over 70 GB and a lot of it in lossless formats. Alas, I can't share in the fun. Fortunately for me, I personally don't need to. Unfortunately for me, this issue will come up again pretty soon when I move my media onto my NAS. Wish Apple would get their shit together and provide a half-decent server solution. Meantime, iTunes Match works. Yes it requires iTunes, but if I really wanted I could use something else because my Internet connection is quite good. When I move to a NAS, I'll have to stop using Music and go to another app. Drat. But let's not rehash all that.
As for your dislike of Apple, is it not possible that some customers simply _like_ the way that Apple does things? Even if they don't _like_ the way Apple does everything? And do you also not think it possible that, in some cases, the good will outweigh the bad? Or that, viewed objectively, Apple has the best solution available for solving a problem, of all the different possible approaches, even if you factor in the compromises necessary to deal with Apple's other priorities (read: love of money)? (Substitute "Apple" with whichever favourite fanboy brand most suits for the given situation and "Love of money" with "Privacy invasion" as necessary; they're all the same.)
As a technologist, I wish I could get all worked up about these issues. As someone just trying to enjoy my media, phones, computers, whatever, not so much.
And seriously, feel free to donate to the FSF, to help their campaign against DRM and proprietary software. We could all use a little help there. Every bit counts. I donate whenever I can. Their Defective By Design campaign is particularly wonderful. The EFF also warrants some attention for their work in the same space.
As for Internet Explorer, I'm afraid there's bad news for you coming up; MS will only support whichever version was last supported on any given OS. Details here. So, you'd best make plans to move to another browser to keep your security.
Well on the Apple debate I've said my bit earlier. I have no problem that some people like Itunes, it's just annoying Apple don't provide any alternative for people who don't like Itunes, but Apple don't give a crap about annoyence or satisfaction so hay.
I'll just take what I want and not what I don't, as I do with microsoft, and there's not really much else to say, other than noting the general stupidity of the collective and the cruddiness of the unrestricted capitalist system that supports it.
To be a little more practical, I've been surprised just how many formats the victor does! support. The only one I've found it won't play is mp2, indeed I was rather surprised when I found it had no problem with M4b or Og, though obviously it won't play any custom game music formats.
As to folders, I'm glad the system works, though myself I just tend to stick folders on the Victor as I need them, for example, when I was singing a song from Westside story and wanted a copy of just that song on my victor to listen to before the performance, I just created a folder called "practice" in the music directory which I deleted when I was done (along with the copy of that song).
Actually, I'm going to the states for christmas to see my lady, and it's great that I can take my entire books and music collection just by taking a passport drive, my Victor and a laptop (albiet I probably would've taken the laptop anyway). Actually I never even bothered with an sd card reader, sinse while the usb transfer onto the victor is a wee bit slow, it's not slow enough to be a major hassle, or at least not for me, after all I'm used to doing something else while I wait for file transfers (it's how I do my backups).
As to Bluetooth, I've not really got the point of bluetooth for the victor unless you wanted a wireless headset, and to be honest my best headphones, my Sanheisa momentums (which actually cost more than the victor did), are wired anyway.
Agree with the summary of consumerism. Very apt.
Well Bluetooth is good for getting a whole load of portable speakers and headsets to play your stuff from any device, although of course it's mostly about convenience. The quality always degrades a bit due to the encoding of the audio over Bluetooth, but usually not enough to be a problem for simple stand speakers while listening to audiobooks. My cordless headphones use Kleer, which takes more bandwidth and has much worse latency, but is lossless. Sennheiser also, of course. Requires AC power for the charger pod and transmitter, so not practical while I'm on holiday. My usual travel headphones (which, ironically, I ended up buying in Turkey) were not good enough for a much longer stay in the same country, so I went (possibly to the same shop in the same city) to pick up a somewhat better pair. I'm still looking for a decently-priced pair of travel headphones, preferably by Sennheiser.
I held off my weekly backup of my system until the work with the music library was completed, then after it was copied to the Victor Reader Stream, I did the system backup.
After the system back up was done, I uninstalled iTunes, Apple application support, Apple Mobile device support, and Bon Juor, which is also something from Apple, whit it is, I have no idea, and I don't care. I also cleaned up the file system and system registry of the uninstaller left overs.
For backing up the SD Card, I keep a copy of my music library on my PC, and for the other folders and files, I will just copy them to a backup location on my PC before I do my weekly backup.
For speakers, if I want them, I have a pair of Altec Lansing powered computer speakers that would be nice enough for my needs. I don't use them on the computer because they became inconvenient.
All I need now is the authorization key file so the Victor Reader Stream can play the talking books from NLS BARD, and that is in progress.
As far as Apple goes, I agree with Dark, I'll take what I like, which isn't very much, and Apple can have the rest.
Sebby, let me guess, you use a Mac instead of a PC. If so, then it no wonder you like iTunes, if so , maybe you should try it on a PC before you dismiss our dislike of iTunes for Windows. Believe me, the experience between iTunes on the Mac versus iTune for Windows is vastly different.
@Figment, Sebby has indeed tried Itunes on a pc and is not unsympathetic to the idea that it's a pain, (Sebby was one of the people who first recommended the Victor to me), he just happens to like the way Apple does things on their own devices, which is intrinsically not a problem. heck I am stil considering getting a mac myself being as there will come a point that Xp and the internet won't cooperate and I would be happier moving my net browsing over to Apple than the significantly more annoying versions of post Xp windows.
Might I suggest letting that part of the conversation laps sinse there's not really all that much else to say.
I've done The apple purge. it was annoying to get rid of everything, but I think I got most of it accept the registry, then again sinse my main pc had to be reformatted I can be certain it's all gone anyhow, and there doesn't seem to be anything else on this laptop even if there is the odd unused reg key somewhere (I don't like to go poking around the registry for obvious reasons).
@Sebby, yep, the degradation in quality is also the reason I don't bother with the hole bluetooth headset thing for serious stuff, if I want to play on speakers I have my very good logitech quad speakers attached to my pc with a custom created Winamp Eq file, and for just standard audiobooks when it's just the narrator's voice I find the Victor's own speaker more than adequate anyway.
For headphones, I have the momentum ones for amazingly good stuff, while for travel I use a set of sanheisa earbuds. I can't recall the serial number, but they're without a doubt the best quality thing you can get for about thirty quid, (I got them for twenty last time on offer).
Actually I have a miner peve with Apple on this, sinse last time I bought some new earbuds, I found a slightly better pare for fourty quid, and didn't realize after I bought them that they were of that annoying Apple specific type, luckily the nice hifi shop exchanged them for me when i explained that no, I didn't just want to use them on my Iphone which at that point I was still using for music.
I did used to have a rather nice set of sanheisa wireless ones with a charger. Amusingly enough sinse because of the slope of the hill the Colidge entrance where I lived was above me two floors up, I could actually set something goin in my room and hop upstairs to get pizza delivered all without leaving my music/audio drama, I even got a very early experience of mobile computer use back in the early 2000's between those headphones and my wireless keyboard (people said it was very weerd to see me sitting on the bench outside by the lake typing away with my headphones on).
To be honest though, it's easier to take the player and a wire than mess around with something that needs it's own charger anyway, indeed I've got quite adept at wandering around my flat doing housework, or even going outside with my dog with a pare of headphones on and my Victor in my breast pocket.
Needless to say between my Victor and my Iphone, I don't think I'm going to get board on my flight to the states, though for the first time I'll need to use Aeroplane mode for it's intended purpose on both devices 
.
This actuallybrings me to another function of the Victor I've found myself using more these days.
I know you can take voice memos on the Iphone, but for some reason I find it a slightly more clunky process in general, especially deleting them, and when you just want something you can quickly pick up and pull information off, eg, what gate to go to, what your seat numbers on a plane are, all the times etc, then I find the Victor's notes function rather more convenient for just snapping on and checking and then deleting when your done, ---- I've used it on trains this way several times already.
I also find that if I want to take down a person's contact details, it's easier to point the victor at them, ask them to speak their name rank and cerial number, then add those details to the Iphone when there is time.
Again, another reason it's nice to have different devices.
I feel the same way regarding how I'll listen to the Victor Reader Stream, if its just talking books or podcasts, the built in speaker is more than adequate for the job. For music, I have a pair of J4 JBuds that I really like that have excellent sound quality, even for bass, which is hard to find in earbuds. Most that I've tried had a rather tinny sound.
I don't know if I've seen the j4 ones there Figment, of all the models I tried Sanheisa's earbuds were best for that sort of price, though actually earbuds aren't expensive anyway, not compared to something like the momentums, but equally they're for a different job.
I also have a rather cool tin to keep them in in my shoulder bag. It looks like a tobacco tin, accept it's got a purple dragon on the front, it also keeps them really safe from being squashed or damaged, plus I keep some spare rubbers in there too.
Dark,
Years ago when I was using a Zune media player, I wanted better quality earphones than what came with the Zune. While shopping I ran across the J4 JBuds, they were described as being ruggedized with metal bodies and tangle proof cords. They came with a carrying case to protected them while not in use.
My back pack had a compartment specifically for a media player. that had a rubberized hole for the earphone cord to pass through. When not in use I always stored the earphones in their carrying case in the compartment with the Zune media player.
Even though it was designed for it, I never put the Zune in that compartment when I was using it. If I was riding a vehicle, usually a bus or commuter train, I just held it in my hands while listening to it. If I was walking, I just stuck it in a pocket.
I still have the earphones, and they still sound great, so I see no reason to spend money on another pair.
Sebby,
As luck would have it. I did the factory reset and cleaned up the iPod of fingerprints, and repacked it and all its accessories back in its original package, the day before iOS 9.2 was released. I haven't yet decided whether it's worth the hassle to unpack it to install the update. I'll probably wait until I'm about to pack it for shipment to whomever buys it from me to do any updating that might be needed. On the other hand, remembering how much of a hassle it was to get past that initial screen with all the flags, I may just leave it for the new owner to do.
hello all,
sorry for reviving an old topic, but i have a question on this topic. i would like to buy five albums from the Amazon site (digital downloads). i have them on my "mp3 cart", ready to order. the actual question is, how can i - download then the albums to my computer the accessible way fro the site? and no, they werent on the mp3va.com site (which is absolutely Great, bought few albums from them).
or if Amazon didnt work, can somebody explain me the process of buying an album from the iTunes store, and how do i get it to my computer from my library, so i can use it on any type of media?
thanks for answers.
M.
I haven't tried it so I don't know for sure, but apparently, if you use the Amazon full site instead of the accessible site, after the purchase, Amazon will prompt you to use their downloader, but you can choose not to use it and then you'll be able to use standard techniques to download your music.
What I'd do is pick a single track and try just purchasing it. That way if it doesn't work, you'll only be out a dollar. If the single track purchase works, then go ahead with your multi album purchase.
I personally would buy the albums one at a time. I'd be afraid of a single download page with separate links for each album that causes you to navigate to a separate download page for each album and not being able to navigate back to the download page with all your purchased albums on it.
Remember that it's Amazon's policy not to refund digital download purchases, though I have gotten refunds from them when I declared that their download methods were inaccessible to the blind and for that reason I was unable to download my purchase. Depending on the customer service representative you get your milage may vary.
hth & gl
hello,
so an update on the situation. i am done with Amazon, as it constantly has problems with my address, but i dont know with what field or something, so i cant order anything from it. on the other side, iTunes ordering is perfectly accessible - yes, but only from the phone, so i guess i will transfer the ordered albums to my computer. in the iTunes program, where the album was viewed, i couldnt find the buy button or something, so my only option is buying over the phones interface, i guess?
@michael (Bucklee12,) Remember there's always mp3va.com which doesn't require any software or confusing interfaces.
hello,
@jack, yes, mp3va is Great, i already purchased some albums, and filled my account with Money. but these five other albums sadly arent there. did anyone tried send a music request there? how long it takes to process them, any experience with this feature of the site? but anyways its Great, and extremely cheap. and accessible for sure.
Music requests are very reliable. Just send in your request, within a few days it should be added on the site. The only thing to be aware of is that due to increasing requests, you have a better chance of getting your request in if you've deposited at least $50. If you are interested, they seem to be getting the Japanese editions of albums if there are any, so they contains the tracks of the original album if you were to get it normally off of conventional music shops, as well as the bonus tracks exclusive to Japanese editions of albums. Please note that Japanese edition does not mean that the artists themselves are from Japan. Since cd's are a lot more expensive in Japan, there is a minimum track limit on the cd's, and the music market in Japan seems to be a lot larger than in other countries which would explain why most if not all bands will always end up touring Japan. For example, Shinedown's album, Threat to Survival,. contains 2 bonus tracks in the Japanese edition that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get anywhere else, other than youtube. Some of these are obscure since I've heard that Japanese cd's have some kind of drm, i e they may be cd roms rather than redbook compliant.
hi,
no, i deposited only the minimum option (13 dollars, plus 5 dollars i got as a bonus), just to try the service. i didnt want to deposite straight away the 45 dollars. maybe the next time. still waiting for my rrequests, then. i like too, the various japanese, deluxe, limited, etc editions. by the way, shinedown is good, only because of this topic, i am listening to them. *shows to jack*.
I wanted to buy the soundtrack to the Trine 3 video game. The only place that seems to be where you can buy it is through aritunes.com which uses some site called gumroad.com to accept payments and deliver the mp3 files. So far so good. gumroad.com requires that I create an account,, I'd rather not since I don't know that I'll ever buy anything else from them, but if that's what they want, so be it.
Then the CAPTCHA bitch shows her head, it offers an audio challenge, but it doesn't work, nothing plays and the offer to download the mp3 with the challenge doesn't work either. Bastards!
So I remembered this thread from having run across it before to find this other site where people were getting their music, to see if they had it. Unfortunately, mp3.va appears to be no more, because attempts to connect to it result in a "this page cannot be displayed" message.
Disappointing.
It's mp3va.com, if you actually entered mp3.va. unfortunately they don't have that specific album you're looking for, but you can request it be added and hopefully they find it.
Oops! My mistake, I thought it was mp3.va, no wonder the page couldn't be displayed.
Actually I found a round about way to get it and saved almost 50% to boot! I found out that when you buy the game, you get the soundtrack with it, and that it was on sale at gog.com at 75% off, so I got the soundtrack for about $5.50 instead of the $9.95 gumroad was charging.
The game itself isn't accessible, but I already knew that and didn't care, all I wanted was the soundtrack.
To add to this topic, one recent source of music I've been using is Amazon.
I don't use any of their proprietary software or indeed the echo dot, but fortunately I discovered by chance they do have option in their player to download all tracks as mp3, so if I buy a digital album from them that is what I do, albeit there are several occasions where it's cheaper to cds than get digital downloads, for example with the settings of the music from Anne McCaffrey's dragons of pern books, the first was cheaper on cd, the second cheaper digitally.
I even found an old charity produced recording my sister had for her christening which pleased my mum very much .
its also nice that prime delivery gives me free music on occasion as well, though I've not ordered anything from Prime for a while now owing to being rather busy with other matters.
Still, its good to have an extra source for drm free music, especially because if I have one issue with mp3va, its that they don't take mastercard or paypal so I have to go through some ridiculous third party sale service to get convertion into an online currency which was rather a hassle.
You mean Amazon's player is accessible now? Last time I tried it, it was totally inaccessible, regardless of what mode you used, all the screen readers I tried with it could see was an empty window.
Being completely DRM free was the primary reason why I used to buy all my music from Amazon. Then I lost my vision and found that Amazon didn't have an accessible way for me to download purchased music.
So I started converting YouTube music videos to MP3s. That may not have been an entirely legal way to get music, but my view was that if they weren't going to provide an accessible way for me to buy and download music, I'll cheat.
There used to be an Amazon music downloader which was somewhat accessible. Then they changed the interface, it became inaccessible for awhile, and then I think they came out with a whole new program. To be honest, I wasn't following it at that point anymore, so I have no idea what it's like these days.
Amazon has a way to download zips directly, the unfortunate thing is they either push the program on you or you can hit a different link to download the mp3's. As for mp3va not doing paypal, the workaround would be pincodereseller.com, they are affiliated with mp3va and coincidentally offer the same prices for their vpn service. When you buy through them and use pincode as the promo code, you get a pincode along with your confirmation email. You don't need to use the vpn if you don't want it, but your pincode can be entered on mp3va's site and your balance is loaded with no problem. It's how I worked around having no direct paypal support.
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