I’m posting this question to SJ since I know he won’t mind me bugging him, but really this is for anyone who can fill me in. I got an email ad from Apple extolling me to download iTunes from AI contestants, and I must admit I am tempted with a few of the songs! (Yeah, so I’m a Cookie Monster! LOL!) But I don’t own an iPod, and believe me, I am very technologically challenged. Can I download these songs directly to my computer and play them there? If so, how? And since I am on dialup (I am going to upgrade one of these days, maybe this summer, but certainly not before May 21) would the files be too big to download successfully? If I download large files late at night it is usually okay, but it does take forever! How big is an iTune file, anyway?
Thanks, everyone! (I know, I know, I need to join the 21st century. One of these days. :)
My son was saying that there is a place to downloadsome of the songs for free. I would think the time to download would depend on the length of the song. For instance, would it be the studio version which is probably longer or the AI, minute and a half version?
Yes, you can download Itunes songs to your computer and listen to them there or burn them on to a CD. BUT I can’t even begin to imagine how long it would take on dial-up. I think it even says on the Itunes site that it’s not recommended for dial-up.
Itunes songs are in their own format (I think it’s called like MP4 or something) and they can’t be put on to regular MP3 players. Well, they CAN, but it’s sort of a pain in the behind. I have Creative Zen Vision and I download a lot of stuff from Amazon, but the AI performances are exclusive to Itunes.
For Idol songs, this is a pretty good source from the Top 12 on.
Note: If you have a Ad Blocker, you’ll want to turn it on now, some of the ads aren’t child-friendly.
http://new-music-now.blogspot.com/
To download the performances, find a post with ‘Live’ in the title, and click the desired performance. This brings up the page that plays the mp3. Click “Download this File”, then click the “Download Now!” button. Then the timer runs down, click “here”. To save the performance mp3, click “Save” and select a place to save it in.
To download the studio recordings, go to a post that says Studio Recordings in the title, and click the desired song. This will take you to a page where you must enter a captcha, then click “Download Now”. Click “Save” on the window that comes up and specify where to put the file.
For songs from the Top 16, 20, and 24, this site is the only complete source I’ve found. They are very buried, so it would be beneficial to use that site’s search feature to find performances.
To Download, click on the performance post you want, right click on the Bolded link near the bottom of the post, select “Save Target As” from the menu, and specify where to save the file.
For all of these files, when they are done downloading, the window will either close by itself, or wait for more instructions. If they stay up, clicking “Open” will open the file in your default media player, “Open Folder” will bring you to that place the file is saved, and close will close the window.
Hey you're not alone in the 20th century. This broadband stuff is all a fad, I tells ya! :)
I don't know anything about iTunes. Never used them. But I do know about downloading songs with dial-up. It's not fast, LOL. But it's not too bad either. For me it takes about 30 minutes to download a 5 minute song (and that's the way I likes it! ;)
The best site to download music, IMO, is Amazon.com. All you need is an account with them. You don't have to download any software or players (though they offer a player if you want it). And the songs are YOURS once they're downloaded--no DRM crap (digital rights management) that will keep you from copying or sharing the songs.