Suggestions for Music Service

[rogue417]

Long ago I signed on to the Linux Experience, mainly because I heard it the best way to get lots of free music. :P Since then I've learned a lot. However I'm still looking for a service to help me quickly replicate my massive and now obsolete vinyl collection. I thought Napster To Go would enable me to download several dozen album titles at an affordable price, but a review of the site seems less than straightforward, especially that bit about restricted file transfers.

I'm not looking for a free ride, or to get anyone in trouble. I just want my old tunes back at a reasonable price. Any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Re: Suggestions for Music Service

Google on usb turntables These allow you to convert your old vinyl LPs to digital mp3 files.

[arochester]

Re: Suggestions for Music Service

It depends where in the world you live.

There are sites which stream whole albums e.g. Deezer and Spotify. Deezer is available worldwide (?) , while Spotify is currently available in the UK but not in the US (?)

(Shh! Streams can be recorded and manipulated -but don't tell them!)

I used to listen and quite enjoy Pandora Internet Radio but it was subsequently limted to the US. However, have a look at http://globalpandora.com/Pandora_Alternatives and particularly the list of Pandora Alternatives on the right side. Some dross, some gold nuggets.

[askrieger]

Re: Suggestions for Music Service

Personally, I almost never listen to the mp3s, I wasted many hours ripping from CDs of "The Golden Age of American Rock and Roll". I use Amarok, then click on "Internet" on the extreme left. Then "Shoutcast" (there are other internet radio providers as well). Then choose the genre, I want from a list that goes from "24h", (whatever that is) to world. As soon as I choose a station (almost always: 1.fm - Otto's Classical Musick or 1.fm - 50s and 60s), I'm happily singing along.

Note I'm not a shill for 1.fm, I also like a variety of other netcasters e.g. AVRO, Sky-FM, etc.

(Shh! Streams can be recorded and manipulated -but don't tell them!)

You never saw the word "streamripper", here, but it's in the universe repositories. We certainly do not condone any activities that would jeopardize the right of the RIAA to rip off performing artists.

[dibl]

Re: Suggestions for Music Service

However I'm still looking for a service to help me quickly replicate my massive and now obsolete vinyl collection.

...

I just want my old tunes back at a reasonable price. Any suggestions?

You could do it the old fashioned way like I did -- audiophile receiver with turntable input jacks (not so common anymore), a good turntable and cartridge, and a suitable collection of cables and adapters to feed the stereo input to my Intel HDA / STAC chip, and then used Audacity to capture and Gnome Wave Cleaner to get to clean .wav files. With hard drive space at $0.07 per GB, there's no reason to convert to .mp3 unless you need that for a portable device.

I've done 78 RPMs too -- long story there LOL. But it can be done, with respectable results.