need advice on buying music online

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hi, I'm wondering if any audio peeps can advise me--I used to buy individual songs from services like Google Play and Samsung music, just to listen to on my phone. this is no longer available and I'm hoping to find a similar app.

I don't know about apps like Spotify because I just want to buy specific songs to listen to over and over again instead of a selection of similar songs. I also don't like the idea of a monthly fee, ideally I'd just pay once for the song. Google Play recommended switching to YouTube music but I'm not sure this is a good option either.

thanks for any ideas!

I usually use iTunes and Amazon Music.

Download or use an online YouTube to MP3 converter

thank you both for the advice! I have only android devices so I don't know if iTunes is an option? I refuse to give money to Amazon. I think I will try the YouTube converting thing.

Be careful using mp3 ripping software for youtube, it may be in breach of website terms of service. Though like you mentioned, the other legitimate ways of buying music has disappeared and it seems google is bent on not letting you own music in digital form. I think you'd have the higher moral ground should you choose to use such an application


I do have a question. What happened to your google play music library when the app got discontinued?

Ezmp3.cc
Free (donation)... Let them worry about terms of service

I mean I like spotify because then you can listen to multiple songs you love over and over, (if you pay the subscription, but yeah the free verson does not give as many options to choose your music). and its like 16 dollars a month. That said I think a lot of music can be downloaded for a fee, or you can get a physical copy...weirdly CD's are falling out of favor but Vinyls have actually gained attention....so you could get a vinyl record of a band you like, but won't work unless you have record player so if you go that route you have to get a record player.

A lot of the websites that convert YouTube music videos into mp3 format are riddled with spyware.

You can also use reputable programs that work with Windows to convert music from external websites such as YouTube. I think that is your safest bet.

I just buy CDs =X
I'm not usually a "one song at a time" kind of guy, but there's always compilation albums I suppose?

VLC app lets you store and play your own music. Like others said if you buy cds you can rip the music to your own devices. Another road is to look for open or public domain music. Big name bands and artists want to make as much money as they can from their famous music. Smaller artists often want to be heard. Some smaller artists put music out for free to be heard.

Try googling “free mp3” or “public domain music”.

Also

https://biteable.com/blog/music-for-videos/

https://www.lifewire.com/free-music-downloads-1356648

before it was discontinued, i saved all the tracks to my computer and then to the samsung music app. as far as I know, everything then got erased as the app seemingly disappeared ?? -- though I'm not 100% sure, as I've got a different phone since then. good question!

haha, I've never owned a record player, and the CD player on my laptop broke years ago after I dropped it. I prefer to stick to digital, if for no other reason than I don't have much room to put extra stuff where i live and I move around a lot.

If you could confirm that the free version of Spotify lets you buy specific tracks, that would be cool, when I last checked I couldn't find this option, though I usually miss things like this anyway.

yes, that would be ideal. have you used any of these yourself, that you would recommend?

have you used either of these yourself? other users warned to be careful with these types of sites.

i have used the CD method in the past, but right now i don't have a functional CD player... though i guess I can use one at work, if that's really still the best option.

Public Domain music is not like bootleg music. I would avoid bootleg (stolen, copyright avoiding, illegal copies of music that the owner/original artist wants to be payed for). Public Domain music is music that is supposed to be free. The Artist who created it wanted it that way, or the music is so old that it is no longer in copyright (and the artist is long dead and gone).

Suppose the artist is your cousin. Music is a business, it is how he pays the bills, how he feeds his family. He puts in a lot of time making it good, buying the instruments and amplification equipment and recording equipment. He rehearses and plans gigs. He should be the one who decides if his music is free or not.

Suppose instead that the artist is just starting out, or has another job and this music thing is just a hobby. Or maybe the artist is at the end of his career and has all the money he needs or wants. He just wants the music to be heard. He wants it to be out there. He wants to make people happy, or show off, or has come to the conclusion that music should be free. He can also decide if he should get paid or not.

So copyright law says who has the right to say who can copy and who cannot and if paying is part of it and who decides. If the copyright owner decides that the music is in “the public domain” it essentially has been given to the public: everyone has the right to a copy, and nobody has to pay.

If you want to listen to Michael Jackson Or Taylor Swift you probably have to pay. If not, like if you find the music on youtube and find a way to make your own copy for free you are in copyright violation. But other artists may have actually put their music in the public domain on purpose. You may never have heard their names but the music is good. That is public domain. That is PD.
You can make a copy for free and not be in copyright violation. Because you have been given the right to do it.

The descriptions I give above are general. The details are much more complicated but the general principle applies: there is music you can get for free but you are violating copyright, and there is music you can get for free and not be in copyright violation.

Also read:

https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/

https://ask.loc.gov/recorded-sound/faq/313179

That seems as fair an approach as any.

I mostly use Invidious to listen to YouTube music, and I download the content I want to keep, using YTDLP or whatever downloading plugins and programs I can get to work. Google threatened YTDLP with court action, but GitHub supported YTDLP and have earmarked a lot of money for the defense of any developers under their wing who big business tries to shut down. So far, Google has backed off and now confines itself to altering its own code to break Invidious and any other services that avoid Google's underhand tracking and ad-serving antics. I presume the law isn't behind Google strongly enough for anybody to conclude that it's a crime to do what I do. I presume if it's up there on YT then it's in the public domain by the wishes of the owner, and therefore fair game.

It's a very complicated matter. Very hard to judge in some cases whether it's moral or not to get a copy of a recording for free. How do we know how much profit an author is getting? How do we know how wealthy they are? Do I factor in my own level of poverty and call it fair redistribution if I deem myself to be worse off than they are? How do we know whether they're overcharging for their stuff? Suppose they decided they were above doing a boring job for a living, ignored all that tedious schoolwork, and just had fun making music and hoped to get a living out of it, while the rest of us did something more tangible for society? If their music enterprise fails because people can and do easily get their music for free, who is to blame? These aren't rhetorical questions, I really don't know the answers.