Like a car without gas, an MP3 player isn't much without music.
Outfitting your new MP3 player with tunes is the first thing on everyones agenda. But if you've never ripped a CD or used a legal music downloads service, you may not know where to start. Hopefully, this brief introduction will shed some light on this situation.
Making the transition from CD or cassette to a digital audio player, such as the iPod is a step into the future. But the confusion with getting the songs onto the device often deters shall I say "older" individuals.
Here's a couple quick and easy ways anyone can get started with MP3 players:
Rip your CDs
There are freeware software programs out there that can take the songs off any CD and convert them to a special format for your computer; this is called "MP3 ripping." From there you can listen to the songs on your PC and/or transfer them to your MP3 player. This is completely legal as you already purchased the CD.Just make sure when you save the songs to your computer that they are in a format your portable audio player can read, such as the .mp3 or .wma formats.
P2P Downloading
P2P stands for Peer to Peer. Music files can be obtained via controversial free download services such as KaZaa or the older, shut down version of Napster. The quality of these files is often spotty at best and you could easily become part of a law suit if you download songs or provide them for others illegally.My advice: stay away from these.
Download Services
These are the legal solution to P2P networks. For a small monthly or per digital track fee, you can download quality songs to store on your computer to transfer to a portable audio player. Because you're paying for them, you're not violating any copyright laws.There are many services that have sprung up to offer this solution, with the most popular service easily being Apple's iTunes service. Here's a brief outline of the legal download services with links to more information about each.
| Service | Bit Rate | Format |
| Napster | 128 | WMA |
| MSN Music | 160 | WMA |
| Musicmatch | 160 | WMA |
| Audible | 32 | AA |
| eMusic | VBR | MP3 |
| Wal-Mart | 128 | WMA |
| Sony Connect | 132, 256 | ATRAC3 |
| Bleep | VBR | MP3 |
| LiveDownloads | 128 | MP3, FLAC |
| Audio Lunchbox | 192 | MP3, OGG |
| Yahoo Music | 192 | WMA |
| BuyMusic | 128, 256 | WMA |
| Rhapsody | 160 | WMA |
| iTunes | 128 | AAC |
| RealPlayer | 192 | RAX |
Those are essentially the only ways you can obtain music to place on your digital audio player.
Personally, I recommend that you rip CDs that you already own and paid for and then supplement your collection with downloads from legal services. The convenience they offer all but outweighs the risk associated with illegally downloading music from P2P services.