I was looking for a song and couldn’t find it .. mentioned it to a friend and he said no problem .. he belonged to a download club. He had the song the next time I saw him.
He told me that I needed to join that club .. and two other friends who were there said theirs was better (each had a different one).
Would appreciate knowing ur opinions if you belong to one .. is it worth the money .. are the songs and movies that easy to find and etc. ?
Thanks in advance,
Jim
Have you checked out the iTunes music store? iTunes is available for free download for both Mac and Windows from www.apple.com. The iTunes store has over 700,000 tracks to choose from. I believe most tracks are 99 cents. You don’t have to “join” anything.
Which were the names of the clubs???
Well, it seems you’re not around..
Anyway, I tried Emusic and the experience was good; you can download an unlimited quantity of mp3 of any kind for a 3 months or six months fee (I think I paid 12 euros a month or so, they probably increased it) and allow you to download 50 as a test; they have a good selection of the Shanachie catalog and many others in what respects to traditional music, I was able to download records from Cormac Breatnach matt molloy, mary Bergin, Laurence Nugent, Brian Hughes, seamus egan, Solas, Karan Casey, june tabor, john renbourn, De Dannann, and lots other; for jazz they have a good part of the catalogues of Fantasy, Riverside, Pablo, Concorde…all that kept me busy for a while. The mp3 are rather average (128) but with a good player like foobar perfectly listenable (if you’re not a high quality maniac). Don’t expect to find majors there, anyway. I think it is a good option to hear all the music you want and buy later the CD you really like (I’m doing that with Bill Evans). Their page is www.emusic.com
Hope it helps 
I would second the recommendation for iTunes, or a similar site: Buymusic.com.
Tracks are about a buck a piece…kind of like collecting 45’s, with the advantage that you can burn them onto a disk.
My 3 favorite cds are compilations of songs I downloaded or copied from albums I already own.
Warning: there are a number of web-sites which appear to be promoting a deal for “unlimited downloads…only [some amount of money] per month!”
In fact, what you’re paying for is file-sharing software. The copyrighted downloads would still be illegal. Better to go with a pay per download, honest system.
I really doubt they distribute illegal stuff, you can view labels names everywhere, with links to the record companies; apart from that, they seem to be in the nasdaq (eMusic.com Inc. (Nasdaq: EMUS). I can’t see anything wrong with them; but of course, I you got news on the contrary, please tell me, I would hate being cheated 
I’m not commenting on your site, since I haven’t heard of it…I’m just warning against ones I have seen, in my kids’ quest for cheap downloads. Just read carefully to make certain you’re paying for music, and not just file-sharing software.
I am on Emusic myself, and from what I can tell, it seems to be pretty well above board.
It appears that what they do is contract with certain small record labels (like Shanachie) to make their albums available on-line, and they pay the record companies based on how many of their tracks are downloaded. You pay a monthly fee, the amount of which is based on how many tracks you wish to have available for download each month. You also download and install a piece of software which queues up your downloads and also tracks them, not only to determine how many you have left, but also presumably to provide information needed to pay the record companies.
They do have a secure server, it is not peer-to-peer. Also, most of the MP3’s I’ve downloaded have been variable bit rate, and there is no appreciable degradation of sound quality when they are converted and burned to CD. There are a few 128 KB CBR downloads, but these are very much in the minority.
It seems the service has changed a bit since I was enrolled, with higher quality MP3s and limited download; a pity unlimited downloads aren’t available anymore 
BrassBlower, unlimited transfers means you can repeat the download of the files chosen any time you wish, isn’t it?
I think what it means is that once the files have been downloaded, they can be used to create regular audio CD’s which can be played in any standard CD player, as opposed to being limited to your computer or MP3 player.
Some sites deliver the downloads in regular MP3 format, but the files are encoded in such a way that if they are transferred to audio CD, they will contain random chirps and squawks. Others deliver the downloads with an MPGA extension to discourage CD burning, but you can get around that by simply changing the extensions to MP3.