Yeah, Yeah, I know that there's a lot of sites out there proclaiming to have a totally free program to download music andshare media files...but as soon as you sign up for them, they're askin' for your credit card number for a payment?
-Ludacris
-Usher 
-Lil' Jon
Well, if you've been in that situation or just feel like savin' a little money on media, you have found the right site to visit. I have been using file sharing programs for a few years, and have found some that have worked pretty good for me.
-Greenday 
-The Killers 
-3 Doors Down
Guide
to Finding Music Online
by: Keith Kingston
Are you frustrated because finding your favorite songs on the net has become more of a chore than an enjoyable activity? Read this simple guide to finding music online and your troubles will be out of mind before you download your next Green Day hit!
MP3s are compressed music files that are one-tenth the size of regular audio files. As a normal audio file requires about 40 megabytes to download, and MP3 requires four. Although this is still a substantial number, it is much more manageable for the average computer. Thus began the MP3 downloading, sharing and trading craze. There are a variety of options when it comes to playing your MP3s. Media Player comes with Windows, QuickTime 4 comes with Macintosh, and Win amp is the industry standard product.
Music can be downloaded from websites or FTP sites. Websites are easier to use. Songs download automatically when you click on the titles. Finding good websites to download from is difficult. The sites that used to work well now dabble in other venues. AlltheWeb.com and MP3.com usually only contain independent, unknown bands that may be great, but if you're looking for the stuff you've heard of, you'll be wasting your time. Audiofind now carries radio stations instead of music files, and Audiogalaxy.com Music Search requires a subscription. Good websites to use are LycoMP3 Search, MP3 Search on Altavista, MP3 Search at Astraweb, and MP3Bot Search Engine. FTP sites usually require special software. Some free software options include WS FTP and FTP Explorer. Oth Net (Kermit search) is a clean fast way to download from FTP sites directly from the browser that works even better than the software options.
In the wake of the Napster downfall, it has become mostly illegal to download and share free music files on the web. Musicians are opposed to the practice, and rightly so, because the free music sharing significantly affects the commercial success of their CD sales in stores. Downloaders tend to think musicians are being unfair by revoking the free music files from the net, but one must remember that selling music is their career. It is nearly impossible to find full albums on the web. These days, musicians will release a couple of new hits onto the net to try to entice the web surfing crowd to wander into the music store and buy the full album. Remember, if all else fails and you MUST have the MP3 of a song, there are thousands of sites to which you can subscribe and pay for the downloads. New bands are always willing to put their music out on the Internet in hopes of getting heard, so free downloads are limitless if you are willing to lend your ear to some new tunes.
Downloading
MP3's Made Easy
by: Keith Kingston
The MP3 movement started out with a huge audience of music enthusiasts on the internet. The MP3 digital music format has had, and will continue to have, a huge impart on how people, gather, listen to and share music.
The MP3 format is a compression system for digital music that helps reduce the size of a digitized song without disturbing the sound quality. Digital music is converted to MP3 format and made available for use, usually via the web. MP3 files can be downloaded onto your computer from the internet and special software, either commercial or freeware. Using your computer and software you can convert digital music from a CD into MP3 format.
MP3 files can be played in three different ways:
The advantage of MP3 players is that they are small, lightweight and rugged. They are a great way to carry your MP3 files with you!
With a portable MP3 player, a personal computer, and the appropriate software, you can do the following:
If you want to convert your songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you can use ripper and encoder software. A ripper copies a song's file from the CD onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format. By encoding songs, you can play them on your computer or take them with you on your MP3 player. The ripper and encoder software may come with your MP3 player.
The specific instructions will vary with the individual software programs, but the following steps will definitely take place:
Now you are ready to download these MP3 files into your portable MP3 player.
Once you have MP3 files on your computer, you can use the software that came with your MP3 player to download the files into your MP3 player. Again, the specific instructions will vary depending upon your software program and player, but you will:
Once you have downloaded the MP3 files into your portable MP3 player, you are ready to take your music anywhere. Most MP3 players are small, lightweight, and solid-state. Because most players are solid-state, there are no moving parts to break down or skip, so the sound quality is uninterrupted regardless of your physical activity. MP3 players are equipped with various types of headphones or earpieces.
Portable MP3 players can play music longer than a portable CD player. The length of play for a CD player is about 74 minutes, the length of one CD. However, the length of play for an MP3 player depends upon its memory capacity, which can be upgraded on some models. A standard MP3 player can play for about half an hour (32 MB) to a few weeks (40 GB)! Some models can be upgraded with additional memory devices.
Free, Legal
Music Online
by: Daniel Punch
Almost everyone has heard about the massive crack down on Internet music piracy that has been occurring over the past few years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a pay service), other file sharing programs now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other similar organizations are doing their best to hunt down copyright offenders and put an end to their crime sprees. The consumers on the other hand argue that their actions hurt nobody, that there is no damage done to anyone by their not buying an album. Furthermore, they claim, MP3s allow them to sample a CD before purchasing it, thus actually helping sales.
I'm not here to argue the pros and cons. Basically it's not worth it, as neither side of the argument will ever see the opposition's point of view. What I'd like to do is take a look at the completely free and legal alternative to 'stealing' music. Those wonderfully talented musicians who are willing to put their creations online to download for free, solely for the joy of spreading their creations to the masses.
Free music is surprisingly easy to come by, even music by famous bands. Sometimes it needs to be 'streamed' from the Internet, meaning that you can only listen to a song while you're online, but with the ever-growing popularity of broadband Internet this is really no longer a problem. Sites such as MP3.com and purevolume.com provide free music by almost any band you can think of, although there is a large amount of it that has to be streamed and not downloaded. A search for 'free legal MP3 downloads' will reveal a huge number of pages to visit.
For something specific, try visiting the artist's website, or the site of their record label. These will often offer a few sample tracks to download for free. It's not quite as convenient as having access to every song that you want, but it's not a bad alternative.
But how about we forget about the mainstream for just a while and move towards the alternative? Towards the hopefuls, the talented bands that have yet been 'noticed'. There are a huge number of these smaller bands out there that are sticking their stuff online for any and all to listen to, just so that they can be heard. These can be easier to find, because most MP3 sites will be filled with these smaller acts. A great place to start is http://www.garageband.com/ or the aforementioned http://purevolume.com
The great thing about smaller bands is that you can often find bands that come from your local area and then go and see them play live. Being able to see a favourite band live more than once a year (or lifetime) without expending huge amounts of money and time is pretty cool. Many music search engines will let you search for bands of a particular genre in a particular area, which makes it all quite easy.
A fairly major contributor to the online music scene is the remixer. These people take other tunes and redo them, usually in a techno style because one person can do this competently. Chief among the tunes selected to be remixed are those old ditties that used to play through the simplest of sound chips on aging consoles: the video game theme songs. People now go and grab the main tune line from an old favourite and fill it out, making real the work our imaginations used to do for us to turn the single tone melodies into orchestral masterpieces. A few good places to start are http://remix.kwed.org and http://remix.overclocked.org as well as a personal favourite band http://machinaesupremacy.com
I hope this has given you something to think about. It's not hard to come across illegal MP3 rips, in fact it's often hard to avoid them, but if you give the free music scene a look you may find something completely different and new that will really do it for you. With web hosts already being penalized hugely for illegal content being stored on their servers (having an entire server taken down because of one inconsiderate user is damaging and irritating beyond belief) and moves being made to charge ISPs for the content being accessed by their users, it makes more sense than ever to get out there and grab yourself an awesomely original and completely legal music collection.