Where Can I Find MP3 Player Downloads?

The ability to download music is one of the great advantages of owning an MP3 player. You no longer need to go to the store and pay for complete albums when you may only want just a song or two. You're also not stuck with piles of discs that need to be organized and stored.

Downloading is a faster, easier and less expensive way to get the music you want. And, you'll soon find you have an incredibly wide choice of music from which to choose. There are a lot of MP3 download sites that offer all types of music.

Each download site offers specific features and benefits. When you're searching for the online source that's right for you, however, it's important to make sure the site has been approved by the music industry. A good place to get a complete list of approved sources is at the web site for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). They represent the U.S. recording industry with the mission of fostering a legal climate that supports and promotes their members' creative and financial vitality. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

For a complete list of RIAA approved download sites for your Sansa MP3 player, go to http://www.riaa.com/. Here you can find all the latest and greatest songs, music videos, classic oldies, a wide variety of jazz and classical standards, plus broadband radio and TV shows.

Choose between a subscription-based or per song approach to downloading.

When you begin to investigate what different sites have to offer, you'll soon see that they really do fall into two categories. Some sites ask you to subscribe to their service on a monthly basis while others simply ask that you pay per download. Here are a two of each type to get you started:

Subscription based sites:
Napster
You can try Napster for seven days for free. If you like their services, you can get unlimited music for as low as $12.95 a month. They offer more than 5 million songs with new releases every week including pop, hip-hop, rock, country, jazz, classical and more. Their discovery tools make it easy to find old favorites or explore new music.

Rhapsody
Rhapsody also offers unlimited downloads and charges only $12.99 per month. You can search their massive music catalog by artist or genre, tune into Rhapsody Channels, get personalized recommendations and more. You can also just drag and drop songs to make your own playlist and then share it with friends.

Per song sites:
Amazon.com
This site offers a wide array of genres including alternative and classic rock, blues, Broadway musicals, children's music, Christian/gospel, classical, country, dance/DJ, folk, jazz, Latin, international, pop, R&B, soundtracks and more. They also provide a list of top songs and artists. The basic charge is $0.99 per song but they also showcase some free downloads as well as albums – some at great discounts.

Yahoo Music
Yahoo Music also charges $0.99 per song but they also have an $8.99 a month subscription. (You can save even more if you go with the annual program of $71.88.) Subscribers pay just 79¢ per song to keep the music they like forever and burn it to a CD. In addition, they offer a 14 day free trial period. Any way you go, you’ll get access to more than 2 million songs and more than 120 CD-quality, commercial- free radio stations 24 hrs a day.

Don't forget about your current music collection!

You can easily upload your MP3 from the music you already have on your computer, your compact disc collection and even all those vinyl records and cassettes you've saved over the years.

To move your music from a CD to your MP3, you need to go through your computer with what is called a "ripper." A ripper is actually a software program that converts the full CD tracks into a condensed MP3 format. Here are just two web sites that offer such programs:

NCH Swift Sound Express Rip CD Ripper is a free program for Windows that lets you extract digital audio tracks directly from audio CDs to wav and mp3 audio files. By using direct digital extraction, pure audio quality is maintained and Express Rip is the fastest CD ripper in the world using proprietary optimizing systems. This site offers this program for free in hopes that you'll consider purchasing their Express Rip Plus with additional features.

SmartSoft CD Ripper This easy-to-use software lets you directly extract audio tracks from your music CDs to computer files such as MP3. All you really need to do is insert your CD and click "Rip." The standard version is $19.90 and the pro version with added features is $29.90. They offer a free trial for both.

To move music from your vinyl record or cassette collection requires a little more work. To do this, you'll need the cables to connect your computer to your stereo system plus the software to make it all work. A good place to get a step-by-step approach to this is at WorldStart.com.