Getting free music legally (and converting it to MP3 format)

In this instructable i will show you how to get free music without downloading it or instead of hooking it up to the headphones jack you could hook it up to your record player and transfer your vinyl to MP3.

Step 1: Tools

1)LAME "LAME ain't an MP3 encoder"
2)Audacity "open source cross platform sound recorder
3)Weird cable

Comments

[theicemanx]

Well all I will say is you get Caught then dont come crying here for sympathy........................... have a nice day!!

[freakinslop]

or you can just go to beemp3.com :)

[Doctor What]

you know, there is a certain sound recorder out there, one which i am not at liberty to mention, that can record the sound that you are listening to, from a hypothetical streaming music site, and can record from the beginning to the end, without stopping at sixty seconds.

[uberchoob]

Audacity will do that. BTW you don't need to use a cable to patch the signal back in. All you need to do is:

Get your source ready to play

open audacity and set the source to "what you hear" instead of mic or line input

hit record on audacity

play your source audio

SHIZAM, instant 'free' music without the patch cable. The program will take the signal straight from your sound card and record it on file.

I know the "what you hear" source is available in the latest beta version (1.3xx I think?), but I'm not sure if it's available in the "stable" version (1.2xx).
I've never had a problem with the new beta, it's just a pain since the saved file format isn't backwards compatible, so if you save a file in beta, you can't open it in the stable version.

[sk8er6]

theres a very easy way to do this without getting that double ended headphone cord. you can even use the stock "sound recorder" that comes with windows. And I don't see how recording internet radio is illegal when its not illegal to dub tapes of real radio.

[talons]

I didn't see a "what you hear" option. Only line in, aux, mono, stereo etc I have the newest beta version. Am I doing something wrong?

[nf119]

Some sound cards don't have this function. Try Wave, Wave Out or Stereo Mix (if they are in your list). Wave and Stereo Mix works for me. Basically just test everything in you list.

[uberchoob]

not sure, I'm on vacation right now, but I'll check out the program as soon as I get back.

[uberchoob]

Thanks nf119, Stereo Mix is the new name for the old "what you hear" option. I've used audacity regularly with about 7 different computers and they all support Stereo Mix.

[McElmire]

So aside from all the politics of music that's been discussed, you've gone into pretty good details other than the cord used. Where did you get it and what is it called?

[TwistedParadox]

Illegal

[Anonymouth]

There's an easy way to get around all of this. You can avoid a lot of hassle by just STEALING the damn music. The S.W.A.T. team is not going to bust your door down. And don't feel guilty about hurting the artists. The fact is the artists never see a dime in royalties until they've repaid all of the money fronted to them by the record companies. The record companies have tons of little dirty tricks hidden away in their obliquely worded contracts to keep as much money as possible out of the artists' hands. Artists make their money from touring, merchandise sales and publishing (assuming they write their own songs). The label has to pay the songwriter for permission to put each song on each cd manufactured (this is works out to about $0.60 per cd - the label keeps the rest - think about that when you drop $12 or more on a cd at a music store). Music that's freely passed around helps artists by turning people on to their music without requiring access to mtv or radio play. People hear a band's music and if they like it, they go to shows to see them live. That's where the artists make their money. Stealing music hurts big acts like Madonna or U2. Therefore I take the moral stand not to steal their horrible music. So there you go. Don't feel sorry for the big 3. Find good music and support the bands directly.

[pyromanizak]

thats not someone very smart to post on a public website. but still that is true

[jimtran93]

dude, #@%$ being smart -_- u have to admit, tons of people do it.. and it is now made easier because of iTunes removing the security thing on songs....

[Full Frontal Graphic]

That's a very good argument for artists adopting a new distribution model. It isn't a good argument for stealing music. But I entirely agree with the spirit of your post, that it is better to support bands directly than to support a corporate middleman that keeps the lion's share of the profit.

[DjProToJeeX]

like radio head you can get it for free and if you like radio head enough you can buy it. that way if your a real fan and support them you will purchase there tracks. and well they have sold a couple mil so that says something.

[Aeshir]

Bravo mate! I look forward to my next Limewire spree!

[reine]

another topic....and the same: a part from some rare, expensive, and ultra speciallised software running only on windows(R) (and some windowsPC based games), you REALLY don't need that lame operating system any more! Try a UBUNTU GNU/Linux system: even Photoshop for windows can now run on linux with the last version of WINE(v.1.01), included in the distrib. then you won't look for softs for this, for that. Lame(i mean the MP3 one!), audacity, running natively, double fast at least, and all the tools you can dream off. I read: .mov, .mp3, .oog(much better), .wmv, etc...EVERYTHING!, even things under DRM. And, not to forget: Audacity, Firefox, OpenOffice, VLC(reads everything), creative commons, and so on, were NOT created by MICROsomething, they were ported to winwin$oft, to help you, abused people, to test what is freedom in your computing uses (you LEGALLY own free software). hoping you will see the light , you won't be decieved. Keep on trucking, Reine from f.....g France.(scuse, english not perfect!).

[jonathan95123]

vista is best for this because you can mute system sounds and others... rak is right just get a program to download it... im using firefox with downloadhelper, works great

[raykholo]

nice and simple way to get free music: download it-- from mp3000.net or kohit.net also kovid.net does music videos, but you cant download directly... so, get the new realplayer that allows you to "download video" from any website. this is how i got a lot of spongebob episodes on my laptop (different site though) it saves as an flv file. you can convert to avi or mpg with "Pazera Free FLV to Avi Converter 1.1" find it by googling it

[LasVegas]

Recording music off from internet radio is not legal. It's stealing the music is exactly the same fashion as downloading it.

[Full Frontal Graphic]

but listening to it is legal. There is such a wealth of stuff on the internet that a lot of people are grabbing as much of it as they can and bit-hoarding it. Imagine the millions of disk drives that have nothing but hoarded music. It's only music if it's listened to. If you are a bit-hoarder, legal or not, how much of your hoard do you actually listen to?

[HiddenGem]

(removed by author or community request)

[icanryme2002]

the windows sound recorder limits at 30 second and audacity limits at something like 700 hours then you can't convert what you record to MP3 without LAME.

[Aeshir]

Sound recorder records for 60 seconds. Lol.

[smithy813]

it's still to short, for anything really.

[mrmath]

I'm no lawyer, but I disagree. I know that it's not illegal for me to record my radio using a tape deck. The FCC has ruled that any signal that comes into our house can be recorded for personal use. I remember this from when HBO first came out and people were recording movies. Back then they sold for $75 or more, and movie companies felt as if they were losing millions. If I extend that ruling of recording signals for my personal use to using my computer recording FM radio, it's not illegal. That is as long as it's only for personal use. Keep going, and recording internet radio, where you KNOW that royalties are being paid, I don't see how it's any different. Note, we know the FM stations we get pay royalties, and that's why it's legal. The record companies get money. If the internet radio station is legit, and is paying royalties, and you're recording for personal use, I don't see how it's illegal. All that being said, it has to be for YOUR personal use. You give that song away, and that's illegal. You share that song on a peer to peer network, that's illegal. Play that song at a public event (think djs), that's illegal. Please remember, I'm just expressing my uneducated opinion here. I'm definately NOT trying to start a debate about who's right, or start a flame ware. I'll be the first to admit that I could be wrong, but I could be right That's for the courts and the lawyers to determine. But for me, what it boils down to is royalties and personal use. If the royalties are being paid, and you're using it for your own pesonal use, I believe it's legal.

[smithy813]

sounds right to me, although my now you have probably forgotten about this post, it's the one about internet radio,. fyi

[Full Frontal Graphic]

"If the internet radio station is legit, and is paying royalties, and you're recording for personal use, I don't see how it's illegal." The payment from internet radio play is on a 'per play' basis. It is not intended to be a sale of a copy of the song. It might be technically legal, or not, that is up to the juries, which are composed of people like you and I and the rest in this thread... Note that there is a disagreement among those here in this thread, there will also be disagreement in the jury pool. If it is decided that it's legal to record it and keep it for future play, it may very well force the 'per song' payment to be double or more what it is now. Personally I only listen to music that nobody expects me to pay for. And I play it for my friends too. Free music is awesome. What if everything were free?

[trebuchet03]

The FCC has ruled that any signal that comes into our house can be recorded for personal use.

Yes, which is why it's fine for you to record radio etc.... Now enter the digital age, where every time you make a copy, there's no quality loss.... Enter DMCA. The laws that govern recording radio waves and non digital media forms are different than the laws that govern digital streams and digital media.

Keep going, and recording internet radio, where you KNOW that royalties are being paid

Royalties are payed on basis of how many people are listening (that's one method). So, the royalties are paid for that song to be played on that radio station at that time. The royalties when you play the song for yourself or with friends etc. are not being paid.

All that being said, it has to be for YOUR personal use.
So why can't you record a concert you're attending? Well, you can if you were a deadhead fan :P But unfortunately, unless you have explicit rights from the owner - you can't. As such, the way the laws were written, the same goes for digital media. You never paid for the media you copied from a stream. TiVo was big fuss before it came out... but the MPAA calmed down when it was agreed that there would be no digital output for copying elsewhere. I'm pretty sure things have changed since then though (as far as DVRs are concerned) :P

---

I know... I know.... It's terrible, that's not how things should be. I agree. It's been an uphill battle for the consumers and there's not much representation for them :P

[spanjunkie]

I'm guessing that the reason why you can't record the concert under the same laws as the stream coming into your home is because the concert you would hypothetically record isn't coming into your home...

[trebuchet03]

No, it's because you're not given the permission to have a copy (well, in most cases - not all). When you buy a CD or a DVD - you're not buying music or a movie. You're buying a license to listen/watch. This is why a backup of your media is perfectly fine.

[Andrew546]

"You give that song away, and that's illegal. You share that song on a peer to peer network, that's illegal. Play that song at a public event (think djs), that's illegal." one more thing to add to that list. Posting the song to an online collaboration site for other to download, thats illegal.

[VIRON]

Is it ever illegal to use a calculator?
Here's a number.
Save it, (maybe on a big old floppy disk from 1980, ha ha).
Look at it with a text editor.
Believe me, it's JUST a number. There's no hidden code. Prove it.
If your word processor can't handle long numbers, try a different one.

(you may want to skip all the math below if you can't do it)
Subtract each digit from 9 and save that.
Add a random number and save that.
subtract a random number and save that.
Add some digits and save that.
Take away some digits and save that.
add one to each digit and save that.
subtract two from each digit and save that.
Pick a number from 0 to 9 and change every, lets say 9, to a different
number, and save that.
add any number to this number, save it, do again several times.

Now, do we have a lot of big random numbers? If not, just try the one.

Import any one of those long numbers into audacity or cool edit ,etc as
RAW DATA, 8000 SAMPLES PER SECOND, 8-BIT, MONO.
You should see a bumpy line off center on the graph.
If it looks like a loud noise you made a mistake, so do this step over.

Otherwise, the noise is quiet, so pump up the volume and hit PLAY.

1.Guess how many numbers sound like this. Ooodles and Googols of them!
2.Can you write the math to calculate the number on a post-it note?
3.What if I wrote a book that sounded like this? I could!
But a book might make more sense if it sounded different than this.
4.This is not a copy. You can change EVERY digit and it may still
sound the same. And the sound clearly explains what kind of magic
is going on here.

I like to say American "Pi" = 0.12345678910111213...

What? You hear Pi-RIAA-ted music? Uh-Oh, time to wear the tinfoil hat!
Music just plays in your head sometimes. Don't worry. Listen for a while, then mute the sound and turn on a fan or FM radio static. You'll still hear it!
When you start to freak out, call a doctor.

[Fionn]

Very cool...

[VIRON]

oops, still not clear. Look at the big number in calcul8.txt, then import it as raw audio as directed and it will sing a song about making music with calculators.

[VIRON]

Oh, I forgot to tell you what that is all about. Using a digital calculator (or digital computer) to calculate digital sounds. In this case digital means numbers. Sometimes it means fingers.

[trebuchet03]

Ditto.... Unless you're just converting your vinyl to digital format (as stated in the intro).

[LasVegas]

...but not in the final step... It would also be nice to explain, step by step, the process rather than how to install the programs. Also... That mp3 posted in the final step is not legal.

[not__you]

"don't do that. it's not legal." Doesn't anyone have morals anymore?