The MusicFile - Discovering Music - Streaming Radio - Music Downloads - Music Blogs

We're here to make finding great music easy. It's out there, it's just overwhelming to sort through it all and who has the time? Plus, the really good stuff almost never makes it to the radio. It's enough to shake your faith in the whole system. So we're here to help - finding the best of the best - the undiscovered, the newly discovered and the rediscovered.

We'll send you the top line via e-mail every two weeks and our website allows you to listen to our recommendations on our Radio player and buy what you like from iTunes.

We even create great mixes based on each of our articles that you can download from iTunes with one click. How's that for easy?

And for those of you with more time...check out our blog. Participate and pontificate on all things musical. We want to hear what you have to say (An RSS feed is in the works so you can be kept up to date when new entries occur).

Enjoy! We hope we can play a large role in helping to restore your faith in music...

Please visit us at www.themusicfile.com

Chris Fehrmann is a website advertising professional.

PSP Music Guide: Three Steps On How To Download Software For PSP Users

The Portable Sony Playstation (PSP) is a multimedia device that can allow you to play, not just games and video, but also music. So how can you, as a PSP owner, begin downloading music onto your PSP?

Well here is a quick guide for beginners, on how to convert your current music files into PSP format audio files:

Step One --- Download The Software

First of all, you need to download software onto your PSP that allows you to convert MP3 files into PSP MP4 format. One of the more popular PSP convertor software out there, is the Xilisoft CD Ripper and Xilisoft PSP Video Converter.

Xilisoft PSP Video Converter is a superb MP4 video converter which helps you convert video to Sony PSP movie (.MP4 file).

This PSP Converter can convert most of the popular music and video formats such as MPEG, WMV, AVI, DVD and so on. Its best attribute is that it breaks down all of the, sometimes complicated, conversion processes into easy to follow steps.

Download this software (currently the Xilisoft PSP Convertor is available as shareware for the price of $29.99), and install it.

Step Two --- Converting Audio CD's

Now start up the Xlisoft convertor and load your audio CD, selecting the option "Lame MP3 Encoder" for your PSP. You then click on the "Extract and Encode" option in the "File" menu. This will now begin the conversion process. For audio files, load the files up into your PSP by clicking on the "Add" button (or you can choose "Add" in the File menu).

Highlight the loaded audio files and choose output format from the "Profile" box. Make sure that you select "PSP Audio Format" for your PSP. Once done, click on the "Browse" button, and select the folder where you would like to store and save the output file.

Now click on "Encode" to start the conversion and once it is completed, you will have the PSP (MP4) format version of the audio file on your PSP.

Step Three --- Converting Audio Files On Your PC

Simply connect your PSP to your computer. In the "File" folder, the "H:" Drive is your PSP drive. Simply drag and copy your audio files onto your PSP.

Now you should be able to listen to your favorite music on your PSP!

Allen Stevens is a part-time games tester and PSP game enthusiast. Are You Looking For PSP Game Reviews, Game Cheats, Or A Good PSP Video Converter?

Well you can learn more, about all three, simply by visiting http://www.PspEmulatorsOnline.com/downloads

Free Music Downloads - The New Internet Craze

When you are a music enthusiast, you are permanently striving to take your passion for music to the next level by regularly updating your music collection and looking for information on your favorite artists and bands. Considering the fact that most offline music resources charge considerable fees for music purchases (CDs, cassettes and old records), lots of young music enthusiasts are turning to the Internet for satisfying their insatiable passion for music.

Websites that offer members and / or visitors the opportunity to download free music online and to keep the pace with the latest musical trends and rumors have become increasingly popular in the last few years, drawing thousands of visitors to their online pages every day. By allowing people to access the latest information regarding their favorite bands, solo artists, future concerts and various other music events, as well as enabling them to find and download music from an extensive, well-structured database free of charge, free music download-offering websites are much appreciated by all categories of age, especially the young!

With so many free music download-offering websites out there, the task of finding and downloading your favorite songs is quick and simple. Among the myriad music websites accessible online it is virtually impossible not to find your favorite music in free downloadable format. However, it is important to note that music downloads generally become free only after a certain amount of time, and only if the artists / bands allow it. Thus, due to perfectly understandable reasons, to find freshly released songs from your favorite music artists in free downloadable format and fully compliant with copyright regulations is very difficult. Ignoring this minor disadvantage, free music download-offering websites completely deserve the great popularity and the excellent feed-back they have been receiving these days.

Although the Internet is filled with free music download-offering websites, it is important to separate the good websites from the rest in order to obtain the best results. When you are looking for high-quality music downloads (the best music downloads are usually compressed in 128 kb/s or higher mp3 or WAV format), an extensive, well-organized and regularly updated free music download library and the latest news regarding your favorite music artists and bands, you should only stick with the serious, reliable and dedicated websites. Once you have found the website that can efficiently service your needs and requirements, you can enjoy music downloads and stay in touch with the latest music news free of charge and with minimal effort.

While some free music download-offering websites are only addressed to music fans, others also enable existing and aspiring bands and artists to promote their music online and achieve better exposure. For the unsigned artist, such websites are the perfect place to start building a successful, long-lasting and rewarding musical career. With the help of the previously mentioned websites, unsigned artists and bands can post demo songs, shows, photos, as well as communicate with fans and meet other artists to collaborate with in the future. Nevertheless, this innovative feature greatly improves the prospects of unsigned artists to get noticed by industry professionals and thus accelerate their way to fame and success. Unlike regular free music download-offering websites, the ones that account for both the needs of aspiring artists and music listeners deserve extra attention and appreciation from music enthusiasts.

So, if you want to find more about free music downloads or even about unsigned artist, please go ahead and click on these links.

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I am a happly married mother of 4. I have been married for 10 years and hope that I can give you help and advice relating to keeping a happy home. you can visit my home page at http://helpful-homemaker.blogspot.com/

Music Downloads: Do Frogs Eat Apples?

Thank goodness Hurricane Ernesto was a dud; Floridians deserve a break from hurricanes and the rest of us are certainly not starved for hurricane coverage. As this storm's demise became obvious the cable news teams must have scrambled for alternative stories and maybe this prompted CNBC to air an interview with the CEO of a new company called SpiralFrog this past Tuesday. I didn't pay much attention at first, but since part of my job at ICMediaDirect.com entails staying on the lookout for new avenues of interactive advertising and SpiralFrog intends to deliver advertising through where none exists now, I took special notice.

SpiralFrog has an interesting plan and one that's generating interest as advertising dollars continues to migrate towards the Internet. This web-based company will let advertising fees essentially pay the freight of free music downloads for end users. SpiralFrog just signed an agreement with the world's largest music company, Universal Music Group, for access to their whole catalogue, an impressive feat for this new company. Should Apple, with their charged iTunes music, be threatened by these guys?

During this interview Robin Kent, the company's CEO, said he intends on fufilling the online advertising dream - to "monetize the unmonetizable", a phrase he used more than once. I admire his ambition, but this task may prove easier said than done. Low-cost and free options available to end-users of the Internet must certainly frustrate big online media companies. The Internet's experience shows that time and again when given the choice between free and paid content, end-users choose the free option. Is SpiralFrog's offering, then, too good to be true? I mean, what's an advertisement or two for free music, right? Additionally, these downloads will be 100% legal and free of unwanted adware and spyware. Remember, ads don't keep us from watching "24" or "Desperate Housewives".

This may sound terrific, but here are the challenges: 1) these downloads will not be iPod compatible because they will be of the Windows Media Audio (WMA) variety and SpiralFrog users will not be able to make copies of their music. 2) Downloaders will have to sit through monthly bouts of advertising for their music. 3) Mr. Kent described his target audience as the young Internet-savvy crowd that is already not interested in iTunes (thus, SpiralFrog does not pose a direct threat to iTunes success); but being savvy is not a coincidental condition and these elusive targets may not care to sit through mandatory advertising, either. If they can already get free music illegally and without consequence, they might not be lining up to listen to ads.

It would be wise for us in Internet advertising to keep tabs on SpiralFrog's progress because they will be attempting to harness revenue from the huge inventory of free and legal music downloads. The question is will the considerable inducements to use SpiralFrog outweigh the disinclinations not to? Runaway success could mean that Apple would have to change their own successful format, whereas mild success might only serve to encourage challengers to Apple's kingly share in the downloadable music space, possibly Microsoft. And then there's the real possibility that SpiralFrog will be a study in frustration for having gone after a user segment that's already satisfied with illegal downloads. It will be interesting to watch.

Joseph Pratt Media Analyst TEL: 212-563-6455 Email: joseph@icmediadirect.com ICMediaDirect.com www.icmediadirect.com

Internet Music Downloads and the Music Industry

If you are a music lover the Internet music industry has given you access to music like never before. No matter your taste in music, if it's grooving to the latest hip hop tracks, or relaxing with classicial music, no problem. You can find what you like and download it within minutes.

By using special software you can now legally download just about every song that has ever been written. That's a lot of music and should keep you happily busy for a good long while.

The Internet really has changed the music industry. At first the music industry powers that be misunderstood the Internet. They ignored it thinking that it was a geekish fad that would soon past. Let the nerds download a few songs from here and there. No matter. How many music loving nerds are out there anyway?

Apparently millions. After just a year or two, as the few nerdy downloads tuned into a flood, the music mogals decided they had better fight back. Thay actually brought lawsuits to bear upon poor average folks who enjoyed listening to music, especially free music they were collecting with peer to peer networks on the Internet. Good hard working folks like your uncle Bob and even Grandmother Beth were served with scary legal papers demanding that they cease all of that Internet music stuff and repent.

But folks love that Internet music. The more the music mogals sued and threw fits over revenue losses the more downloads took place. Millions and millions and zillions of them. Clearly the music bosses were on the wrong side of this issue.

Finally the lights begin to flicker on inside the captains of the music industry's heads. Perhaps the lights would have come on sooner if they had been thinking clearly about how big a deal the Internet and computers were to become.

But one can't be too hard on the good music executives. It's hard for anyone to think too clearly during and after a three martini lunch. Let's cut the guys some slack here. The gals too if any of them were big shot music execs at the time.

Probably there weren't big shot lady music executives around as the gals would have realized much sooner that it would be much easier to make the thieving rascals who were stealing all of the good music stuff customers in a different Internet way rather than try to scare them into becoming deaf with frequent threats and letters from expensive lawyers.

But anyhow, the music industry folks finally did realize that the Internet was not going to be a fad after all and that never in the history of this world has there been a better way to distribute a product, especially a product that could be digitilized like music, and distributed worldwide over the Internet at so little cost.

Hey, there's money to be made if the music goes through the proper Internet distibution channels. Their channels. Those shopping mall stores cost too much to operate anyway.

So what if it took the music industry guys until 2005 to fall into love with the Internet. Now they are in a firm loving embrace and are happy to have zillions of folks from all over the world paying them a little bit every time they download a song or two.

After all when you multiply any little old number times a zillion the total surely does add up fast.

There are still plently of folks who like to download free music but the paid sites are a lot more convienant to use and there is a lot less chance of sucking in some malware, syyware, or some really nasty computer virus during your download. The sound quality will be much better at most of the legal download sites as well, which is important to music lovers, so the pay for downloading model seems to be sound.

The future of music distribution, artists websites, movie distribution, software distribution, in fact anything that can be digitialized and downloaded to your compuer no matter where in the world you are located, looks to be bright.

People everywhere love their music and the Internet is just a dandy way to get it to them fast. And now we have Ipods. And MP3 devices, and more zillions of music loving people using them. The music industry mogals should easily be able to afford those fancy expensive lunches for a very long time.

And of course now they will tell you so. They knew that distributing music over the internet would be a big winner someday. In fact, to hear them tell it now they planned the whole thing.

Gerald is an Internet business developer who works from Thailand. His newest project is Terrific Hotels
Additional Online Music information may be found at Funky-Music-Reviews.Com

Music Download Scams - How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

Have you ever tried to download music from the Internet? Where do you go? A logical starting place is to type in "download music" at a major search engine. The search results you would see include a number of well known music services like Apple iTunes, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. But a majority of the sponsored links scream to you with messages like "99 Billion Songs", "Free", and "No Download Fees". Sounds pretty enticing? But, is it too good to be true? Read on to find out.

When you click on one of these sponsored links you will be taken to a very professional looking site. For this article we'll call the site MusicScamSite.com. The home page again reiterates the messages "Free!", "No monthly fees" and "No per song fees", along with promises of a very large library of songs; 12 million, 99 million or even 99 billion. Just "click here to download".

If you decide to proceed, you are asked to enter your name and email address. If there is a privacy policy or terms of service link available at this point, it often provides some interesting reading. Common provisions include: "MusicScamSite.com is a direct marketer that delivers email messages to its subscribers. All information voluntarily provided to MusicScamSite.com by a registrant may be used to support our marketing partner's data services business." This is the first red flag that this web site may not be what it first appears to be.

If you still decide to proceed further and volunteer your email address, you get another surprise on the next page: This free service requires a $34.95 membership fee for unlimited access. Or you can pay $1.37 per month for 2 years access. Hmm, this is an odd definition of free. But it's not unusual that "free" things often have a small fee associated with them, and $35 is a reasonable price to pay for unlimited access to music. And since you are paying a fee, it must be a legitimate service, right?

You have already given up your sacred email address, so what's another screen with your address and credit card information? You proceed. After successfully completing the transaction you finally gain access to the secret member's area. Here you will find links to software that you need to install on your computer in order to start downloading music. Commonly linked to software include LimeWire, and various versions of Kaaza and Gnutella.

But wait a minute! Are these not all freeware, peer-to-peer type applications? Indeed they are. And all the music files that you thought were provided by MusicScamSite.com are in actuality coming from your peers - users of the same peer-to-peer software.

Now you start to feel scammed. Isn't this illegal? While most people would probably agree that it is unethical to charge money for something that is otherwise available for free, it is probably not illegal. And besides, when you read the fine print of the terms of service you will notice that "the fee assessed by MusicScamSite.com entitles you to access the location, evaluation, and or recommendation of software products available from the web site and for the installation and technical support provided. All software recommendations refer to software that is available without charge to individuals at large for specific purposes." In other words, you are not paying for the software, just their recommendation of the software and their technical support.

But isn't it illegal to download music from peer-to-peer networks? Again the fine print absolves MusicScamSite.com from any responsibility: "Original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain intellectual compositions are protected by copyright law. Purchasing a membership in MusicScamSite.com does not give you license to download or upload copyright material. MusicScamSite.com implores you to respect copyright laws and share responsibly."

In summary, you have just parted with your email address and good money, and in return you have received free software and access to a publicly available P2P network. If you use this software to download any copyrighted music you will be breaking the law and may find yourself sued by the RIAA. None of the money that you paid to MusicScamSite.com will ever make its way to the music artists. To put it bluntly: you've been scammed.

How can you avoid being scammed?

1. On the Internet in general, keep in mind the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true..." Music artists and record companies like to make a living, so it is very unlikely that they will wholesale give away all their music for free or for a one time fee.

2. Do some further research before you part with your money. Type in the name of the site that you are considering; combine the name with words like "scam", "fraud", "refund". For the sites that are scams you will find two types of search results: stories in online forums that complain bitterly about being scammed, and review sites that highly recommend the scam site. The review sites in these cases are paid commissions for any paying customers they send to the scam site, hence their glowing "reviews".

3. Check out the site using a legitimate review site like McAfee SiteAdvisor.

4. Call the technical support number listed on the site. Can you get through at all? Since technical support is what you are really paying for, you should check it out before you buy.

5. Ensure that you have up-to-date anti-virus and adware scan software installed. This will not prevent you from being scammed, but it will protect you from some of the unwanted extra gifts that are often installed with the downloaded software from these scam web sites.

This article was written in August 2006. Individual web sites come and go, and the scams change over time. For current information and more advice please check http://www.DigitalMusicExpert.com/scams

Nick Dalton is a music aficionado and an expert in digital music technologies. He has worked as an Internet consultant and advisor to AOL, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music and many others. Nick Dalton is the editor of www.DigitalMusicExpert.com