The Infringer's Guide to the Online Universe

So, for you beginners, there are a lot of ways to obtain audio and music files from the internet. I'm just going to lay down the few main ways that I download audio sounds and music on this page.

Limewire

So this is probably the most archaic, least efficient way to download music files anymore, but it's still worth mentioning for two reasons I feel. First, it's much, much easier to download single song files using limewire than most other ways if you don't want to have an entire album. And second, you can use Limewire to download torrents if you don't want to use a different program. (It's still not as efficient as actually downloading BitTorrent, but it's ok)

You can download Limewire for free at http://www.limewire.com/. I've made a little video for you with step-by-step instructions on using limewire:

The Hype Machine

The Hype Machine is basically the king of music blogs. Everyday they track thousands of MP3 blogs. Pages are then reposted and MP3 links are added to the database. The best part is that the blog that posted each track is linked to the Hype Machine, so that you can go back and view their content.

So why is this good for you, a copyright killer, looking to fill up your iTunes? Well the hype machine lets you download single music files just like Limewire, but unlike Limewire, it's easier to find just released or more obscure music files and downloading is faster.

I'm posting a short how-to video that I found, but I can write out some pointers, too. First, if you don't want to just browse the front page, you can use the search bar to find whatever artist or song you want. A page full of links to other blogs will come up with a play button next to each entry for you to sample the tracks posted. However, if you want to actually download the song and not just listen to it, click on the link "Read Full Post". On this page, you should usually be able to right click on the MP3 link and save the file to your computer. If not, it may be because the links have been removed since the blog first posted the track (this really only happens maybe twenty percent of the time). Usually if this happens, you can just keep going to the next entry listed in the search results of the Hype Machine and try that instead.

The how-to video can be found at http://www.viddler.com/explore/dimonay/videos/5/

Find the Hype Machine at http://hypem.com/.

File Sharing

So this is my preferred method of downloading files. Using these sites is so simple, and they don't require downloading extra applications. I use it primarily to download entire albums since it is easier to find larger files with these sites, but you can also get single song files from them. The best sites to use are rapidshare, megaupload, mediafire, megadownload, and filestube to name a few. Of these, I think that mediafire is the best site and the most reliable.

To use these file sharing sites, simply search in Google or another search engine the name of the artist or album that you would like to download + the file sharing site you want to use to download the file. Usually you get the best results if you only use the name of the album that you would like to download. So I might type into Google: aha shake heartbrake mediafire. Then I would choose the file with the most amount of MB. Once it has downloaded, just open the file and add the songs to iTunes or whatever application you use to play music.

BitTorrents

BitTorrent is a peer to peer file sharing protocol used to transfer large files. The basic principle is that the first user, or seed, has a file that he or she may share with other peers. As peers download the file, they become seeds, and the download task is distributed among users. Thus, when searching to download audio or video files, choose the file with the most seeds.

I'm posting a tutorial video, where he suggests using http://www.mininova.org/. Another site I would suggest is http://isohunt.com/. These are just two examples of public domains, you can also sign up for an account with private domains, which are generally more secure.

Ripping Audio from Downloaded Video Files

Downloading Video Files
If you have GarageBand, you can easily extract the audio from YouTube or other videos that you've already downloaded. I find that this is particularly useful if I want a live performance. First, download the video file that contains the audio that you'd like to extract. Once you've done this, open up GarageBand and select "New Movie Score". Go to File, and open the video file. It will open up as two separate tracks: the video track and the audio track. Just delete the video track, go to Share, and select Send to iTunes.

Other Downloadable Audio Files

If you want to download just noises and sound effects, there are many free internet resources. The ones that I usually use are:

http://www.archive.org/index.php

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html

http://www.findsounds.com/ISAPI/search.dll