Music technology

[cjsmith]

OK, I'm tired of lugging around twenty-year-old cassettes simply because I like one or two of the songs on each of the albums. I don't even listen to cassettes (partially because my car stereo eats them), but I can't bear to throw them all out.

Obviously it would be very expensive to replace every one of them with the analogous CD. I'm a cheapskate. Plus it's a low-density solution: on each CD I would still like just one or two songs. There has to be a better way.

So... what about those MP3 players, for which songs can be purchased one at a time? Question for the LJ brain trust. What do you use? What are the foibles and strengths of the player(s) you've chosen? What's your experience with the various ways to purchase music for them? Does anybody out there have a really wide selection of MP3s for sale, or am I faced with the (quite possibly illegal) prospect of taking a tape like Bobby McFerrin's "The Voice" and hand-recording it? What's your backup technology for your chosen system?

[Edits:
1. The stuff I want (for example, Bobby McFerrin's "The Voice") is not available from iTunes. Is there a bigger site, or at least a weirder site?
2. My car does not have a functional cassette input.
3. Anybody out there doing backups?]

Comments

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

There is no legal prohibition against copying music for personal use, even when it means changing to a different media. You may be thinking of one of two other issues:

- The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (one of the worse laws passed recently) makes it illegal to try to circumvent the copy protection on digital music. So you can buy a copy-protected CD, but not be allowed to copy it. You can possess a copy, you just can't make the copy, because to make the copy you'd have to circumvent the copy protection.

- The Harry Fox Agency licenses mechanical reproduction rights for people who want to reproduce and distribute copyrighted music in a new medium. For example, Supreme Audio gets licenses from HFA to sell MP3s of square dance records. However, this is not an issue if you are only going to keep the copies personally, and doesn't affect the right to perform them. From what I can tell, people who have claimed otherwise in the past regarding square dance callers making MP3s of records they own are simply wrong.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. I figure if a few people who are good at understanding the nuances and searching the web (eg you) agree with the guy who's in the biz (samhamm) I'm in good shape relying on that advice! :-)