Hola Amigos:

My daughter has been given an MP4 player and she would like me to download a very long list of pop songs from the Internet and then put them onto her MP4 player.

I have worked out how the MP4 player works but what I do not understand is the downloading from Internet.

As far as I can see on Google there are many sites offering download of MP3 which I think is just as good for her player but my problems are:

1) Are they legal?
2) If I pay with my card will I be safe
3) What will I get for me money? I mean I do not want to pay an amount to find that I only have the right to download one particular singer.

Do any of you know of any good and legal safe site from which I can download pop MP3 songs?

Muchas gracias


Tomás

There are a variety of considerations related to your questions. MP4 is a short designation for MPEG-4. There are many different parts to MPEG-4 specifications. MPEG-4 Part 14 specifications are the media file format specifications most often followed by portable player manufacturers. MPEG-4 Part 14 specifications were based upon Apple's QuickTime data container format. MPEG-4 Part 14 containers can contain many types of audio and video files. However, some players that are advertised as 'MP4 players' are actually MP3 players that have the additional capability of playing AMV video, but that are not actually capable of playing MPEG-4 part 14 files or files with any other MPEG-4 format.

Apple has further confused that already somewhat confusing situation in its iPod players by starting to use the .m4a file name extension for unencrypted audio files and the .m4p file name extension for audio files encrypted by the 'FairPlay Digital Rights Management' system that it uses to encrypt music files sold through its iTunes Store. Most mobile phones (cell phones) that are advertised as being able to play MP4 files actually use 3GP which is a simplified version of MPEG-4 Part 12 which also is known as the MPEG-4/JPEG2000 ISO Base Media file format.

The 'bottom line' to all this is that it will be necessary to know the make and model of the player your daughter has to know exactly what types of files it is capable of playing.

1)Are they legal?

It may or may not be legal to download and use media files. Some copyright owners allow free use, but most don't. Reputable on-line music stores like iTunes pay royalty fees to copyright owners. Music files obtained from stores like that are legal to download and use. However, files obtained from unknown sources may be 'bootleg' copies that are not legal to use.

2) If I pay with my card will I be safe

Of course, there is some amount of risk when using a credit card to buy anything from anyone via the Internet, but that also is true when a credit card is used by buy anything by any other means. For example, any restaurant employee who has access to credit card numbers may use or sell them. The most important risk factor on or off the Internet tends to be the party payments are made to. I don't worry about using credit cards for Internet purchases from reputable companies, but I would be very reluctant to purchase MP3 files from unknown sources.

3) What will I get for me money? I mean I do not want to pay an amount to find that I only have the right to download one particular singer.

On-line music sales stores sell music a variety of ways, but most commonly they charge a small fee for each downloaded tune. Some stores allow some number of tunes to be downloaded after payment of a larger fee. Downloads are not usually restricted to a particular performer, although in some cases they might be. The bigger issue for most on-line music customers is the right to play downloaded music on more than one player. Customers generally would like to be able listen to tunes they pay for on a portable audio player, on their computer, in their car, etc., but most on-line music stores encrypt music files in ways that cause them to be usable only on a single player.

Another important issue related to your daughter's player is file encryption compatibility. For example, tunes purchased from iTunes can be played on Apple players like the iPod or iPhone, but not on most other players. It will be necessary know which player she has to give more specific advice.

-Bob

Hola Bob,

Thank you very much for the detailed help.

I am glad I asked because I knew none of those things and could easily have made the wrong download.

The information on the box is:


TEAC media systems

MP-233

8 GB

Flash MP3/MP4 Player

Support MP3, WMA, AVI movie

FM Radio und recording

Picture browsing JPEg

7 Modes equalizer

ID3 tag/lyrics support

So far I have taken one of my pieces from my PC and put it on her MP4 and that worked perfectly.


If I go to the Internet to download I will look for a very well known company such as HMV or a supermarket ( Tesco) here which seems to sell everything there is to sell!


Saludos cordials


Tomás

I apologize not getting back to you sooner. A fan in the main PC that I use each day failed Sunday morning. Integrated circuits on the motherboard overheated and failed before I knew that the fan had failed. I have been rebuilding the computer since and just got it back in operation. No data was lost thanks to nightly data backups even though the motherboard chip failure completely trashed the data on one of the 320GB hard disks.

I installed the same make and model fan in each my servers about a year ago. I noticed yesterday that some of them are starting to growl, so I just ordered replacements. When they arrive it will be necessary to take each server down for a few minutes while its fan is being replaced.

Your daughter's TEAC media player is able to play standard unencrypted mp3 and Windows Media Player audio files, and mp4 AVI-Movie files. It should be able play music files obtained from any on-line music store that offers files in one of those file formats, so long as the files are not encrypted for use by some other media player.

-Bob