Make the Most of Your MP3 Player

Download, Dude

You can also download music from the Internet. You've probably heard of Napster, the defunct file-sharing service that became synonymous with MP3s. As well as helping to usher in the digital music revolution, Napster also let you download music without paying for it. It's been shut down as a result of many lawsuits. The music industry now offers a few music services that you pay for, and they're worth checking out. You can also still get tracks from some Napster-like file-sharing services and legal free download sites.

Emusic and Pressplay, which is available through Yahoo's Launch and MP3.com, charge a monthly fee for downloads. Fees usually start at $10 and go up from there. You can also download tracks to your portable player or burn them to CD (restrictions apply -- see "Essential Sites" for more information).

You can still get something for nothing through file-sharing services like Kazaa and Morpheus. However, the legality of such downloads can be questionable--and the same goes for the quality of some tracks.

That doesn't mean you can't legally get free digital audio files. Amazon, RollingStone.com, and Billboard.com have several current hits available for free. Make sure your player can read the format before you spend the bandwidth downloading it. And check out your favorite artist's site--many give away new tracks for free as a promotion; however, these giveaways often expire after a certain amount of time, and the sound quality may not be first-rate.

You transfer files from your PC to your portable player using the software bundled with your player, using a USB, FireWire, or USB 2.0 connection. If you've got an MP3 CD player, you need to burn the tracks onto a CD-R or CD-RW disc. When you burn the disc, remember to save the files as data, not as audio. Otherwise, the software will make WAV files of the music, and you'll lose the compressed size. (For complete instructions on how to burn CDs successfully, see "How to Burn Without Getting Singed.") You should also peruse your player's manual; many CD MP3 players let you group songs into albums by segregating them into separate folders.