Downloads

Getting songs (or other media) over the Internet is easy; getting it legally, safely, and quickly can be difficult. iMesh is a spyware- and adware-free file sharing program which allows the legal download of a large selection of music. There are two costs--first, there is a monthly subscription service ($8 as of this writing) to listen to your music, unless you pay an additional fee ($1/track in most cases) to "buy" the songs in MP3 format. Second, the music is restricted by DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, so there are limits on how it can be copied or transferred. Once your subscription is up, any songs you downloaded but did not buy become unplayable.

In addition to their commercial, licensed, downloads, iMesh allows users to share files of their own, but asks that such files by legally shareable. iMesh limits the file size allowed, so that only songs or very brief (less than 15 minutes) video files are shared. Text, PDF, and other file types are not permitted.
The iMesh interface is clean, simple, and easy to use; I had little trouble finding songs to download from all of my favorite bands. Playing them with Windows Media Player 10 was another matter--at first the software hung, for me, on "finalizing", and was unable to complete the download process. I able to resolve it by upgrading to WMP 11. Since the program is free to try for 14 days, interested users can easily find out if they will be able to use the software without difficulty.

--Ian Harac