6 ms·

Ask HN: Where to legally bulk purchase MP3 in 2022?

11 points by mprime1 4y ago

Is there a place online where I can legally and conveniently purchase mp3 for personal use? I know most services have an offline listening option, but It doesn’t always work great.

iwanttocomment 4y ago
Bandcamp (https://bandcamp.com https://bandcamp.com) provides DRM-free MP3 downloads, as does Amazon Digital Music (https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/ https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/).
- mprime1 4y ago
  Thank you. I didn’t know Amazon made it easy-ish to download mp3 and their catalog is quite extensive.
- pdevr 4y ago
  That link seems to 404, this works: https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?node=163856011 https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?node=163856011 Edit: If you want to follow what's advocated by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31386108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31386108, you can go here too: http://www.5z8.info/ninjastaroutlet_z8a6ci_toosexyfortv.mov http://www.5z8.info/ninjastaroutlet_z8a6ci_toosexyfortv.mov :)
Minor49er 4y ago
If I'm understanding your question correctly, I think you're looking for something like Bandcamp which lets you pay to add music or other audio items to your collection which you can stream or download in high quality formats https://bandcamp.com/ https://bandcamp.com/
- mprime1 4y ago
  Thank you. I thought band camp was good for indie music. For example looked up ‘Nirvana’ and I only see their debut album, Bleach, available. Still a great suggestion! Maybe I can’t get everything from there, but I can get some!
  - jmprspret 4y ago
    I think if you get Deezer (has a better selection of more "popular" albums) you can use a Python script to get the music files in lossless or MP3 format. Requires some setup iirc. It's not ideal at all. It's kind of sad that it's so difficult to get music files these days.
  - DerekL 4y ago
    Yes, that's because Bleach, released by Sub Pop, is the only Nirvana album that's indie. The others were released by DGC Records.
- mike_hock 4y ago
  That one time in band camp ...
- jmprspret 4y ago
  Bandcamp is fantastic and my preferred music platform. However it's sad more commercial popular albums can't be found on there, I'm sure due to record labels not wanting them on there.
  - dv_dt 4y ago
    For the more commercial tracks, it looks like Apple iTunes store still works. Not sure it meets the "bulk" part of your question.
daggersandscars 4y ago
Quobuz also sells 24-bit audio files. You can do this without a subscription, but certain subscription tiers provide a discount.
kX4A8o4mVmX8aW 4y ago
Most music services that sell music sell it DRM-free, so even if it's not MP3 to begin with, you can buy it, download it, and then convert it to MP3 or any other format with something like ffmpeg. Also, the vast majority of physical music CDs have no DRM and can be ripped to whatever format you want. This is more inconvenient but can be much cheaper than buying digitally especially if you are looking for popular music.
tkiolp4 4y ago
I download them from YouTube. I don’t think that’s illegal (The YouTube video has to be downloaded to my computer in order for my browser to play it. I just go one step ahead and extract the audio as mp3)
- mirceal 4y ago
  hmm... i'm not sure that's how it works. if i watch a movie in a cinema I will see it, right? I just take one more step and record my movie in the cinema so i can see it later. also, just because you can see/hear/taste/etc something in a given set of conditions does not mean that you have the right to re-experience it in perpetuity for free.
  - randomluck040 4y ago
    I think the comparison is not accurate. According to you, the person you are answering to would only have to listen to the song somewhere. In reality, the movie you are mentioning isn’t being shown to him in the cinema (when watching something on YouTube) but instead he is given a CD (or USB stick, …) to put into a CD-drive (or port) in the cinema to start the movie. After the movie is finished, the person watching the movie leaves and the movie stays at the cinema but OP has „infinite“ access to it unless the cinema decides not to show it anymore. However, that’s still not how it works because I’m sure YouTube has some licensing going on.
    - mirceal 4y ago
      I think it's more like you have access to the cinema 24/7 and you pay by watching ads between movies.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  If you're going that far, just torrent FLACs or MP3s, you'll get better sound quality.
  - Yaa101 4y ago
UncleEntity 4y ago
For the longest time I just got all my music off of the archive.org live music archive. Not a super huge selection but I could always find something interesting to listen to. Also found a bunch of bands I would have never otherwise from “so and so from $band_i_like did a set with $other_band” and checking out some shows from $other_band.

11 points by mprime1 4y ago

Is there a place online where I can legally and conveniently purchase mp3 for personal use? I know most services have an offline listening option, but It doesn’t always work great.

iwanttocomment 4y ago

Bandcamp (https://bandcamp.com https://bandcamp.com) provides DRM-free MP3 downloads, as does Amazon Digital Music (https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/ https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/).

mprime1 4y ago
Thank you. I didn’t know Amazon made it easy-ish to download mp3 and their catalog is quite extensive.
pdevr 4y ago
That link seems to 404, this works: https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?node=163856011 https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?node=163856011 Edit: If you want to follow what's advocated by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31386108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31386108, you can go here too: http://www.5z8.info/ninjastaroutlet_z8a6ci_toosexyfortv.mov http://www.5z8.info/ninjastaroutlet_z8a6ci_toosexyfortv.mov :)

Minor49er 4y ago

If I'm understanding your question correctly, I think you're looking for something like Bandcamp which lets you pay to add music or other audio items to your collection which you can stream or download in high quality formats https://bandcamp.com/ https://bandcamp.com/

mprime1 4y ago
Thank you. I thought band camp was good for indie music. For example looked up ‘Nirvana’ and I only see their debut album, Bleach, available. Still a great suggestion! Maybe I can’t get everything from there, but I can get some!
- jmprspret 4y ago
  I think if you get Deezer (has a better selection of more "popular" albums) you can use a Python script to get the music files in lossless or MP3 format. Requires some setup iirc. It's not ideal at all. It's kind of sad that it's so difficult to get music files these days.
- DerekL 4y ago
  Yes, that's because Bleach, released by Sub Pop, is the only Nirvana album that's indie. The others were released by DGC Records.
mike_hock 4y ago
That one time in band camp ...
jmprspret 4y ago
Bandcamp is fantastic and my preferred music platform. However it's sad more commercial popular albums can't be found on there, I'm sure due to record labels not wanting them on there.
- dv_dt 4y ago
  For the more commercial tracks, it looks like Apple iTunes store still works. Not sure it meets the "bulk" part of your question.

daggersandscars 4y ago

Quobuz also sells 24-bit audio files. You can do this without a subscription, but certain subscription tiers provide a discount.

kX4A8o4mVmX8aW 4y ago

Most music services that sell music sell it DRM-free, so even if it's not MP3 to begin with, you can buy it, download it, and then convert it to MP3 or any other format with something like ffmpeg. Also, the vast majority of physical music CDs have no DRM and can be ripped to whatever format you want. This is more inconvenient but can be much cheaper than buying digitally especially if you are looking for popular music.

tkiolp4 4y ago

I download them from YouTube. I don’t think that’s illegal (The YouTube video has to be downloaded to my computer in order for my browser to play it. I just go one step ahead and extract the audio as mp3)

mirceal 4y ago
hmm... i'm not sure that's how it works. if i watch a movie in a cinema I will see it, right? I just take one more step and record my movie in the cinema so i can see it later. also, just because you can see/hear/taste/etc something in a given set of conditions does not mean that you have the right to re-experience it in perpetuity for free.
- randomluck040 4y ago
  I think the comparison is not accurate. According to you, the person you are answering to would only have to listen to the song somewhere. In reality, the movie you are mentioning isn’t being shown to him in the cinema (when watching something on YouTube) but instead he is given a CD (or USB stick, …) to put into a CD-drive (or port) in the cinema to start the movie. After the movie is finished, the person watching the movie leaves and the movie stays at the cinema but OP has „infinite“ access to it unless the cinema decides not to show it anymore. However, that’s still not how it works because I’m sure YouTube has some licensing going on.
  - mirceal 4y ago
    I think it's more like you have access to the cinema 24/7 and you pay by watching ads between movies.
cercatrova 4y ago
If you're going that far, just torrent FLACs or MP3s, you'll get better sound quality.
- Yaa101 4y ago

UncleEntity 4y ago

For the longest time I just got all my music off of the archive.org live music archive. Not a super huge selection but I could always find something interesting to listen to. Also found a bunch of bands I would have never otherwise from “so and so from $band_i_like did a set with $other_band” and checking out some shows from $other_band.