Quick Kazaa question...

So, I'm just finally discovering Kazaa and I've got a quick question... Anybody have any idea why some of the music files I download don't play? I mean, the player looks like it's playing them, but there's no sound. Is there another type of media player that I need? They're supposed to be MP3 files, and I'm trying to play them with the Kazaa player or Realplayer.

BTW, I haven't gotten into MP3 files yet....just starting to....so whatever may seem to be common knowledge, is still "greek", to me.


Thanks in advance and I hope it's ok to put this here!

It's possible that they're named .MP3, but they're some encoding, like WMA or OGG.

I'd suggest getting a good all-around audio player. I like Winamp, but there are a number of others out there that work just as well or better.

You don't hear em Kazaa they're a *mime* group.

id only sugest geting ya mp3s from sites such as download.com there new bands that havent made it yet but its legal and less chance a virus

Ditch kazaa! It has too many viruses and fake files. Thats probably the reason they dont play. Try shareaza. You can get it at shareaza.com It is one of the best programs out there. I have never gotten a virus from it.

I believe the RIAA has a policy of adding bogus files to the Kazaa system as a means to discourage illegal file downloads. That's probably what you are getting when the files won't play or open properly. Another wonderful service provided by your favorite musical acts and the soul-less corporations that own them.

Isn't it ironic that the same songs that the RIAA doesn't want you to download for free, can be heard incessantly on radio for free.

BTW, if I have a copy of a song in my head 'cause I've heard it on radio so often, am I guilty of illegal 'brainloading'? Just curious.

I'll recommend Winamp over Realplayer -- it's a terrific all-around media player, and the program I miss most on Linux (as well as IrfanView).

I'll also recommend you look into GiFT P2P apps instead -- a GiFT client is capable of traversing all the (popular) networks in its search: Gnutella, FastTrack (Kazaa's network), Ares, and OpenFT. That, and they don't have 3rd party software (read: spyware and adware) piggybacking on their installers. http://gift.sourceforge.net/software/guis.mhtml (server extremely slow as of time of this post)
http://kceasy.com/ (free, open-source Windows GiFT client)

Kazaa is basically info-gathering spyware. Try Kazaa Lite. Same program as the old Kazaa but it's hacked to get rid of the junk.

I used to use Kazaa, but most of the files wouldn't work, so I ditched it. I tried Limewire next, which worked pretty well. My friends use bit torrent. It seems to be a little better than the others, mainly because instead of downloading a certain song, or tv episode, you can download the whole albaum in one file, or a whole season in one file. It is a little more complicated though.

I don't use it now because I'm not sure what the campus IT would do if they found out I was using it. Pitty, because there are several tv shows that I would like to get to watch, especially because my internet connection is really fast.

I agree with the previous posters, ditch kazaa. At best you may get a few decently encoded songs at worst you get infected files or even a subpoena from the RIAA!

Also be careful on any P2P site for obvious infected files. You will see a lot of these that have the same file size such as 872,159 or 202,477 (there are many more).

What I would recommend is to dl your songs from a cheap but legal source such as www.allfomp3.com . They are a Russian music site that does give money from sales to the artists but does not give one dime to the RIAA!!! Plus unlike iTunes, they aren't infected with DRM copy protection. Also you can choose the bitrate and type of file you want and the quality is as good as you want to pay for (you pay for file size not per song). Heck why dl off kazaa when you can legally buy songs for $.10 each???

ABTOMAT said:

Kazaa is basically info-gathering spyware. Try Kazaa Lite. Same program as the old Kazaa but it's hacked to get rid of the junk.

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It still access the same files, though, right? Which would mean I'd still be downloading lots of nothing files, or does it somehow filter those out?

Trashman said:

It still access the same files, though, right? Which would mean I'd still be downloading lots of nothing files, or does it somehow filter those out?

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Use a GiFT client as I stated before. You'll be able to access KaZaA's network (FastTrack) if you still wish, but you can disable it as well. Gnutella (Limewire, but also supported by GiFT clients) is the best for music as far as normal P2P.

I use OINK for music. They've got some pretty strict rules, but they have very good quality music, pre-tagged, and the whole albums are downloadable. But I do buy music; just download the ones I can't find anywhere.

Guys, its called ITUNES.

Why waste your time? Just pay for the songs without hastle.
( I love apple! )

-tom

GOOD suggestion, Cornkid! :thumbsup:

Wouldn't a discussion of the best way to break copyright laws by illegally downloading music be in violation of the CPF rules?

vtunderground said:

Wouldn't a discussion of the best way to break copyright laws by illegally downloading music be in violation of the CPF rules?

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I know a lot of people who use P2P to sample an artist's album before buying it. Including myself.

No one ever mentioned downloading illegal music. Lots of groups upload their songs to these services on purpose, to try and gain popularity.

I haven't downloaded music in a long time, but when I did I usually went right out and got the CD if I liked it. And in a couple cases I also have the books and T-shirts. :rock:

Cornkid said:

Guys, its called ITUNES.

Why waste your time? Just pay for the songs without hastle.
( I love apple! )
-tom

Click to expand...

Because who wants DRM INFECTED files? Who wants only 128kbit files or only mp4 (mpeg4-AAC) encoding? I like choices, iTunes does not give me any choices! The music you buy from there has major restrictions.

I prefer MP3 format, it works in a much larger variety of devices. I don't want to have to transcode my music into different formats for different devices (you take a quality hit when you transcode).

Allofmp3 for example lets you save in all these formats!

Lossy formats:
MP3 up to 320k variable or constant bitrate using LAME codec
OGG Vorbis up to 320k vbr
WMA up to 192k using wma7 or 320k using wma9 codecs
Mpeg4-AAC up to 320k variable or constant bitrate
MPC

Lossless formats:
Monkey's Audio Lossless
OptimFROG Lossless
FLAC Lossless
PCM Wave
WMA 9 Lossless

There are other online music stores as well that offer fully compatible MP3 without DRM (eMusic is one that comes to mind)

Oh Lord I so love www.allofmp3s.com. My $25 sure is going a long ways! Question: I am using WMA 192 kbs to get supposedly cd quality at the lowest price, is there a better setting?

geepondy said:

Oh Lord I so love www.allofmp3s.com. My $25 sure is going a long ways! Question: I am using WMA 192 kbs to get supposedly cd quality at the lowest price, is there a better setting?

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Any lossless codec is higher quality than WMA, which is lossy. FLAC is well-supported in the open-source community (Winamp will play it).