How is it done?
Music on the Web
 

Music on the web

This page provides the necessary information on the software that you need to convert and play music from different web sites and it covers the following:

  • MP3 Players
  • Spotify - Listen to music from this streaming service
  • How to create MP3 from Streaming websites
  • How to convert to MP3 from CD, Tape, Record etc.
  • How to convert MP3 to Audio CD
  • Broadcast Sites and .rm & .ram file

Converting your CD audio to MP3 format is legal as long as you own the original copy and you use the MP3 version for your personal use. The Home Recording Act of 1992 says it's OK to make personal use copies of tapes/CDs/LPs which you have legally purchased. The RIAA is currently working out a "a voluntary digital music security specification" to be released soon. It is known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative, or SDMI.

MP3 and MP4 Players
VideoLAN is a software project, which produces free software for video (Ipod Video), released under the GNU General Public License.

It plays almost everything (including Real Player formats .ram .ra)

 

Good Streaming Music Website
Spotify is a streaming music program that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay. It has almost every track from all artists. You need to download and run a programme and Music can be browsed by artists, albums or created playlists as well as by direct searches.

This music service is free in parts of western Europe (it plays an advert every 30 minutes on the free version) although the subscription model should be available in almost all countries .

If Spotify skips the first few seconds of the track then go to 'Edit' - 'preferences' and uncheck 'Enable hardware acceleration'

http://www.spotify.com/

How to create MP3 from Streaming Websites
Before the digital era everyone used to tape their favourite tracks from the radio on Sunday afternoons when top of the pops was on. You can equally do the same with any streaming service if you're prepared to resort to old recording techniques.

If you can hear the music playing through your computer then you can digitally record that music. It is not as easy as downloading a track but once you get used to it you can create MP3 from any Streaming website.
The following instructions were written for the material that could be lawfully downloaded. Please be aware that it is illegal to download any Copyrighted material from the web.

How to install Stream recorder:
1- You first need to download a free recorder such as 'Audacity' programme from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ and install it.
2- You also need to download 'lame_enc.dll' to enable you to convert the track to MP3.You need to copy this 'lame_enc.dll' file in the Audacity installed directory i.e. 'C:\Program Files\Audacity'
3- Open Audacity. Click on Edit > Preferences and make sure that your sound card is selected for the Playback and Recording Device
4- Change the Recording Channels to "2 (Stereo)".
5- Click on the "File Formats" tab and then the "Find Library" button, a message will pop-up talking about MP3s. Click "Yes".
6- Browse to the installed directory that you saved the .dll file i.e. 'C:\Program Files\Audacity' and you should see "lame_enc.dll". Select this file and click "Open". Now click OK to confirm and close the Preferences window.
7- Last thing, make sure that along the top bar 'Stereo Mix' or 'Record Master' is selected. This may be not be the same on all computers, so from the dropdown you need to select the one that works on your PC. Remember that if you select 'Record Mixer' you need to disable your 'Microphone' from Volume control otherwise it also records from the microphone at the same time.

On Vista, recording sources such as microphone, line-in and "stereo mix" are no longer treated as sources belonging to one device as they always were in previous Windows versions, but as individual recording "devices" in their own right. As a result, the Mixer Toolbar dropdown selector will be permanently greyed out and you cannot choose recording sources there. Instead, input sources are chosen at Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O tab in the "Recording Device" dropdown. The input volume however is still adjusted using the input volume slider (by the microphone symbol) in the Mixer Toolbar. Full Details

How to record a song to MP3
1- So presuming Audacity is already open. Find and play the song or the Radio station that you want to record from.
2- OK, now press the record button and immediately afterwards press play on the streaming website. You should see sound waves on audacity as it records.
3- Adjust the recording level such that the recording graph does not reach the sides, the default level is generally too high and will distort your recording if you don't turn it down. You may need to set the Input Volume as low as 0.4. Let the song play to finish and click the stop button on Audacity.
4- OK, now in Audacity go to File > Export and MP3 choose a file name and click save, and confirm the export as MP3. Enter you ID3 tags if wanted. You're MP3 will then be exported.
5- Audacity will also let you select areas of the recording to export as MP3, so if you wanted you could play and entire album and then select each section that represents a song and export it.

How to convert to MP3 from CD, Tape, Record etc.

First the track from the audio CD requires to be copied to you hard drive. This process is called "Ripping" and changes the audio track on the CD to an uncompressed WAV-file on your PC.

The uncompressed WAV-file now requires to be converted into an MP3 compressed file. This is done using a program called an "Encoder".

There are some free encoders also available that will convert your WAV-files to a high quality MP3 and musicmatch is one of the best. Just set the configuration conversion to 128 kbps, place the CD in your drive and click the record button on your screen. The Music Match would take care of the rest.

This programme allows you to edit the 'Track Tag' and insert the singers image to your MP3 by just right clicking your mouse. Another free player is WinAmp (WWW.winamp.com)

You can also create MP3 files from an audiotape, an old vinyl record or other media. You first need to connect the analogue device (line out) to your PCs sound card (line in). With the help of a digital recorder that normally included with most soundcard packages, you record the music onto the hard drive of your PC. You need to set the sound source to Line In.

If you don't have a 'Creative Lab Soundblaster card' the chances are that you need additional WAV recording software such as 'Cool Edit'www.ttp.co.uk or 'Gold Wave'www.goldware.com.

You need to try to record tracks a few times to find the optimal set-up for your PC system and the set-up is likely to vary from song to song. Your music file would be saves in WAV-file format on your hard drive

Once a music track has been recorded onto your hard drive you should copy and paste the individual tracks onto separate files and save them separately using a WAV Studio software.

You can convert your .wav files to MP3 using Music Match.

How to convert MP3 to Audio CD
Music match would convert MP3 files to .wav and back You could use this facility to convert your MP3s to .wav file formats. Most CD writers would create the .cda (audio CD) from the standard .wav files. Remember to set your writer to store as 'Audio'.

You need to store MP3s as 'Data' but .wav files could be stored as 'Data' or as 'Audio'.

Broadcast Sites and .rm & .ram file

.RA (Real Audio) .RM(Real Media) and .RAM (Real Audio Metafile)

A file with the extension .rm or .ram is in a proprietary format supported by a company named Real, part of RealNetworks. You need the RealPlayer available free from RealNetworks to listen to this format. Be advised that many ads pop up on the Real web site. All you need is the free version. It's not uncommon for Real to change its links to the free stuff to direct you to their commercial offerings.

There are also some Codecs that allow these files to be played using the Media Player. You need to search Google to find it.