music.download

Fewer people are illegally downloading and sharing music, NPD Group said in a report today.

Among those surveyed for NPD's "Annual Music Study 2012," 40 percent who illegally downloaded music via peer-to-peer services in 2011 said they had stopped or decreased their illegal downloads in 2012.

Overall, the number of illegally downloaded songs from P2P services dropped by 26 percent in 2012 from 2011.

Part of that was due to an overall decline in the use of P2P services. At the 2005 peek of P2P file sharing networks, 33 million people used them. For 2012, that number … Read more

Spotify has been around for a good year and hasn't changed much; it's still one of our favorite applications for music on-demand and music library management. Taking cues from iTunes, Spotify integrates your existing music libraries with its own giant catalog of songs from artists all over the world. Where it trumps iTunes is that all the music is pretty much available to stream for free, with offline functionality for an addition ten bucks a month. In their in-app advertisements, claimss like "Piracy is overrated" are quite justified; it's seriously one of the most easiest … Read more

Spotify is no longer allowing new download purchases through its service in Europe.

The company posted an FAQ to its U.K. site recently, saying that it is "no longer supporting new download purchases on Spotify." The music service didn't provide further details, but noted that users can still use downloads that were already purchased. Music that was already downloaded but not yet used is not affected by the change.

In a statement to CNET, a Spotify spokesperson confirmed it stopped the purchase option, but said that "we're not ruling out their return." Spotify … Read more

This app not only provides an alternative environment for you to browse and play music, but it also allows you to pick off those music files directly from the Web. Easy MP3 Music Downloads Pro acts as both a download manager and a media player.

The starting interface of Easy MP3 Music Downloads Pro resembles the interface of Android's default music player app. There's the playlist, artists and albums section. Thus it is probably technically impossible for anyone to get lost in it. The basic functions are also quite the same. You can choose a music file from … Read more

A new music service from MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom was given the video treatment today.

Kim DotCom posted a video on YouTube today showing off a new music service that he, and what appears to be a large development team, are working on. The two-minute video includes everything from a listing of artist songs to some details on functionality, including the ability for users to upload their music to the service.

Megabox was first revealed last year as a technology that promised to transform the music industry by allowing artists to sell their own music and earn 90 percent of the revenue … Read more

You may have noticed that many YouTube videos are actually music with some kind of visual accompaniment added, such as still image slideshows, cover art, psychedelic effects, and a particular favorite, a video camera pointed at a spinning turntable. You can download and save tunes from YouTube with the greatest of ease with YouTube Music Downloader -- videos, too. This free tool makes it easy to grab and save YouTube files to play later, share with your friends, and do the other things you can do with freely available content. But YouTube Music Downloader lets you quickly choose your audio … Read more

eMusic is the little music service that could.

The company has been around since just about the dawn of the MP3 era, yet it's rarely mentioned in the same breath as Amazon and iTunes or Rhapsody and Spotify. Heck, it's rarely mentioned at all.

And yet it chugs along, offering one of the better deals on music downloads you'll find anywhere. In fact, if you sign up for a free 14-day trial, the deal just got a little sweeter.

Specifically, when you register for an eMusic subscription, you'll get a $17.50 credit, which is good … Read more

So. Lana Del Rey. Overnight sensation. Controversial pop figure. Atrocious "Saturday Night Live" performer.

Me, I've always had a soft spot for deep, drawling female voices, and they don't get much deeper or drawl-ier than Del Rey's. So I thought I'd spring for her album and see what all the fuss was about.

Because Google's been hypercompetitive in the music market of late, I started my "Born to Die" shopping at Android Market. The price there: $11.49.

Next stop: iTunes. I don't typically buy my music there, even though … Read more

Continuing this week's unofficial deals-under-$10 theme, let's talk cheap tunes.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering 129 one-hit wonder MP3s for 69 cents each. (That's the promotion's landing page. If you want to see the choices in list form, click here.)

You've probably heard most, if not all, of these songs on the radio, which is still the place where one-hit wonders are born. And maybe you even bought an entire album just to get one song--only to be disappointed by the rest of the tunes.

Heck, maybe you've long harbored a … Read more