Downloading Music

[BJS]

I have a Audio CD on which I want to download 4/5 songs for a church service. Firstly can you download songs for free. Secondly I think the disc has a capacity of 658Mb. How many songs approx. could I get on it. Lastly how can I make sure the songs are downloaded in the order I want them to be in. A great many thanks for any help as it is quite important to me.

[Buenchico]

>>>Firstly can you download songs for free
Generally, no. (Well, not legally anyway!). Individual tracks usually cost between 69p and 99p on Amazon.

>>>How many songs approx. could I get on it
You need to be careful as to what type of disc you create. Downloaded music files come in MP3 format. You can burn MP3 files directly to disc but you can't play such discs with a standard CD player. (You can only play them with a computer or with a CD player that recognises the MP3 format). You could fit dozens (or even hundreds) of MP3 files onto a CD but you're limited to around an hour's playing time with an AUDIO disc (which is what you need to create - see below).

>>>how can I make sure the songs are downloaded in the order I want them to be in
You can download them in any order, saving them onto your PC's hard drive. You then need to make an AUDIO disc (not a 'data' one) using your computer's burning software (where you can choose the order).

[BJS]

Alas I'm in my 70's and not very technically minded so your answer is a bit to much for me to understand. Is there way to put your answer more simpler but thanks for the reply.

[Buenchico]

Step 1:
Decide where you'll download the files to on your computer. (You need to download them to our hard drive first and then burn them to a disc later). I suggest putting them in a folder on your desktop. To create such a folder, right-click on your desktop and select 'New> Folder'. Type a a suitable name (such as 'Service') and hit the 'Return' key.

Step 2:
Go to the Amazon website: http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Search for a song and click the 'Buy' button. Go to the checkout and pay. (You can do that for each song or you can order them all first and then pay for all of them). When you're asked where to save the file(s), navigate to your desktop by clicking on the little downward arrow at the right of the 'Save in' box and clicking on 'Desktop'. Then double-click on the 'Services' folder.

Step 3:
Put a blank CD into your computer's drive and open your burning software. That's likely to be Windows Media Player. If it is, follow the instructions from number 3 onwards here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Audio-CD-With-Windows-7
(Where those instructions refer to 'your music library' substitute 'your Services folder').

The task is actually very easy but, if you're a bit nervous about trying it (especially if it's for an important church service) I suggest getting a more computer-literate member of the church community to guide you through it in person. (NB: Please don't read that as being patronising towards 'silver surfers'; I'm one myself!)

[BJS]

Thank you for your answers the second looks more understandable and will be attempting that in the next week.

[ShadowPuppet]

There isn't a way to download music free legally and thus without risk of bugs. In fact there are apparently bugs purposefully embedded into illegal downloads to discourage them.
Then you have the software with which to download illegally such as Limewire which is full of spy/malware. This was confirmed by an expert my mother took her laptop to when it crashed. Quite the same way a desktop of mine did a few years before. Both machines had contained Limewire.
Buenchico seems to have the rest of covered.