Downloading Music

Many legal music files are available on the Web. There are sites that offer free downloads and sites that charge for downloading, either by the song or a monthly fee. Many performers offer music downloads for free on their Web sites.

Most music files available from the Web are in MP3 format. MP3 is one of the most popular sound formats for music because it combines good compression (small files) with high quality. MP3 files generally compress file size to approximately a megabyte per minute. MP3 files are actually MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) files in a format that encodes sound.

Many Linux distributions don't provide an application that plays MP3 files, so you need to install one yourself. Two multimedia sound applications that play MP3 format, as well as other formats, such as WAV files, are:

• Xmms: Xmms (X Multimedia System) is installed by default on many Linux distributions. However, in some distributions, such as Fedora Core, MP3 support is disabled. You can install a version with MP3 support to make xmms more useful for playing music from your hard disk. You can download and install xmms from www.xmms.org. Installing software is discussed in Chapter 10.

• Rhythmbox: The default music player for GNOME on Fedora. Rhythmbox stores a play list that you can set up to play in order or randomly. In addition, Rhythmbox stores Internet radio stations that you can start with a click. However, on Fedora, Rhythmbox doesn't include support for MP3. You can add MP3 support from www.rhythmbox.org. Installing software is discussed in Chapter 10.