Everybody’s doing it: downloading music and sharing files. People who share music files on the Internet argue that downloading is legal; today they can be sued by the record industry. Can one be sued without a great intrusion into personal lives of an individual?

1. Enjoy music downloads from safe and legal sources. Get the facts and not the scare tactics, about online music services.

2. The prosecution has to able to prove, with adequate evidence, that the IP address used for music downloads can be linked to the person accused of illegal content sharing. There is a growing concern for privacy. Legal experts worry about the intrusiveness of Internet monitoring in order to prove a court case.

3. These IP address–numbers–given to user by the ISPs are dynamic and change rapidly. The starting point is to establish that there is enough bona fide evidence to prosecute.

4. It is difficult to a pin an IP address on any one person. The IP numbers that some ISPs assign to their users can change from one session to the next. The music industry must be able to link file-sharers to specific IP addresses at the times those addresses were used for file sharing.

5. Since their are personal freedoms involved, the courts want to make sure that the individual is revealed to the public.

6. These copyright allegation lawsuits are a minefield, because they involve the personal information of the defendant.

7. In Canada, under its privacy laws, people are protected through court confidentiality orders. In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) must get a order to reveal the downloader’s identity.

8. It is difficult to give a definitive decision on the interpretation copyright law itself.

9. The legal tactics of the U.S. recording industry, which have been suing individuals for sharing music on-line. The entire music industry has changed dramatically. Since file sharing began, there has been an increase in the popularity of DVDs and video games that have put recording sales revenue in a slump.

10. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) desires the industry be compensated for losses due to copying, but what decision would make it a flat-out victory. Can the recording industry prove that its bottom line was really affected by file-sharing. In the U.S. the RIAA can sue for statutory damages of $750 per song on a file-sharer’s hard drive. But look dramatic price cuts by big box retailers. Once selling music files for charging 99 cents a song was the norm, now look at Yahoo who now offers $60 a year for all you can eat program. How can the RIAA or CRIA claim such high damages?

Downloading music has been around only a few years and is still evolving. A good road map is needed for what we have to do in the future in the area of copyright on the Internet. It doesn’t mean copyright law does not protect content. For sure, whatever rulings are arrived at, will have long-term effects for us all.

Vincente Applegate
Dedicated to offering news, articles, and instruction on online music downloads. You have a definite choice of music sources online. Visit http://www.anymusicdownload.com for more information.

Talented former British army man James Blunt has released his debut CD on the Atlantic recording label, entitled Bedlam.

This surely isn’t something we’d expect from a guy who was a part of the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, rode horseback for the Queen and watched over the Queen Mother as she lay in state.

Back to Bedlam is a pleasantly varied, mellow mix of 10 very well written songs by this superb new artist. Most of which display a lot of raw emotion. Drawing from his own personal experience, he sings great songs of love, heartbreak, pain, relationships and unattainable romance.

The CD launches with a great track, High, that will definitely be heard on radio stations everywhere, and deservedly so.

Overall Bedlam is an outstanding release. I give it two thumbs up.

While this entire CD is outstanding the truly standout tunes are High [track 1, Wisemen [track 3, and So Long Jimmy [track 7. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in Stuck On REpeat is track 2, You’re Beautiful. Very nice!

Release Notes:

James Blunt originally released Back To Bedlam on January 4, 2005 on the Atlantic record label.

CD track list follows:

1. High
2. You’re Beautiful
3. Wisemen
4. Goodbye My Lover
5. Tears and Rain
6. Out of My Mind
7. So Long Jimmy
8. Billy
9. Cry
10. No Bravery

To listen to samples of each song on Back To Bedlam by James Blunt go to: James Blunt CD – Back To Bedlam MP3 Samples

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic. In addition to writing CD Reviews like this one for several music related websites he also hosts an internet radio show, and invites you to join him daily for some of the best soul soothing smooth jazz you’ll ever hear at http://www.SmoothJazz247.com

If you’re a digital music fan, you probably have problems organizing your music file collection. For me, I used to have hundreds of MP3 files lumped in one folder in my hard drive. Can you imagine the pain I had to go through to find one specific tune to listen to?

Organizing your music files is an important skill to learn. Once your collection is nicely sorted out, you’ll be able to find the songs you want quickly and easily. So set aside some time and read through the following tips I’ve come up with.

1. Create Subfolders

The single most important tip for organizing your music files is to create subfolders in your hard drive. Don’t ever leave your MP3 files in one huge folder called C:My Music. Create subfolders like C:My MusicClassical, C:My MusicPop and C:My MusicSoundtracks.

2. Ensure your ID3 Tags Are Correct

ID3 tags are used to store important information about MP3 files. Things like the song title, artist, album are kept and will be displayed by your MP3 player. Take the time to properly edit these tags – many MP3 files you download have the ID3 tag information all wrong. A good software program for editing ID3 tags is TagScanner.

3. Invest in Good Music Management Software

There are several excellent pieces of software out there for managing music files. Two good ones come to mind. The first is MediaMonkey and the second is MusicMatch Jukebox. Both programs offer excellent music management features like an integrated music player, CD burning features and ID3 tag renaming.

4. Get Your Music Files from Legal Sources

If you’ve been downloading music using P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing programs like KaZaa, you will very likely get music files which have strange names like 56HeyjAck.mp3. My advice: Get your files from legal sources like online music services iTunes or Napster and you will avoid this problem.

5. Create Good Playlists

Most software music player (e.g. Winamp) will allow you to create playlists. For example, say you’re in the mood for rock songs, you can point to your folder called C:MusicRock and create a playlist from that folder. Save the playlist after it is created. When you next feel like listening to those songs, all you need to do is load that playlist instead of trawling through your hard drive and folders.

6. Get A Huge Hard Drive

I know this sounds a little crazy – but running out of disk space can and will ruin your well-organized music collection. Make sure you have enough hard disk space to store your music files. Say you have 10,000 music files that you absolutely must retain and listen to. It is a very bad idea to store, say, 8,000 files in Hard Drive A and 2,000 files in Hard Drive B. Very messy. It’s better to store them all in one hard disk. So get your hands on the biggest hard drive you can find.

Conclusion

I hope this article helps you to organize your music collection a little better. I know it takes effort, but once your music collection is properly catalogued, listening to your music collection will be a much more pleasant experience. So don’t hesitate – get organized now!

About The Author

Gary Hendricks is computer enthusiasts. He runs three websites about digital video, digital music and computers.

garyhendricks@digital-music-guide.com

More articles at article database

OK, say you’ve got one thousand of your favorite MP3 songs sitting in your hard disk. What’s the best way to enjoy those files? Most of us probably will use the Windows Media Player to listen to those files. but did you know there are other more innovative and interesting ways playback MP3, WMA and WAV files?

Let’s take a look at the five methods.

Use MusicMatch Jukebox

If you think most that most PC programs for playing digital music look like the built-in Windows Media Player, think again. There are programs out there that go far beyond the Windows Media Player in functionality. One great example is Musicmatch Jukebox from Musicmatch. Musicmatch Jukebox is quite simply the world’s best digital music player. It supports playback of various music formats like audio CDs, MP3s, Internet streams, WMAs, WAV files and more. You also get CD burning, music ripping and music organizing capabilities. The Plus version even allows you to automatically tag your music files with detailed info and album art!

Use a Portable MP3 Player

Portable music players like the Apple iPod, Creative Nomad and Rio Nitrus have taken the market by storm. You don’t have to be confined to your desktop PC or laptop to listen to digital music! The portable music players can allow you to take your music anywhere. The compact size of MP3 and WMA music formats means that you can literally take a jukebox of thousands of songs whereever you go! You may also want to check out my review of the top 5 portable music players here. There are also other portable music options, including handphones with MP3 support.

Use a PDA

The latest Pocket PC or Palm-based personal digital assistants (PDAs) can also act as music players. Pop in a large memory card (e.g. 64 MB) and you can store many MP3 or WMA files. Then hook up a headphone, launch the music software in the PDA and you’re good to go! I personally own a HP iPaq 2210 which effectively keeps track of my appointments and doubles up as a music player.

Use Your Car Stereo

This is my favorite way of listening to my MP3 collection. I recently bought a car stereo that can playback native MP3 songs. This means that I can pop in a data CD containing hundreds of MP3 files and the car stereo will play them! This does not work on conventional car stereos. If you own a conventional car stereo, but still want to listen to your MP3 songs, one way is to create an audio CD from your music files first. The car stereo will then have no problem interpreting and playing back the audio CD. Of course, in this case, you’ll be limited to about 14 to 17 tracks of music only.

Use Your Home Stereo

If you’re a music lover, you probably already have a home stereo. Use it to listen to your MP3 music files! However, take note that Like car stereos, conventional home stereos will not be able to play back native MP3 songs. You will need a newer home stereo set with MP3 playback capability. New models from Kenwood, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony usually have MP3 support.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to enjoy that digital music collection of yours. My favorite methods of listening to digital audio files is via a portable music player or the car stereo. Of course, you may have your own preference – some people like to listen to music off their desktop PC or laptop. Decide which method(s) is suitable for you and go for it!

About The Author

Gary Hendricks – http://digital-music-guide.com

garyhendricks@digital-music-guide.com

More articles at www.articles-host.com

1.Wired or wireless hi-fi connection

MP3s are no longer just on-the-move thing. There are now ways to play music stored on your computer through your existing hi-fi. The simplest way is via an analogue connection using a 3.5mm jack-to-phono cable.

This can be done either straight from your MP3 players headphone socket to your amp, or by connecting the internal soundcard in your PC to your hi-fi. But theres no reason to settle for an analogue connection: a digital hook-up to your home cinema receiver or amp is much more exciting. All you need is an optical or electrical link from soundcard to receiver. Or you could go wireless

Lets look at Apples solution: you need a wi-fi-enabled computer, which may require a card or adaptor of some sort. The AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi card is a good one at 60.

The computer is the hub for your network and the home of all your music, while the wi-fi card allows it to talk to the base station thats picking up the signal and redistributing it to your hi-fi. Which base station to use? Sticking with Apple, the Award-winning Airport Express at 99 is a good bet a clever device that plugs straight into any mains socket, and then connects to your hi-fi amp or a pair of powered speakers. It comes with all the software you need, and is simple to set up and use.

2.Multiroom music systems

The Apple system already mentioned is sort of a data network made hi-fi friendly, but theres a growing number of products dedicated to sharing music around your home. Several manufacturers make multiroom music servers, which are essentially mass-storage devices for music files designed to play music out into several zones at once.

These can be connected, using cables, to client units around the home, or they can do the same trick wirelessly. Some work on conventional 802.II-type wireless network; others, such as the Sonos Music Player system, work on dedicated wireless mesh systems, thus keeping the music as pure as possible.

3.Media Centres

So you store your MP3 files on your computer why not go the whole way and use it as a central hub for music, movies, still pictures, TV viewing and recording as well as the usual internet browsing and e-mail.

Its not hard these days, thanks to Microsofts Windows Media Center Edition operating system and software. And while this will run on just about any modern computer, hardware manufacturers have now embraced the multimedia world with units equipped with enhanced sound and video cards, and a control interface better suited to the needs of the general user, not just PC nerds.

Connect one of these computers to your plasma or LCD screen, or indeed a projector, and it becomes your DVD player/recorder as well as a library for all your media. Amazing!

More articles at free articles database

Everybody’s doing it: downloading music and sharing files. People who share music files on the Internet argue that downloading is legal; today they can be sued by the record industry. Can one be sued without a great intrusion into personal lives of an individual?

1. Enjoy music downloads from safe and legal sources. Get the facts and not the scare tactics, about online music services.

2. The prosecution has to able to prove, with adequate evidence, that the IP address used for music downloads can be linked to the person accused of illegal content sharing. There is a growing concern for privacy. Legal experts worry about the intrusiveness of Internet monitoring in order to prove a court case.

3. These IP address–numbers–given to user by the ISPs are dynamic and change rapidly. The starting point is to establish that there is enough bona fide evidence to prosecute.

4. It is difficult to a pin an IP address on any one person. The IP numbers that some ISPs assign to their users can change from one session to the next. The music industry must be able to link file-sharers to specific IP addresses at the times those addresses were used for file sharing.

5. Since their are personal freedoms involved, the courts want to make sure that the individual is revealed to the public.

6. These copyright allegation lawsuits are a minefield, because they involve the personal information of the defendant.

7. In Canada, under its privacy laws, people are protected through court confidentiality orders. In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) must get a order to reveal the downloader’s identity.

8. It is difficult to give a definitive decision on the interpretation copyright law itself.

9. The legal tactics of the U.S. recording industry, which have been suing individuals for sharing music on-line. The entire music industry has changed dramatically. Since file sharing began, there has been an increase in the popularity of DVDs and video games that have put recording sales revenue in a slump.

10. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) desires the industry be compensated for losses due to copying, but what decision would make it a flat-out victory. Can the recording industry prove that its bottom line was really affected by file-sharing. In the U.S. the RIAA can sue for statutory damages of $750 per song on a file-sharer’s hard drive. But look dramatic price cuts by big box retailers. Once selling music files for charging 99 cents a song was the norm, now look at Yahoo who now offers $60 a year for all you can eat program. How can the RIAA or CRIA claim such high damages?

Downloading music has been around only a few years and is still evolving. A good road map is needed for what we have to do in the future in the area of copyright on the Internet. It doesn’t mean copyright law does not protect content. For sure, whatever rulings are arrived at, will have long-term effects for us all.

Vincente Applegate
Dedicated to offering news, articles, and instruction on online music downloads. You have a definite choice of music sources online. Visit http://www.anymusicdownload.com for more information.

More articles at articles database

Times are changing. Digital music is accessible music and the industry is changing fast. Here, you’ll find extraordinary selection of services and sites where you can explore and find interesting sounds (and video) to pep up your iPod. The message is simple: if you’re hungry for music but don’t want to break the law, there are numerous legal alternatives to file sharing.

MySpace

MySpace has emerged as the leading destination for musicians and fans to meet, with 106 million users worldwide and it’s free to join, all it requires is that you fill in a registration form and create a profile. Once you’ve published your own page on MySpace, you can explore other pages and get connected to people and musicians you like by asking to be added to their collection of friends.

If you come across a band that you like, you just need to hit the ‘Add’ button in the clearly marked ‘Contact’ box, which is generally situated under the main profile description. When you submit a friend request, the other party receives a message telling them you want to get connected, so they can vet and approve you.

You will also receive the same message when others try to befriend you. You can expand your network quickly by leaving comments on your friends’ sites, thanking them for allowing the connection it’s good MySpace etiquette, and what you write may attract new friends to you. As your network grows, you will find it increasingly easy to find new, talented musicians.

MySpace also integrates ways users can recommend artists they like, for example, any page can host background music chosen by the page owner. When you navigate to a website playing music that you’d like to promote, you can choose to have that track play automatically when others visit your page.

You simply need to use the ‘Add’ button beneath the selected song. You’ll then be asked if you want to add the song to your page answer ‘Yes’ and the job is done. Personal users can only have one such streamed track on their site, while bands can carry two to four songs. Bands can choose to make their tracks available for free download, or just for streaming.

MySpace alternatives

While MySpace is the clear market leader in terms of users and activity, there are other social sites offering free and legal music downloads that will work with iPods.

GarageBand

Around since 1999, this music website hosts pages for independent bands. You can subscribe to fanlists, contact bands, find out about releases and gig dates, and speak with other fans. Site visitors can review music they find which can help casual browsers find some sounds they may like. Musicians decide whether to make music available only for streaming, or for free download.

SoundClick

With 3 million members and almost 2 million songs, SoundClick is a free community-based site focused on musicians. It offers tracks and information from thousands of unsigned acts, with music split into categories (Metal, Alternative, Pop, and so on). You can listen to streamed music, and some bands offer tracks in MP3 format for download. Bands can also choose to sell songs through this service.

Bebo

This social-networking site recently introduced its Bebo Bands service. While you can use the site to find new acts, it doesn’t yet offer music for download, but you can add tracks you like to your playlist on your own profile page. These songs only stream when you visit the site.

Pandora

This streaming service can help you find new artists, but doesn’t offer music downloads. It’s based on the Music Genome Project, which analyses every detail of songs to accurately recommend and play tracks based on a user’s taste. You set up channels Happy Mondays, for example and the service will stream tracks it thinks are similar. It’s a nice way to find new acts you may like, which you can then look for elsewhere.

Bands websites

Most bands these days have their own dedicated websites, some personally run by the act. Some offer free music downloads for fans, while others offer their own music stores where fans can buy tracks.

Legal music sales at low prices

Newly launched, the web-based eMusic subscription service offers a catalogue of 1.4 million tracks from indie labels. Songs cost as little as 17p. Unlike other subscription-based services, you can download and keep the music you choose. The site trusts its customers.

Songs are sold in MP3 format (encoded at 192k) and are free of any digital rights management technology. You can use your eMusic purchases on any system or any player (naturally including iPods and iTunes). You are allowed to burn your music to as many CDs as you like, and host your collection on as many machines as you want.

There are three subscription packages: Basic, 40 downloads per month for 8.99 per month; Plus, 65 downloads per month for 11.99 per month; and Premium, 90 downloads per month for 14.99 per month.

eMusic’s site navigation isn’t as slick as iTunes, but it does offer a wealth of information about the music it sells. It also publishes charts based on sales, so you can easily find the hottest new acts. Music is split into genres, such as ‘Alternative’, ‘Jazz’ or ‘Hip Hop’. Each genre is further divided into the sub-genres that exist.

You are encouraged to create your own playlists, which others can take a look at to help you find a band you might enjoy. You can also rate and review tracks.

Downloading tracks isn’t as straightforward as in iTunes as you need to install a software called the ‘eMusic Download Manager’ for both Mac or Windows (www.emusic.com/dlm/download.html).

Once you find a track you want to buy, click on the download link beside it. A file is then downloaded to your desktop. If you’ve set up your browser to automatically open downloaded files in the correct application, the Download Manager will open the file and begin downloading the track(s) to a folder, ‘My eMusic’, which the software creates on your desktop.

Once you have the music you can drag and drop it into your iTunes library (iTunes will import it, and file it just like any other track in its collection), or, in iTunes, select ‘File—Add To Library’ and navigate to the downloaded music in the eMusic folder on your desktop.

Other music services

While eMusic is the cheapest, most smaller music services have begun offering music in MP3 formats. It makes sense for digital services to do this, as Apples iPod is by far the most popular player and songs sold in other protected formats wont work on iPods. Process tends to be about the same or slightly higher than iTunes. The following services may be worth watching checking out.

Wippit

One of the oldest UK download services, Wippit offers a broad catalogue of music, though only minority of its catalogue will work with an iPod or iTunes. Tracks cost from 29p. The service also sells video, comedy and ring tones.

7 Digital

This service offers limited selection of music in the iPod-friendly AAC format. Songs are encoded at 192k (better than iTunes) and cost 77p. This service also offers video for iPods. The company also runs websites for bands and offers a service that lets unsigned acts sell their tracks.

TuneTribe

Most of TuneTribes major label catalogue is incompatible with iPods as its sold in Windows Media format. Some tracks mainly from indie artists are available as MP3s. Albums cost 7.99, while singles cost 89p. The site also offers articles written by working music journalists.

Trax2burn

This service offers a wide catalogue of dance music tracks at varying prices, approximately 1.49 per track. For that you get the music in MP3 format. Because its a service for working DJs, songs are encoded at 320k, which is approaching CD quality.

On the Blog

Theres a wealth of clued-up music-focused websites that legally distribute music (usually in MP3 format) for free. These are promotional tracks, which are made available to drum up interest in a band. The following sites are recommended to get you started exploring this alternate online music universe.

Epitonic

Epitonic has been around since 1999. Its mission is to switch music lovers onto new sounds and acts. Site features include a streaming radio station, reviews, features and band profiles. You can search the site for particular artists and navigation is easy. Some bands allow Epitonic to offer songs in MP3 format for free download, others just allow the site to stream songs so users can decide if they like the band.

The site also features a helpful recommendation system, listing similar artists on every individual artist page. Sadly, this service seems to be on its last legs staffs have revealed no future plans to update content, indicating it may be removed at some point. The site is still worth exploring if you are looking to boost your collection of avant-garde and indie music, and has an audience of dedicated users.

The Wire

This venerable international magazine focuses on non-mainstream experimental music across multiple genres. Because of its unique place in the hearts of music-makers, over the years it has gathered a substantial collection of free and legal MP3s, many of which it makes available for download. These include tracks from many top-flight musicians. (www.thewire.co.uk/web/mp3.php)

Knobtweakers

Knobtweakers promotes electronic music. The site offers a regular weekly podcast featuring the best underground electronic music talent from around the globe. It also hosts or links to tracks in MP3 format that are being made available legitimately with permission from the artists. Occasionally updated, the site also offers in-depth reviews and features covering emerging artists, so its an invaluable resource for fans of the genre. (www.knobtweakers.net)

Oddio Overplay

Dedicated to odd, obscure and out-of-print music, this site offers an extensive index of free and legal music downloads being made available across the internet. It also offers an extensive links section, and information that will be useful to independent musicians seeking outlets. The primary purpose of this site is to connect artists and audiences.

EC Brown

Artist Erik Brown hosts his creations on this website, including photographs of work he has made, links to web projects he has been involved with. For iPod users hungry for new music, Erik also hosts a page of MP3 links, which he describes as a personal log of MP3 links in various genres. Youll find links there to many more sites offering legitimate music downloads. (www.kittyspit.net/erik)

TofuHut

This site is a bloggers attempt to let readers know about the latest new MP3s as they reach the web. You should be aware that some of the tracks it suggests arent being made available legitimately, but many tracks are actually legal to download. The site also offers an extensive list of links to similar blogs, which are available at http://tinyurl.com/ae4ko (http://tofuhut.blogspot.com)

TourDates

This UK-based site acts as a gig listings website for all types of bands (signed and unsigned), DJs and other musical performers. It offers dedicated pages where musicians can tell audiences what they do, and also has a wide selection of free promotional MP3s from a host of independent acts. Theres also a forum where users can discuss the music they hear.

Net labels

Net labels distribute music exclusively in MP3 format. They are a little like more traditional labels in that they aim to promote albums or projects and build a profile of artists. However, these shoestring operations are managed by enthusiasts attempting to build careers outside the corporate music industry.

Net labels are particularly supportive of the notion of free downloads, and many of their releases are made available under licenses, such as Creative Commons License, that encourage sharing. Copyright remains with the artists, who tend to be electronic and computer music makers. Net label sites tend to link to others, so its a nice way to find some avant-garde musical gems.

Net labels releases

This yahoo groups site is maintained by net labels themselves. Label owners submit details of new releases as they happen, news updates and newsletters. Its not a conversational site, but remains an essential stop for anyone looking to explore new music from the scene. (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/netlabels)

Netlabels.org

This site is a huge index of the worlds net label sites. Youll find information on new labels as they appear, the latest releases, and lots of helpful advice for others hoping to start their own online music brand. There are also monthly updated charts detailing the most popular releases.

Beatpod

Another net label portal, Beatpod offers news and information about new releases, and also hosts a forum where music fans can rate and review these new releases. Theres also a built-in music player on the site, as well as the ability to download tracks to your Mac or PC. An extensive links section and links to other net labels completes the offering.

Internet Archive: Audio Archive

Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a non-profit organisation that collects and maintains a huge historical archive of digital creative products. Its well known for holding a huge collection of website images you can see Apples home page in different years, for example.

It also maintains a huge audio collection, in which net labels are well presented. The collection includes alternative news shows, Grateful Dead concerts, old radio shows, book and poetry recordings, and a huge assemblage of original music contributed by users. Its a tremendous historical collection of sounds. (www.archive.org/details/audio)

More than music

Some iPods will play and store video, and can be used to play back your video collection on some TVs. Apple doesnt sell TV shows in the UK yet, but does offer short Pixar movies and music videos. But where else can you go to find and download new and free videos for your iPod? YouTube and Google Video are first stops youll find personal movies, bits of TV shows and other delights on these sites.

Google Video

Googles video service offers a range of clips, as well as some material for sale (available only in the US). In some ways, tracking down the best clips is challenging, unless you know exactly what you are looking for. If you are searching for something specific, then its as effective as any other Google search if it exists, youll find it.

Google has made it easy for viewers to download clips they want to keep. To the right-hand side of movies that can be downloaded is a Download button. To the right of that button theres a drop-down menu where you can decide whether to download it for Mac/Windows, iPod or PSP. Once you have downloaded the clip, you simply need to open iTunes and select File→Add File to Library to import the clip to the media browser, after which it will be synced to your video iPod next time you connect it to your Mac.

YouTube

Its little more complicated with YouTube. While the site has grown astonishingly popular, eclipsing Google and others in terms of the number of users it interacts, it doesnt make it easy t download clips. The most straightforward way to download a YouTube clip for your iPod is to use the excellent KeepVid service (http://keepvid.com).

When you come across a YouTube clip you want, just enter the URL into the green box at the top of the KeepVid page, hit submit and a few moments later youll be given a download link.

Unfortunately, files are downloaded in the iPod-incompatible Flash video (.flv) format. You need to convert the clip using a conversion utility such as iSquint (www.isquint.org), which is free and extremely easy to use. You just need to drag the file into iSquint, select Optimize for iPod and press Start.

BBC Creative Archives

UK users should take a look at the BBcs Creative Archives, a collection of video footage thats free for UK residents to download for use in their own projects, or to rip to a format thats suitable for iPods and iTunes. The library of available material is frequently updated, and now features clips from the BBC, Channel 4, Open University, British Film Institute and Teachers TV.

Once youve downloaded a clip, you can convert it into iTunes/iPod-friendly format using iSquint or directly within iTunes. (http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk)

More articles at Articles Host