Once upon a time, I used MusicMatch to download and purchase music. I actually gave them $20 and used their product for quite some time. Happily used it. But then I got pissed off. Really ticked. Because of the bad stuff that started to happen with MusicMatch–endlessly having it to tell it to buzz off, hanging of PC, way more time than necessary to transfer songs and nasty remnant software that prevented my PC from shutting off.
Instead of using a tool, it turned out the tool was using me. And, by that I mean, any tool that takes too long to work correctly and accurately Every Single Time, is using me. And, boys and girls, that doesn’t get to happen. So, I moved on to other options for music purchase and only used MusicMatch because I had to because of the MP3 player I have (Windows Media Player just didn’t do what I wanted). I hated having to rely on a product I hated, but I needed to rock out to my music.
Then I upgraded the firmware on my player and MusicMatch turned into a shrieking harridan of software. I could start a music transfer and go do something for an hour. When I’d get back to the PC the transfer still hadn’t started up. I downloaded the free upgrade to MusicMatch and it stopped working at all. Nada. A month went by and the new music began piling up. Something had to give.
The better-half found a very fine product that I will use as long as my Dell DJ lives. In fact it works so well that the first few times I transferred music I thought something was wrong and broken. It turns out the software transfers files so quickly that I just couldn’t believe it could get the work done that fast. The product? Deubox Explorer by Red Chair Software. I kind of have a crush on Deubox.
Last night we gathered around the PC and I kicked MusicMatch to the curb. It felt like the scene in Office Space when they take the fax machine out to the field and beat it.
As far as free ware, I have been using LimeWire. You just have to pay attention when you’re setting it up to make sure there is no way to have people scoping out your hard drive when you’re away. I don’t think we picked up any spy ware or spam from it, but I have only downloaded a dozen tunes or so.
It is fast, though, and has a lot of diverse music.