FREE/BARGAIN — Media Deals (non-eBook/non-audiobook)

[GtrsRGr8]

When you check today's email, be sure not to accidentally skip over one entitled "Your Classical Music Download Is Now Available." That email contains the "key" to get the most recent Alexander Street MP3 freebie.

As you will see it is a Franz Schubert piece (yes, there's just one piece offered in this biweekly installment), called "An Sylvia," D. 891.

You know the drill, after you open the email, click on the Download button. That takes you to a webpage with all that you need to know to download the free piece.

This is an opera. You may know how much that I hate operas. Someone else will need to give an opinion, because I cannot be objective. Mercifully, this opera didn't last very long (only 2 1/2 minutes or so, I suppose).

[GtrsRGr8]

Happy Wednesday.

Today's free YourClassical piece is one by a previously unknown composer to me--Carl Maria von Weber. The piece is called Preciosa: Overture.

I'm using Windows Media Player (yes, I know, I am adventurous. ha) to listen to the piece right now. Oddly, the song and composer information at the top of the player window is in Chinese, Japanese, or some other oriental language. I don't know what to make of that.

Anyway, this orchestral piece is one with high highs and low lows, in tempo, volume, and stuff. I say this a lot (because I am of the curmudgeonly type), but it's not the kind of classical music that I like, but if you like that kind of music, I think that you will be highly pleased with it--it is obviously is a rendition of a high-quality composition.

The freebie comes in MP3, as usual. Download it at this webpage.

[GtrsRGr8]

I love my free Spotify account. I don't like the periodic advertisements as the price that we have to pay in order to get it free.

They have a premium service, of course, in which you can eliminate the ads and, in addition, get some other nice perks, too.

Right now, they've got a promotion in which you can get 3 months of the premium service for 99 cents ($9.99/month thereafter). I think that that means 99 cents for the entire three months, but to me they don't quite make that clear.

The benefits, in addition to ad-free listening, are these:
- "Download music . . . . Listen anywhere"
- "Play any song"
- "Unlimited skips"

The "download music" benefit sounds fantastic--if they mean by that you can download as much music as you like and keep it. In the email message that I got about it, it says "download songs and listen offline." But, interestingly, on the sign up (pay up) webpage, they don't list that benefit. Hmm . . . . If I were you, I would look for the fine print, and once I found it, read it very carefully. If indeed that is what they promise, it wouldn't be a bad idea to save that webpage, in my opinion.

Anyway, if the service is not all that you expect it to be, you can cancel before the three months is over, and have shelled out only 99 cents.

Yeah, I know. They're not giving you all of these benefits out of the goodness of their hearts. They hope that they'll hook you, and have you as a regular customer from then on. Kind of like how the local cocaine dealer gives the young teens in the 'hood free samples of nose candy to get them hooked, and then after that they have them as regular customers. But this won't be as addictive--maybe.

The offer ends June 26, 2017.

https://www.spotify.com/us/intro/.

[GtrsRGr8]

Bach is back.

No, I don't mean anything ethereal by that. J.S. Bach is back as a composer for a YourClassical freebie of the day.

This song is Magnificant, BWV 243: Magnificat. This short piece contains singing, but thankfully it is choir singing, and not opera. However, I still have trouble being enthused about it. Sorry, J.S. Maybe a choir lover will chime in (no pun intended) and give his or her take on the piece.

The giveaway is available as an MP3 only. To download it, proceed to this webpage, locate the link "Direct MP3 download link," and click on it!

Be back tomorrow for the final YourClassical freebie of the week (M-F)!

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I love my free Spotify account. I don't like the periodic advertisements as the price that we have to pay in order to get it free.
...

The "download music" benefit sounds fantastic--if they mean by that you can download as much music as you like and keep it. In the email message that I got about it, it says "download songs and listen offline." But, interestingly, on the sign up (pay up) webpage, they don't list that benefit. Hmm . . . . If I were you, I would look for the fine print, and once I found it, read it very carefully. If indeed that is what they promise, it wouldn't be a bad idea to save that webpage, in my opinion.

Possibly requires their app to listen offline and active subscription to retain on that device. If no app required, possibly limited to MP3 quality.

There may also be software that can record streamed music, like PlayOn for video, though again possibly with limited quality options...

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Possibly requires their app to listen offline and active subscription to retain on that device. If no app required, possibly limited to MP3 quality.

Yeah, somehow that benefit seemed a little bit tenuous.

But, if a person could keep all that they downloaded as MP3's, that still would be a real good benefit, in my way of thinking.

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

There may also be software that can record streamed music, like PlayOn for video, though again possibly with limited quality options...

There is such software, I know. Claims to record everything that would ordinarily come out of your computer's speakers. I think that some of it actually works good, but the legality of it is very questionable. Tubemonkey weighed in with that point in a post of his a couple of weeks ago.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

This question is now being reviewed by the moderator staff. We'll post the decision after it's been made.

tm

What say ye?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

What say ye?

Yes, go ahead and post offers for all physical media - CDs, DVDs, VHS, vinyl, etc.

Sorry about the delay. I forgot to post it.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Yeah, somehow that benefit seemed a little bit tenuous.

But, if a person could keep all that they downloaded as MP3's, that still would be a real good benefit, in my way of thinking.



There is such software, I know. Claims to record everything that would ordinarily come out of your computer's speakers. I think that some of it actually works good, but the legality of it is very questionable. Tubemonkey weighed in with that point in a post of his a couple of weeks ago.

I think if you can legally get it to your computer's speakers, you're perfectly entitled to record, strictly for your own use of course. As with PlayOn, the software would have to be configured with any credentials required to activate streams...

[GA Russell]

DVD box sets...

McMillan & Wife (complete) - $18.41 prime
https://www.amazon.com/McMillan-Comp...dp/B00NGAJK20/

*****

The Snoop Sisters (complete) - $13.43 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Snoop-Sisters...dp/B004HHX9H8/

*****

Parks and Recreation (complete) - $25.49 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Parks-Recreat...dp/B00SG16TIC/

*****

Wings (complete) - $26.95 prime
https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Complet...dp/B00LU5PB0I/

[GA Russell]

More DVD box sets...

Mork & Mindy (complete) - $27.08 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Mork-Mindy-Co...dp/B00O4CWP7G/

*****

Highway to Heaven (complete) - $27.96 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Highway-Heave...dp/B00M4KXLCI/

*****

Gidget (complete) - $5.89 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Gidget-Comple...dp/B00JAD6BYW/

*****

Grizzly Adams (complete) - $16.77 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-Adams...dp/B01AHHRTEU/

*****

NewsRadio (complete) - $18.55 prime
https://www.amazon.com/NewsRadio-Com...dp/B00V5JEISU/

*****

3rd Rock from the Sun (complete) - $19.96 prime
https://www.amazon.com/3rd-Rock-Sun-...dp/B00BM2JVAA/

*****

Alias Smith and Jones (complete) - $16.49 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Alias-Smith-J...dp/B004164P96/

*****

The Partridge Family (complete) - $19.47 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Partridge-Fam...dp/B0108N9GEE/

*****

Speed Racer (complete) - $19.99 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Racer-C...dp/B06X9FSCSV/

*****

Due South (complete) - $10.99 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Due-South-Com...dp/B00GHP8SS8/

*****

The Ray Bradbury Theater (complete) - $8.03 prime
https://www.amazon.com/Ray-Bradbury-...dp/B0007CEXUY/

*****

(NB - Many of these boxes allow you to save a dollar by choosing a Marketplace Seller. However, that option gives you a delivery time of weeks instead of two days.)

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Yes, go ahead and post offers for all physical media - CDs, DVDs, VHS, vinyl, etc.

Sorry about the delay. I forgot to post it.

Okay, I hesitate to say anything about this because there are some MobileReaders who seem anxious to post this kind of thing. But, I'd like to share some thoughts. And I'm steeling myself to be hated by some of them for what I'm about to bring up.

And, it's not that I dislike music; I dare say that I have been posting more of it than another person, up to this time.

But, the Mobile part of MobileRead, if I understand it correctly, means that the List is about things related to reading things that are digital and can be downloaded (maybe, originally, the "mobile" even meant that desktops (and maybe even laptop computers) were excluded)). And the Read part indicates that is related to reading.

I know that even having a "Media" thread on MobileRead, may have been done as a concession to some people, in the past, who really wanted it (if so, it was before my time as a MobileReader).

If the List is going to include physical music media now, where will it end? What's to keep it, in principle at least, from including physical books, magazines, and other paper-based media?

That's all that I wanted to say. Are we still friends?

Of course, I am cool with anything that the moderators want to do. I just appreciate them (and maybe others) for starting this awesome list and doing all of the work, and spending all of the time, to keep it up and running!

[GtrsRGr8]

Today's YourClassical MP3 freebie is from composer Alexander Borodin. The next YourClassical freebie is posted on Monday, so you could say that the piece is for the whole weekend, too.

The piece from Borodin that we get from YourClassical today is his Symphony No. 1: IV. Allegro molto vivo.

This orchestral piece has high highs, low lows, etc. Borodin died about the time the motion picture was invented, and the movies were silent pictures for quite a number of years after that. However, at times, the music sounds like a modern-day music score! In specific, it sounds like the score to a western. Listen and see if you don't agree.

Download the piece from YourClassical's dedicated webpage for the day's freebie, located here. Look for the "Direct MP3 download link," and click on it!

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

But, the Mobile part of MobileRead, if I understand it correctly, means that the List is about things related to reading things that are digital and can be downloaded (maybe, originally, the "mobile" even meant that desktops (and maybe even laptop computers) were excluded)). And the Read part indicates that is related to reading.

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but all of my music and video gets digitized and becomes as much a part of my mobile media library as ebooks do.

90% of my music collection, which lives on my server (which in turn feeds all the household devices as well as my iPod and Sansa Clip) started out on CDs.

[GA Russell]

Grts, Sony and others still make portable players.

CDs:
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Walkman-...dp/B003YTDFWE/

DVDs:
https://www.amazon.com/DBPOWER-Porta...dp/B01MCY97YV/