Listening to Music on your PC (© FMS Computer Training)

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Various Ways of Listening to Music
on Your PC

Click the image above to hear a music clip in MP3 format. Note: if you left click, you may switch to the music clip, then you have to use your Back button to return and the music stops. If you right click and choose "Open Link in New Window", then this window stays open and you can come back here while the music plays by clicking the button on the task bar for this page.
If you want to stop the music, just close the page that is playing the music.
Then if you want to save the file for yourself, right click on the image, choose "Save Target As" and do a normal save in the location of your choice.

Note: depending on what your default music player is, you may get different results. On my other computer, I had to save the file first and then open it after downloading it.

Do you like listening to Music? Your PC can be a first class stereo and you can listen while you work. I'll list some ways you can benefit from the ability of your PC to play music.

Note that the better your speaker set is, the better the music will sound. A good set of speakers can be bought very inexpensively at any computer shop. If you really like concert quality sound, there are high quality surround sound systems available. These systems usually require changing the sound card inside the computer and should be done by a shop. Most shops that sell the equipment also install for a nominal fee. The alternative to this is to use a good set of headphones. You can plug these into almost any computer. Look for the headset plug symbol. Most machines have one on the front of the CPU. Some have it on the monitor & require that the monitor be wired to the audio plugs on the CPU.

First, it might be advisable to learn something about file types. Click here to read a page about file extensions.

Now the discussion below looks at 5 ways your computer can play music.

1. Play a normal music CD in the CD player. Just insert the CD and close the drawer and music should play. If it does not start automatically, you may have to activate the player. Start - Programs - Accessories - Entertainment - Media Player. On some systems, the Media player may be in a different menu.

2. Input from a stereo. Most sound cards have an input jack on the back of the computer. You can connect a line from the output of any stereo amplifier, record turntable, cassette player, CD player or other device to the input of the sound card. You may have to go into the volume control and turn on the input. Most Windows systems place this in mute by default. Start as above except look for Volume Control in the Entertainment menu.

3. Listening directly from the Internet. This works best if you have broadband (DSL/Cable Modem). Using a 56 K modem causes dropout frequently and interrupts the listening pleasure. Many players access radio stations on the Internet. Windows Media Player, Real Audio and others have built in menus to look for radio of any style. Click Here for a complete discussion.

4. You can download a lot of sound and music clips from the web in a variety of formats like .wav, .mid, .au, .aiff and specialized formats like .mp3 and Real (.ra). The MP3 has become the most popular format because you can compress songs into playable files that allow a large number of songs to record on a CD. If you have been in an electronics store lately, you may have seen that home stereo players and car audio players are now playing MP3 format music. You can convert your CD's to MP3 using software available, like Roxio's CD Creator 5. In step 5, you will learn how to get the MP3's from the web for yourself.

5. MP3. All of the computer media players also play MP3 type music. This is a compressed format used on the web. You can download MP3 files from other peoples computers using a technology called file sharing. Napster was the pioneer in this area and most have heard of them. They are essentially out of business, but others are alive and well. You can learn about others by searching the web.

There are many streaming sites on the web now. Most radio stations stream there programs. Sites like Pandora provide continuous music in any genre you like.

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