You can play songs in many different formats in Windows Media Player; however, the majority of songs that you can download for Windows Media Player are in MP3 format. You can purchase a subscription to download songs, download single tracks inexpensively, or download entire albums at a significantly discounted rate, simply by following a few simple methods.
Windows Media Player MP3 Downloads
Amazon.com has many free and inexpensive MP3 songs that you can download and play in Windows Media Player. You can find them on the Amazon.com website in the "Digital Downloads" section under "Shop All Departments." Click "MP3 Downloads" to see a list of MP3 songs. Scroll down to "Special MP3 Deals" and click "More free songs and inexpensive MP3 albums" to see the site's best deals. Browse the genres on the left, select one of the top free songs or click on "See over 500 more free songs" on the right. Click the play button to the left of the song title to hear a preview. Click "Get MP3" to download the file. You must sign in to Amazon.com and install their download utility to use this service. The song will automatically be added to your Windows Media Player library.
You can also download MP3 songs from Napster.com. You can listen to many song samples for free on Free.Napster.com and then download the songs in an MP3 file for a small fee. To use the regular Napster website, you must sign up for a free member account. You can search the site by artist, album or track. Thirty-second sound samples are available for many songs. There are also subscription plans that allow you to download free MP3s on a monthly basis. Click the button marked ":30" to hear the samples and click "MP3" to download songs.
The 7digital.com website is another place where you can find MP3 songs to download and listen to in Windows Media Player. You can download tracks individually or purchase entire albums. The songs will play in Windows Media Player 7 or higher running on Windows 98 or higher. Browse by tag in the navigation bar on the left and click the small play button beside each icon to hear a preview of the song. Click "MP3" to see a list of songs in the album.
The Rhapsody.com MP3 store is another place to get MP3 music files. Navigate music genres on the left side of the page or search by keyword, artist, track or album. Preview songs by clicking the "Play" button at the top of the page. You can download either single tracks or entire albums on Rhapsody. Each day, Rhapsody has a "Free Song of the Day" that you can download. You will need a free account to purchase songs from Rhapsody. You can either use Rhapsody's download manager to download the files or download them as a .zip file. Windows XP and Vista have the ability to extract .zip files. If you're using a previous version of Windows, you will need to download a zip utility to unzip the files.
Song Download Tips
If you have a slow Internet connection such as dial-up, get a free download manager from a site like Download.com. There are many download managers (such as the free, open source Free Download Manager), which have download acceleration and support for resuming interrupted downloads.
