How to Find MP3 Samples

With MP3, sound files can be compressed into a very small space while their sound quality remains high. To play MP3 files on your computer, you need player software and some music files. Both are available for free downloading on the Web.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer Speakers
• Computers

1. Look for Web sites that claim downloading of songs is allowed by the artist.
2. Find sites with legal downloads, then follow the links on those sites to other sites.
3. Use search engines on those sites to search by artist, song or genre.
4. To search by artist or song, type the name of the artist or song into the search box. Use the Enter or Return key to begin your search.
5. To search by genre or other categories allowed by the search engine, click on the icon or down arrow to select the category of interest.

Tips & Warnings

• Some search engines require entering solo artist names in a particular way (e.g. "Gene Clark" or "Clark, Gene"); others will let you search either way.
• Some search engines have submenus for searching by genre.
• MP3 files are not limited to music. You can find news, comedy, book excerpts and other types of audio files.
• Downloading unauthorized MP3 samples is illegal. Only download samples that have the artist's permission.