How To Download

Every Christmas season, I share out a ton of old music that I've recovered from scratchy old vinyl. But I've not exactly kept up with the times when it comes to how I share that old music with you. I don't offer streams or samples, or even direct downloads. The only way I have of sharing this music with you is via downloads from a special hosting service. I've used any number of services over the years, but at the moment I've been able to stick with a place called MEGA for a few years now. This post is meant to be a quick guide to how to get the music I share downloaded from there so you can listen to it. In all of my posts with a share, you'll see the word MEGA somewhere. (In older posts, there may be a share in the comments, so be sure to look there is you don't see such a thing in the main post. Old shares might show old hosts like RapidShare or Zippyshare or even a Torrent, but none of those work any more.) That MEGA word is a link to the download site. You click on it, and a new window will open in your browser where you can download the file. Don't worry, it's a free download, you shouldn't be asked to pay or join up for anything. (You can create an account if you like, and if you do so from one of my shares, I get a little credit, so be my guest!) Right at the moment (and this does change from time to time...), that new window will show a green download button at the bottom right of the screen. Click that download button, and your computer will start to download the file. When it's got the whole thing, it will either ask you where to save the file, or it will save it to your default download location if you have such a thing set. From there, you'll need to unzip the compressed download using either a built-in function of your OS, or via a utility like 7-Zip or WinZip. Once you're unpacked the file, you can delete the ZIP file that you originally downloaded. Inside the newly unpacked folder, you'll see the music and image files. Just open those in the appropriate playback software for listening or rendering software for viewing and you're all set. I know it may seem a little complicated if you've never done it, but it's not too hard once you've done it a time or two. By the end of the Christmas season, you'll have quite a library of Christmas music!

If any of ya'll have anything to add that might might make it easier on the new visitors, please leave me a comment on this post. Thanks!