If you have recently purchased a new computer, chances
are it already has software that can play MP3 files
installed on its hard disk. The easiest way to find
out if you already have an MP3 player installed is
to download an MP3 file and try to double-click on
it. If it plays you are set. If not, you need to download
a player, which is very easy to do.
There are literally thousands of sites on the web
where you can download MP3 files. Go to one of those
sites, find a song and download it to your hard disk
(most MP3 sites let you listen to the song as a streaming
file or download the song -- you want to download
the song). Most songs range between 2 and 4 megabytes,
so it will take 10 to 15 minutes unless you have a
high-speed internet connection. Once the song has
finished downloading, try to double-click on the file
and see what happens.
If your computer plays it, then you are set. If you
find that you cannot play it, then you need to download
an MP3 player. There are dozens of players available,
and most of them are free or shareware so they are
extremely inexpensive. One of the most popular is
WinAmp, which you can download from www.winamp.com.
Once you download and install a player, double-click
on the MP3 file that you downloaded and it will play.
You are now ready to begin collecting MP3 files and
saving them on your computer. Many people have hundreds
of songs they have collected, and they create juke-box
like playlists so that their computer can play them
all day long!
