Pierce County Library > FAQs about Music Downloads

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FAQs about Music Downloads

FAQs about Music Downloads

Frequently Asked Questions about Downloading Music via Freegal

Special tips for downloading via Library Internet Computers.

1. What is Freegal?

Free and legal access to MP3 music to download for your personal use. Downloads are DRM-free (no digital rights management restrictions) so they should work with all types of digital audio players. Up to 3 songs of your choice can be downloaded each week from the Freegal Music website . Music is from the Sony Music Entertainment catalog and includes a variety of music genres and artists.

2. How many songs can I download?

3 songs per week. New week starts Sunday at 9 p.m. Pacific Time.

3. When do the song files expire?

Freegal downloaded songs are DRM-free (no digital rights management restrictions) and will not expire. You do not have to delete them as long as you retain them for your personal use only. (Please see more about personal use only.)

4. Do I have to wait, or put in a hold request, for songs I want?

If you see a title you want, you can download it immediately - no requesting, or waiting for someone else to return it.

If you see more than 3 titles you want, however, you will need to choose 3, because you can only download 3 per week.

5. Who can download?

Any Pierce County Library System customer with a valid library card number and PIN.

6. How do I get a Pierce County Library card so I can download music?

Register online here, then bring your photo ID and proof of address to a nearby Pierce County Library to get a card. Temporary account numbers will not work with Freegal. You will need a regular library card.

7. I don’t remember my library card number because I always use my library username, so how do I find out my card number?

Use of Freegal Music service does require an actual valid library card number. If you forget your library card number, contact staff at your local library, or through our computer support. Library staff will ask you questions to verify your identity, and will then be able to tell you your library card (barcode) number.

8. It says music is “for personal use,” so can I share the music I download from Freegal?

No! The music that you download with your library card is for personal use only. Anyone using the service must agree to not post online, email to others, store a shared drive of a computer, play publicly, or otherwise share in any distribution method.

However, the song can be moved between devices for personal use by the person who downloaded it.

Everyone using the service must agree to use the music for personal use only and agree to not share the files they download. This is included in the Terms of Agreement you agree to during each download session.

Note: The Library’s contract with Freegal is based on this, so please help us honor our contract so that we can continue to offer this service!

9. How do I find songs on the Freegal Music site?

Use the featured artists or top 10 lists on the home page.
Browse the genres.
Browse the artist names by alpha list beginning on home page. Artist alpha list is based on first letter of group’s name or artist’s first name.
Use the advanced search.

10. Can I preview the songs before I decide which to download?

Yes. Each title has a small excerpt that can be played online prior to downloading it.

11. Where can I download?

Several options:

Download to your own computer at home from Freegal music website.
Download using library public Internet computers. To transfer to MP3 players using library computers, the devices will need to be compatible with the Library’s installed Window Media Player. Flash drives may also be used to receive the downloaded songs.
Use a library building’s wireless access to download to your own laptop or tablet, from the Freegal Music website.

12. Can I download using my mobile or smartphone?

Although perhaps technically possible, the Freegal Music website is not yet optimized for small-screen devices, so it is very problematic to try downloading using a phone or other very small device. The company has informed us that they are working on this for the near future. In the meantime, you may have a better experience by using a computer to download and then transfer the music to your mobile device.

13. What are the basics on how to get a song?

Visit the Freegal Music website and log in with your Pierce County Library card number and PIN.
Browse through the lists of featured artists, alpha list of artists, genre lists, or use the search tools to find a title you would like to download.
To preview an excerpt of the song, click the right-pointing blue arrow to the left of each title.
To download, click the Download Now link to the right of the title.
Save the file to your computer*. File will automatically be named with artist and song title, along with an identifying code string, so you don’t have to rename it immediately.

* Note: If you only Open the file, rather than Save it, when downloading, Freegal still counts it as a download against your weekly allotment. But the file will only play the song one time online. You will need to save the file during download in order to have it on your device for the future.

14. How to download/transfer to my portable digital audio device?

Many different digital audio devices are available that will play MP3 files in addition to simple MP3 players or computers, such as smartphones, iPods, even e-readers, and many software methods exist to get the files onto your device. The people using the device probably best know the methods for their own devices and situations. If you want to share your successful tips, please send those tips to the Library's feedback.

Since these are DRM-free files, most standard methods should work.

Here is one method to move a MP3 file from your computer to a portable device.

Download to your computer, then open and use Media Player (or iTunes or other audio file transfer vehicle software on your home computer) to transfer to your cable-connected device.

* See special tips for downloading via Library’s Internet computers.

15. Want to try that download again?

If you experience issues when downloading or want to put your song(s) on a different computer/device, you can download the same song again without using up your weekly download allotment. Visit the Recent Downloads page on the Freegal website (see link in upper right corner of screen) to redownload the same title. Freegal will allow you up to 3 attempts to download the same song this way.

Special tips for downloading via Library Internet computers:

The Library’s Internet computers are secured (“locked down” with special software), and this may present some special issues with trying to download music files from Freegal using these computers.

The following are some suggestions to try:

Option A:

If you are downloading to a flash drive (a storage device as opposed to an MP3 player), plug in the flash drive with a USB cable, and look for “Drive U”, when saving your download. You should be able to use Internet Explorer go to the Freegal Music website and save the MP3 directly to that U drive. Then take the song with you to put on your own personal computer.

Option B:

If your player device has a “mass storage” setting, you might use that setting and be able to plug it in with USB and download directly to the device. Use Internet Explorer to find the Freegal Music website , and save the selected file to the “Drive U” (your plugged-in device), when specifying a save location.

Option C:

You can also email the file to yourself, using a web-based email account and attaching the MP3 file. To do this, when downloading from the Freegal Music website, save the file to the “Public D” drive. Then open your email account, start a new message and click to add an attachment. Navigate to the D drive and pickup the MP3 file. (Remember however, that sharing the music files between people is not allowed, and you agreed to the use terms, so please don’t email it to someone else.)

Option D:

Using the Windows Media Player already installed on the Library Internet Computers computer. This option is for Media Player-compatible devices only, not iPods or any Apple device.
Tip sheet on using WMP on Library computers. (PDF 1.6 Mb)
    More screen images of this process.(Word doc 872kb)

If you are planning on downloading to a Windows Media Player-compatible MP3 player, plug it in with a USB cable. In this case, you will be downloading the files to the “Public D” drive.   Use Internet Explorer to find the Freegal Music website, and look for the Public D drive, and a Music folder within the drive, to save the MP3 file(s) there. When ready to transfer to your device:

Use Windows Media Player (not Internet Explorer) to open the MP3 file and let it begin to play the song. (Or open the file from within Internet Explorer and allow it to open Media Player for you.)

Because you saved the MP3 file(s) to the music folder on the “Public D” drive, it should show up in the “Library” at the left side of the Media Player screen, after you click on the Sync tab in the blue navigation bar at top. (See Didn't Sync? note below.)

Your plugged-in player should also show up at the left side. If not, try plugging it in again. It may take a few moments to be recognized. The player will need to be recognized by MediaPlayer in order to transfer the file.

To sync to your player, you drag and drop the title from the “Library” at left, to the right sidebar’s Sync List. Continue to do this for every file you want transferred.

You can verify that the syncing set-up is temporary, (for this session only), by checking the settings in Set-Up Sync under the Sync tab.

Sync-ing is started by clicking the Sync Now button found at the bottom of the right side bar.

Once the Sync-ing is complete, you can remove your device.

*Didn’t sync?

If the file was not saved to the D drive, but was simply opened to play when the original download dialog box came up, the file may be just in a temporary space on the computer, and will not be sync-able. Go back to the Freegal Music website, re-login if needed, go to Recent Downloads (see upper right corner) and download it again, this time remembering to save it to the Public D drive, in the Music folder.

Option E:

Because of the variety of devices, and you probably know your own device better than we possibly could, please try the method that seems best to you. Please feel free to share your tips with us via Library feedback, so we can share with others We will try to post successful tips here in the future.

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