Downloading Made Easy
Chances are you’ve heard the term, but for anyone new to downloading it can be a little off-putting at first. We’ve put together this simple guide in which we hope to first explain the basics, then take you through a step-by-step real-life example, to show you how easy the process can actually be.
What exactly is downloading?
Downloading is obtaining a file from the internet and transferring it to your home computer.
You can download many different things, from software to movie trailers, but what we’re going to concentrate on here is downloading music.
What do you need to download music?
There are many different websites that you can download music from. Each will tell you the minimum specifications and provide you with the software needed to use their service, but for all of them you will need a computer, a sound card and a connection to the Internet. (It’s much quicker if you have a broadband connection, as songs can take hours to download on dial up, while with broadband they take minutes or even seconds.)
For the purpose of this guide we’ll be using The Raft Download Store, but you can also download music from the following sites, all of which contribute to the Official Download Chart: iTunes, Napster, MyCokeMusic, Woolworths, MSN, HMV, Virgin, Tiscali and Wanadoo.
To download from The Raft Download Store, as with many other sites, you will need a piece of software called Windows Media Player, which comes with most recent PCs and is downloadable for free from Microsoft if you need to get it.
One last thing to note ...
Downloading tracks gets them as far as your home computer. The procedure for transferring them onto a portable media player will depend on the type of player you have and they should all come with detailed instructions. The most important thing to be aware of though, is that they won’t all play all types of files. There are a few different file formats for digital music and not all players will play all of them.
The files that we are going to download in the following example are known as ‘WMA (Windows Media Audio)’ files and can be played on the devices made by Creative, Rio and Dell to name a few. iPod primarily use a different type of file - for more details on how to play WMA files on an iPod, check out www.apple.com/itunes/.
So - how do you download? A step-by-step guide using The Raft Download Store...
FIND YOUR MUSIC - REGISTER - PAY - DOWNLOAD - PLAY
Now you know the basics, let’s run through a step-by-step example using The Raft Download Store. Remember, we’re going to be downloading WMA files, so in order to play the tracks you will need a piece of software called Windows Media Player. The software comes with most recent PCs and is downloadable for free from Microsoft if you need to get it.
Right - let’s get started .
FIND YOUR MUSIC
Step 1:
Go to www.the-raft.com/shop
Step 2:
Find the music that you want to download. You can do this several ways by using the different search functions or simply by browsing.
For the purpose of this example we’re going to search for KT Tunstall’s "Suddenly I See". So click on the ‘Browse Artists’ tab... 
...then ‘K’... 
... then scroll down until you find KT Tunstall... 
...and click.
You’ll be taken to a page with all KT Tunstall releases that are available to download from the shop, first albums then singles. Scroll down until you find "Suddenly I See". 
Click on the artist name/song title and you’ll be taken to the next page.
Step 3:
Before you download, you have the option to ‘Preview’ the track. This means that you can listen to a clip of the song (usually 30 seconds), for free. To do this, simply click on the grey ‘Preview’ button. 
Windows Media Player will open automatically open and play the clip.
To Download the track, simply click the blue ‘Download’ button (the price will be listed next to the button). 
The song will be put into a basket and you then have the choice to continue shopping or go straight to the checkout. Let’s go straight to the checkout, so click the green button.
REGISTER
Step 4:
As we don’t yet have an account, we need to follow the steps to set one up. Enter your e-mail address and select ‘I am a new customer’. 
Follow the simple steps on screen to create your account.
PAY
Step 5:
Next confirm which card you would like to use for this purchase. As we only have one card set up at the moment, it’s easy and can be left, so click the green ‘Continue’ button. 
You’ve now paid for the track and will receive an e-mail receipt.
DOWNLOAD
Step 6:
The next step is to actually download your tracks. Do that from this page. 
(You’re able to download each track up to 3 times on different computers.) Click the ‘Windows Media’ button and choose ‘Save’ when you’re given the option to ‘Open’ or ‘Save’. 
Step 7:
You will need to choose a folder on your computer where you would like to save your music. You can either accept the default, or click the ‘Browse’ button to navigate your computer and select a folder into which you want to download your music. Once you’ve selected a suitable place, click ‘save’ and the download will start.
Step 8:
Your track will now be saved as an audio file in the folder that you selected on your computer. 
You no longer need to have the website open, though remember that you still have the music saved to your account and can download each track another 2 times.
PLAY
Step 9:
To play the music that you’ve now downloaded, simply double-click on the downloaded audio file for the track that you’d like to listen to. It will play in Windows Media Player on your computer, and you can then save it to your media library, burn it onto a CD or transfer it to a portable media player. It’s your track now and so entirely up to you! 