I've found a most useful toolkit in the following combo:
1. High speed connection (cable/DSL/T1 etc)
2. Newsgroups, notably alt.binaries.mp3 alt.binaries.music.mp3 and alt.binaries.sounds.mp3
3. A newsgathering program such as Newsgrabber 3 (http://www.trontech.com.au/grabber/).
I have nothing but good things to say about this piece of software. It's not for posting, just downloading.

I find Napster/Gnutella etc. too slow compared to NG's. If you want a particular song, Nap/Gnu are the way to go, if you want to expand your horizons, newsgroups anyday. I've been buying way more esoteric CD's since I started with NG's. IMHO.

-Zeke

just say you weren't paying much attention...