does anyone know why half of my downloads seem to "skip" at some point during the song

Are you using LW's player? If so, disable that (tools > options > player) & use another player... do the songs still skip? LW's player isn't a good one

What bitrate are the songs that are skipping? If using another player doesn't work, try downloading another version of one of the songs & find one with a high bitrate (320 or 224)... does that one skip?

thx for the info-will try using a different player first