As the digital music sector has grown we have seen more and more legal music downloads services hit the Internet. These services basically allow us to download audio tracks and albums in a totally legal way – but unlike P2P file-sharing networks – these sites aren’t generally free and you’ll have to pay a price to use them.
These kinds of sites work in a couple of ways.
First, you can join sites that allow you to download unlimited music as you like. So, you can download a track or an album here and there or you can even download the entire site library if you like. In this instance you’ll pay for what you buy as you buy it.
Another option is to join up with a site that gives you the option of a monthly subscription. Subscriptions can take various forms here – sometimes you pay a monthly fee and are given a specific number of downloads per month. You own these downloads once you’ve made them.
Other times your monthly subscription gives you access to loading the entire site library on to a portable audio device such as your MP3 player as often as you like but you won’t own the music unless you pay an additional fee to buy ownership. In this instance you’ll only be able to burn tracks to CD if you pay the extra fee.
There are various music sites out there that can fulfill your digital music needs on a legal basis. These include:
- iTunes
- eMusic
- MusicMatch
- Napster
- MSN Music
- Audible
- Wal-Mart
- Sony Connect
- Bleep
- LiveDownloads
- Audio Lunchbox
- Yahoo! Music
- Buy Music
- Rhapsody
- RealPlayer
One thing to watch out for with many of these sites is the fact that they sell rights protected music. So, you can buy it and own it legally but you may be given limitations on what you can actually do with the music.
For example, you may be allowed to burn a track to CD only a specific number of times, for example. And, many of the newer download sites with monthly subscriptions may not work with older MP3 players – they are designed to work with newer models.
The best tip we can give you with these kinds of sites is to do some in-depth research before you decide which one(s) to use. Not all of them will cover the same artists, bands and genres, for example. And, even if their music catalog is similar you may find price differentials that could save you a lot of cash – so shop around!
For more information on music download services go here!