What to look for on a music download site

Since the mid-1990s brought the beginning of legal battles around digital music, the topic of downloading music has been a difficult one. It is difficult to know what is legal and what is not, and the potential risks associated with downloading something can sometimes make people hesitate to try new music download sites.

The threat of viruses and spyware would be enough to make anyone wary. In addition, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been extremely aggressive in its pursuit of illegal downloads, and you have some compelling reasons to be nervous about downloading music.

However, as long as you take precautions to protect yourself from malicious software and potential lawsuits, downloading new songs for your computer or  tubidy mp3  player is the best way to download music. You can buy individual songs instead of entire albums and you don't have to deal with having a house full of CD cases. digital; Music is definitely the wave of the future, so it's worth figuring out how to find safe and legal music downloads.

When looking for a place to download music, your first concern should be to make it legal. Some companies outside the United States claim to be exempt from US music distribution laws and therefore state that they have the right to offer music for download without permission. The legality of these sites is highly questionable. If you're in a place that offers songs for what looks like an exceptionally low price, there's probably a good reason for that: they're doing it illegally.

There are five basic factors to look out for in legality: price, choice, format, digital rights management (DRM), and extras. The first two, price and choice, are very similar between the major download sites. The infamous but reformed Napster offers about the same amount of tracks as Apple's iTunes, and the price per. Tracks for both sides are 99 cents. However, Napster also offers an unlimited monthly plan that allows you to pay a price for downloading unlimited songs a month - something iTunes has not yet explored. A lot of enthusiasts claim that this makes Napster a better value.

Choices are something that is extremely important to many of us - even more important than price. When you want a particular album or you need to check out a new band, you won't see that your favorite music download site doesn't include that artist. Of course, you should expect that to happen sometimes - but if you can't find any of your favorite music in a certain place, it's time to move on.

If you are planning to use your music downloads on a portable music player, it is important to know what format is offered by the site you choose and whether it is compatible with your portable player. Some sites or services only offer a proprietary format that can only be used with their software. This is very limiting and can frustratingly lock you into using only one type of music device forever because your entire music library is in that format.