Is There an Alternative to ITunes? A Guide to Cheap Music Downloads

It's good news for music lovers now that they can easily download music from internet without leaving the comfort of their chair. With the increasing accessibility of high speed internet, people are now turning to downloading rather than buy CDs or DVDs from music shops.

The explosion in numbers of MP3 players and iPods are leading to ever increasing numbers of users looking to download music from the web. Not to mention the fact that virtually every new mobile phone released now doubles up as a music player! The advantage of downloading of course is that you need only purchase the tracks you want and not the whole album, it's a bit like buying your own compilation album!

Downloads of course are much cheaper than buying a CD from music shop. But of course, people are always looking to get something for free. A few years ago Napster was taken to court over it's free music sharing service and has now evolved into a fee paying site. Previously music companies had lost millions in revenue as free file sharing led to a significant drop in sales. Ultimately, artists and music companies filed cases at Napster for stealing music and many people were charged for stealing music. However, after closing down this process by the companies, they provided Napster the permission to provide a fee paying download service.

There still exists many sites that offers free music download, however, these are mostly full of virus and spyware. You are free to download from these sites but the risk of infection is high, often you will not realize until it is too late. Repairing your computer may prove to be a very costly exercise! Always make sure you have up to date anti virus software loaded, get yourself some free software such as avg antivirus and you won't go far wrong.

Legal music download sites are now becoming popular and are steadily replacing the illegal sites. And as the downloads are pretty cheap many people are comfortable by paying for music as they know that this maintain the music. However, there are some who still think that downloading free and illegal stuff is better; they are finding the way hard and costly.

Many sites offer music downloads for a very reasonable rates. For example, Legalsoundz charge only 9¢ per downloaded track and provide excellent downloading software. According to the recent survey conducted by Entertainment Media Research, 35% of music listeners are now downloading legally from internet. This is as a direct result of falling prices and is increasing day by day as the users are now aware of the fact that cheap downloads come without any risks like virus, spyware and the quality is obviously as good as original.

So there we are, armed with this knowledge you can go into the world of online music. Find a site you trust and that has good download software and most important of all, affordable. If you can, make a separate back up of your music on a backup drive, just think how much it would cost to replace the music you have! For a moderately small investment you can protect your collection for ever.