How to Download Music
It can be hard to find legitimate places to download music. You can get music downloads on the internet really cheap or even free, but be careful that you’re not downloading illegally.
I had a friend who was using kazaa to download and he actually got a call Dreamworks the next day. They knew he had downloaded Shrek and threatened to tell the police.
So,
if you're wondering how to
download music, I’ve found some places that you can do it and
not get yourself
in trouble.
First method, pay-per-download
Usually costs about a dollar per song. This isn’t bad if you only want one or two songs, but it can actually cost more than buying a physical CD when you’re getting a whole list of songs.
iTunes
is the biggest pay-per-download
service out there, you can download their software for free here.
Once the software is
installed, click on
music store and you can search for music from there.
To download songs just click on the buy
button
and you’ll enter a credit card.
Second method, Unsigned band sites
Usually free to download but you have to search forever to find the good stuff and you can’t always get good-quality recordings. The other downside of this method is that you can’t get songs from bands you know, only startup bands.
One good thing about unsigned band sites is that you can sometimes find hidden gems in them. I have occasionally stumbled onto some really good artists that I had never heard of.
Garageband.com is a good unsigned band website that I have used but there are others.
This isn’t the only method for getting free downloads. Some services do promotions Where they give away free music.
Emusic gives away 25 songs free songs for new signups. If you cancel before the 2 week trial is up they won’t charge your credit card and they actually let you keep the 25 songs you downloaded.
Unfortunately,
Emusic
doesn’t really have
most of the big name artists either.
They’re mostly for musicians under small labels,
though some of them can
be heard on the radio.
Best method, Monthly Services
This is by far the cheapest method for downloading music, if you’re looking for well-known artists.
Major services like Napster and Rhapsody have pretty much any musician you can think of. They range in price from $12 to $13 per month.
These services are also easier to navigate. They usually come with their own software that’s free to download and has a search engine built in so you can find what you want quickly.
I recommend Napster, they’re the cheapest at $12.95 a month and they offer a free trial period so you can test it out before buying. Their songs also work on almost any mp3 player which is another bonus over iTunes and some of the others.
Here's the link to try Napster for free