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Cheap Digital Music
Each year many people will purchase music CDs as holiday gifts for loved ones. Yet CDs are expensive, especially if you factor in the cost of the gas it takes to drive to the store, or the cost of shipping and handling. Fortunately, if you have an Internet connection, you can legally and cheaply purchase music files from a number of online retailers. Additionally, digital downloads are not yet subject to sales tax in most states, so you can save even more money by avoiding sales taxes. With a little planning, you can find excellent bargains in digital music.
First, you'll need to choose between sites that offer direct downloads for a one-time purchase price, and sites that offer streaming content for a subscription fee, like Rhapsody.com. Sites that offer streaming music content allow you to listen to their entire music catalog, often millions of songs, on your computer for a monthly fee. Depending on the subscription plan, you might be able to download some tracks and burn them to CD, though you will be restricted as to how many. Should you ever cancel your subscription, you instantly lose access to the music.
While a subscription model does give you access to a vast library of music, the monthly fees become onerous, and if you just want to buy an album or two, you're better off using a direct download retailer.
Of all the online music stores, the iTunes Store is the most famous and the most successful. You can purchase tracks on iTunes for 99 cents, with variations in pricing for whole albums. iTunes has an enormous catalog of music from major labels, and you can often mix and match tracks from different albums. Unfortunately, tracks from iTunes are heavily copy-protected, with a limitation on how many different computers can use the files. Songs purchased off iTunes will only play on an iPod; if you use a different model of MP3 player, you're out of luck.
eMusic.com uses a combination of the direct download and the subscription models. For a variable monthly fee, you can download anywhere between 30 and 75 files a month. Files downloaded from emusic.com are all in MP3 format, which means they will play on practically every model of MP3 player under the sun (including the iPod). Unlike Rhapsody or iTunes, emusic.com tracks have no copy protection, which means that you can move them between your computers and MP3 players without fear that they won't work. Emusic.com tends to have a wide variety of classical music, along with songs from independent or obscure bands, but not so much contemporary music. If you're interested in picking up the complete set of Beethoven's symphonies, or the album of an independent band from the 80s, emusic.com is the place to go. If you're looking for today's Top 40 hits, you'll probably have to go somewhere else.
You can also turn to Internet mega-retailer amazon.com for music downloads. Amazon started offering music downloads in January of 2008, and now offers tracks from many of the major labels. Like iTunes, individual tracks on Amazon are 99 cents. Amazon also offers steep discounts on downloading an entire album; it's often possible to get an album that would cost $15 for only $8 or $10. The tracks are in MP3 format, like emusic.com, making them compatible with any MP3 player. Unlike iTunes, the Amazon tracks come with no copy protection, meaning that you can move them between your computers and players without worrying about data loss. If you're looking to buy digital music, Amazon is a good place to start.
Purchasing music legally can be expensive, but with a little research, you can get a much better bargain than you could otherwise.
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