How to Download Music for Free
November 28, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
days if you want to get a copy of the latest hit song, you don’t go to a record bar, you go online and download it from music download sites. Downloading music has become so popular that online music sites which sell digital singles and albums are starting to eclipse their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Revenues from the sale of digital music reached almost $2 billion at the end of 2007 and are estimated to hit $5.3 billion by 2012; by comparison, sales from CD stores are seen to fall to $4.9 billion in 2012 from $8.6 billion in 2007.
Another sign of how music downloads are beginning to overshadow CDs is the fact that music industry publications such as Billboard now compile charts of top music downloads besides those of top selling CDs and most played songs. In fact, many songs have become popular even without substantial radio airplay due to downloading. The recording industry also now certifies singles as gold or platinum based on download sales.
Thus, legal and illegal music download sites have mushroomed on the Internet. You can download virtually any kind of music you want for free on peer-to-peer sites or for around $0.99 a song from online stores. And contrary to dire predictions that downloading would kill the music industry, downloading has actually fueled music sales as it allows listeners to discover new artists and decide which albums are worth buying on CD.
So if you want to join the fun but don’t have a big budget for music purchases, there are many sites that will allow you to download free music legally. Here are a few tips on how to find them.
First, you can try the official site of your favorite artist. If you’ve heard a song you like on the radio or your friend is raving about a certain band, you can log on to their site and see if they offer singles for downloading for free or for a small fee. The artists might also have a MySpace page and you can look for downloads there as well.
Second, digital stores sometimes offer free samples in order to promote new artists or the service itself. For example, one popular digital music retailer offers a single of the week for free download.
Third, you can look for mp3 blogs, where music fans post their favorite music for others to download or listen to. To make your search easier you can use an mp3 blog aggregator, which scans mp3 blogs and create a searchable database.
Fourth, you can use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to find free mp3 directories that have music available for download.
Fifth, you can sign up for a free trial at a digital music site. The free trial will allow you to download as much as you want during the trial period. Of course, you will have to sign up and give your credit card number but you can cancel at any time.
Thus, there is no reason you have to spend a fortune to build a music library; you can do it for free if you know how to find the right music download sites.
Where Should I Download Music From?
August 10, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Today there is a huge raft of places available to download music from. Some of these are legal sites, some are definitely not and some appear to lay somewhere in the middle. In addition to this, some artists allow tracks to be downloaded from their own websites, however, these tend to be short previews at a low quality sampling rate, appetizers to entice you to buying their music at full price.
Most music downloads are protected with “Digital Right Management” (DRM) which restricts the ability to transfer the downloaded track onto more than one device. Many users feel this to be unfair as they may want to put the music on one device that they own.
It is estimated that the online music business now makes up over 10% of the global music market; in 2008 an estimated 10 billion songs equalling 76,000 years of continuous playtime were downloaded! The vast majority of these were offered through peer to peer websites with an estimated 1 billion downloaded legally. How long these sites can keep operating for is unsure as so many legal cases are being brought against them. We have also seen legal cases being brought against individuals who are sharing files on these peer to peer sites. In short, our advise to you is to avoid them.
Yet even legal music downloads are facing challenges from artists, labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This came to a head in 2007 when Universal Music Group decided not to renew their long term contract with iTunes. This was due to Universal wanting more control over the pricing that iTunes dictated, they favored a move from the traditional 99¢ a song that iTunes charges to a more variable rate based on artist.
As mentioned above, the majority of music is downloaded illegally. This is a highly dangerous practice that could potentially carry a significant threat of infecting your pc with a virus. Numerous peer to peer sites such as Limewire and Bearshare have sprung up offering a way to download music, but beware, music is not all you might get! Make sure you have a good antivirus program, these are freely available and one such as AVG should fit the purpose perfectly. Also ensure you have a good spyware program place, just in case your machine does become infected.
Most importantly, use a reliable service such as Legalsoundz – guaranteed free of viruses and safe to use. It has an excellent software download manager (free to download) and songs are much cheaper than iTunes at only 9¢ a song, definitely the choice of myself. I have been using this service for 5 years now and never had a problem. Every download is of high quality and with a reasonable connection a whole album can be downloaded in under five minutes due to their powerful servers.
Another must to remember is to back up your music often, if possible to a removable hard drive. This will ensure you can recover your music should the worst happen! There would be nothing worse than losing your entire collection of music
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