How to Compare Music Download Sites

Download music to listen to on the move.

Downloading music is a convenient way of obtaining digital music for use on portable music devices and your computer, and to copy onto CDs. Music download sites vary greatly.

Price

Some music sites charge per song or per album, whereas others are free to download but have many advertisements. When you pay for a download, you know that it is legal, and that you are helping to pay the artist. Legal, free download sites only have music by artists that have waived their copyrights. The selection on these sites is often not very large.

Range

Compare the quantity of downloads on sites. Large corporate sites could have over one million tracks, but they might not have less popular music. Independent record labels or websites might have fewer songs, but they might have less popular or newer music.

Quality

The quality of downloaded music differs greatly between download sites. Compare the file type that you are getting, such as Windows Media Audio or Advanced Audio Codec and the encoding bitrate, measured in kilobits per second. A rule of thumb is that the higher the number, the better the quality of the download.

References

• The Guardian: Where to Download Music Legally
• The Guardian: Download Article