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| Welcome
to Z-100.com! Since the
mid-1990s brought the beginning of legal battles
surrounding digital music, the subject of
downloading music has been a tricky one. It's
hard to know what is legal and what isn't, and
the potential risks associated with downloading
anything can sometimes make people hesitate to
try new sites for music downloads. The threat of
viruses and spyware would be enough to make
anyone wary.
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Add to that the fact the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) has been extremely
aggressive in its pursuit of illegal downloads,
and you have some compelling reasons to be
nervous about downloading music.
As long as you take precautions to protect
yourself from malicious software and from
potential litigation, though, downloading music
is the best way to get new songs for your
computer or MP3 player. You can buy individual
songs rather than entire albums, and you don't
have to deal with having a house full of CD cases.
Digital; music is most definitely the wave of the
future, so it's worth finding out how to locate
safe and legal music downloads.
When you are looking for a site to download music
from, your first concern should be making sure
that it is legal. Some companies outside of the
US claim to be exempt from US music distribution
laws and therefore state that they have a right
to offer music for download without a license to
do so. The legality of these sites highly
questionable. If you find yourself at a site
which is offering songs at what seems like an
unusually low price, there is probably a good
reason for that: they are doing it illegally.
There are five basic factors that you should look
at after legality: price, selection, format,
digital rights management (DRM), and extras. The
first two, price and selection, are very similar
between the big download sites. The infamous-but-reformed
Napster offers roughly the same amount of tracks
as Apple's iTunes, and the per-track price for
both sites is 99 cents. However, Napster also
offers an unlimited monthly plan that allows you
to pay one price to download unlimited songs per
month - something that iTunes has yet to explore.
A lot of enthusiasts argue that this makes
Napster a better value.
Selection is something that's extremely important
to many of us - more important, even, than price.
When you want a particular album or you need to
check out a new band, you don't want to see that
your preferred site for music downloads doesn't
carry that artist. Of course, you have to expect
that it will happen sometimes - but if you can't
find any of your favorite music on a particular
site, it's time to move on.
If you plan to use your music downloads on a
portable music player, it is essential to know
what format is offered by the site that you
choose and whether it is compatible with your
portable player. Some sites or services offer
only a proprietary format that can only be used
with their software. This is very limiting and
can frustratingly lock you into using only one
type of musical device forever because your
entire music library is in that format.
DRM is an issue that most of the internet
community divided. This is a way for music
distributors to control what happens to the music
that you download. If you want to download music
and then use it to burn CDs, you will need to
make sure that the DRM allowances for that
particular music download site will let you burn
CDs of downloaded tracks. Some sites allow a
maximum number of times you can burn a song or
playlist, some require additional payment, and
some will not allow you to burn CDs from
downloaded songs at all.
Finally, the extras that you get with your music
downloads might be enough to tip the scales one
way or the other for you if you are deciding
between two sites. Some music download services
will include additional files with the download
of albums - but not the malicious kind of
additional files. These files are like the liner
notes that come in CDs. This type of additional
offering is great for those who don't want to
miss out on the great cover art and notes that
bands include with their CDs.
Armed with this information, you should be able
to make an informed decision about which site is
best for you when you're looking for legal music
downloads. If you are having trouble making a
choice between several contenders, there are
plenty of site reviews online that will give you
all of the information you need about the music
download sites you're interested in. When in
doubt, stick to a well-known service to avoid
running into problems with spyware, viruses, and
questionable legality. |
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