There are lots of free music search engine tools out there, but you still have to be careful to choose the right one. Although some of the leading music search engines appear free at first, these sites can be are littered with adware and all sorts of spyware that infest your computer and eventually you may end up paying a very high price for your 'free' music.



These spyware and collect all kinds of data on the users of the computers they infect like surfing habits, sites visited, users keystrokes and even installing software without users knowing. If a new browser pops open by itself on your computer with some tacky ad on it, then you probably been infected by adware and you should run your anti-virus.

One of the top music search engines have been known to infect up to 80% of computers that use its search function and all sorts of valuable data can be collected once infected. This data could even end up with the trial lawyers as a means to prosecute users for illegal downloads, as has happened in the past. So a good firewall is necessary and knowing what sites are safe should be foremost if you want to surf for free music downloads in the net.

So, what are the advantages of music search engines? Firstly, they offer you the opportunity of simply listening online to any song you like without having to download music. Also, you don't need to know the exact title of the song to find the song you're looking for. One site we came across during our research is clipniche.com which is a commercial MP3 and a powerful music search engine solution that allows website owners to put the script on their site. This site has a sophisticated search script that found every song title, artist or album we searched for. The site has a free demo page that allows anyone unlimited use of the search tool and allows the user to stream or download the music and no adware or spyware detected.

So, is it legal? The answer will always be clouded by the music industry, but there is not illegal to use sites like clipniche for listening to music. The problem may be if you start distributing the music downloaded from these sites, but even that is debatable. I found it much easier to simply listen to the streaming music without downloading, so there are no legal issues or loopholes whatsoever. You should really be more worried about the harm you may do to your computer by visiting the wrong sites. The music industry is coming to the realization that music search engines are actually good for their sales as users will always want a real copy of the music they really like without fear of buying something they are unfamiliar with.