Legal downloading has at last entered the mainstream. A handful of major vendors, such as iTunes and Napster, offer catalogues of more than a million tracks in all genres, while a small but growing number of labels and artists have started selling MP3s directly from their own websites. There are even many legal freebies to be had: various sites provide tracks by up-and-coming artists keen for exposure, while labels often dish out a free song to help promote an album.



Today there are many sites in which you can download music at where they claim it is 100% legal. The latest music file formats used are Windows® Media (WMA), Advanced Acoustic Coding (AAC) and Atrac 3, and are very popular as it increases the sound quality making it closer to an actual CD bought in stores. Another great advantage is that many sites such as SonicSelector Service on MSN allow you to preview the music before buying it. Many sites today also offer a three-day trial of their music downloading site, and then after that you will have to begin paying a monthly fee. So it is possible to download music legally online, but you must know some useful tips about it:

1. If you see a site offering free music downloads for a certain trial period, then this doesnt necessarily mean that the site is legal. Many legal sites use this as an enticement, so do not be put off by that.

2. A legal music download site generally distributes music from reputable labels and artists. This means that you will not find a wide range of mixes and custom files that will almost certainly slow down your connection, and therefore take forever to download.

3. The larger the databases that the legal download sites have, the more it will actually cost you. This can actually lead to paying a bit more than a normal CD in the shop IF the store has literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of songs because they could cost between $1 - $3. Therefore, dont go for the exceptionally large databases. The reason why these sites are more expensive than the illegal music sites is because they are obliged to give a portion of their fees back to the recording industry.

4. Legal music download sites usually distribute their material on a per song basis. One of the major advantages of buying your music online is that you dont have to spend $17 for an entire album if you only want 3 or 4 songs. Legal music sites will actually setup download limits as well as transfer rate limits. As a result, this prevents dishonest customers from setting up their computers to copy hundreds of files in a few hours.

5. The fact is that a legal music download site will only have music on it to download. This means that you wont be able to download computer games, movies or anything else like this.

6. And remember, legal music download sites like their offline retail counterparts are getting an actual fee for their service. They dont want to scam or upset their customers by placing dangerous and annoying spyware and adware programs on their computers.

When searching for legal MP3 downloads, it is always best to stick with trusted sites that you know are legal, legitimate and less likely to give you a virus or some other unwanted program invading your computer. You want to check the source of the download and where the site says it comes from and how they have permission to use it.

You can usually search by genre and some sites also let you search by artist title or even song title if you are looking for something specific. Remember that when it comes to legal downloads, you can only get what the artist or performer has agreed to allow to be downloaded for free. You might not always be able to get your favorite song or the specific title you are searching for – but often you can!