Unlimited music download sites are strangely difficult to come across. Indeed, the vast majority of music download sites and software tend to function using one of two different business models. Either they charge you per tune or album that you download, or you pay a monthly subscription cost that covers a limited number of file downloads.

The reason of course is that music download sites are in business to make as much money as possible.

Unfortunately for people like you and I who like to download vast amounts of music each month these music download sites would send us bust in next to no time.

And so it is that we go looking for the small number of unlimited music download sites to enable us to download as much music as we can handle.

For the sakes of this article I'm going to focus on my 3 favorite unlimited music download sites so we can take a closer look at what is available and hopefully help you to make an informed decision on which solution is best for you.

Option 1: Musicmatch

Musicmatch offers "unlimited" music downloads on a monthly basis but there is a small catch. You are more renting the tracks than buying them. You can download and listen to as many as you like, but if your membership expires for whatever reason, you will no longer be able to listen to your music.

Ah, you say to yourself, I'll just get a month's subscription, download everything I want and burn it to CD or put it on my Ipod but I'm afraid it's not that simple. You see, Musicmatch only lets you listen to the tracks on your computer.

In order to be able to download music onto another device you have to buy them, and that's when it starts to get expensive as you're charged on a per-track basis. Ouch.

Option 2: Emusic

Emusic really is an unlimited music download site - and even better they offer a free 14 day trial so you can try them out without risk.

Feel free to download, burn and listen to as much music as you can handle at Emusic, just be aware that there aren't as many major name bands as you'll find at Musicmatch (though their list is growing all the time).

I personally think Emusic are great and offer an amazing music download service.

Option 3: P2P

P2P or peer-to-peer software like Kazaa allows you to download unlimited music - and with no monthly fees - if you're willing to spend a small amount on buying and installing the software to begin with.

There are plenty of pieces of P2P software available but if you decide to investigate this option I would offer you two warnings. Firstly, make sure you've got some decent anti-virus software as you will find some of the music you download will contain some nasty files you don't want hanging around on your computer.

Secondly, whilst P2P software *does* offer a truly unlimited music download service, be aware that not all tracks are legally available (i.e. some may be pirated) so be careful, keep your wits about you and if in any doubt, carry out additional research before you make the jump.