The music scene is heating up with Zune music downloads becoming more and more popular each day. It seems that the slick and multi-functional player is getting a lot of attention lately. With so many of the devices sold, Zune music downloads are well sought after and offered by at least 3 main sources.

You can do a search on the internet for places where you can access to Zune music downloads. Quite often, you would come across free sites, paid sites or even the mainstream music sites like Zune Marketplace.

Which site is ideal for your digital portable device?

We will take a quick look at the various groups and study their pros and the cons. Price is one consideration though not the most important. We also want to look at whether the environment where we download music is safe and protected, the number of Zune music downloads, the clarity of the songs and also whether the instructions are clear and technical support is readily available.

The mainstream Zune marketplace is a huge database of over 3 million songs, music videos, videos and so on. The support is excellent and you are assured that downloading can be done safely without exposing your PC to any potential virus and malware. There are however 2 setbacks. One is you have to exchange the music with Microsoft Points. So each time you want the songs, you got to prepay. Also, a piece of music costs about $1.

Free sites make their Zune music downloads available to you for free. But since they do not cost a cent, you must prepare yourself mentally that no help will be around in case you need them. Also, you may have to contend with downloading in a totally unprotected environment where dangers like adware, spyware and PC viruses lurk. Be prepared for slow speed downloading as well.

The third source where you can find millions of choices of songs, music, music videos and more are the paid membership sites. For a low one-time fee of $50 or less, you get to enjoy the privilege of transferring as many files as you like. One good thing about this is the security of the platform where you download your songs. Also, the speeds are fast and support can be round the clock.

Comparing these 3 alternatives side by side, it is clear that paid membership services offer the best deal for Zune music downloads. It meets the criteria of quick download speeds, safe environment and cost. See my blog for a full review of the hottest services where users are going to download music for their Zunes now.