Downloading music has always been one of the most popular uses of the Internet. However, things have changed a lot over the last few years. If you have not been downloading music recently, you may need some help navigating the various options. Use the following tips to find your way around.

Amazon and iTunes are popular markets for finding downloaded music. You can set up a free account and browse songs from millions of artists. In many cases, you can even listen to a small sample of a song before you buy it. This is a great way to access a lot of music all in one place.

Check out the legal free music from established music download sites. Many big online music retailers like iTunes, MP3.com, Amazon,com, and more have free music sections. You can legally download these free tracks from some artists that you like or some new ones that you would like to listen to for the first time.

You should always make sure you have backed up the music you have downloaded. It can be expensive to build a quality collection of music. Losing all of this music would really be terrible. Do not depend on the download clients to allow you to re-download them. Use online storage and external hard drives as back up options to store your music.

Make sure you have broadband internet connection if you download music online. If you have a dial-up connection, the download will be much slower and the files will take forever to transfer. So if you want to enjoy your music right away, a broadband connection is the way to go.

Try registering an account with a major online music retailer. Getting accounts with some popular ones like Amazon and iTunes can give you access to many old and new tracks. Amazon has over 20 million songs in its database, while iTunes has over 500, 000 in its database. You are sure to find something that you like, and having an account can make checkout faster. You can also get some great recommendations based on your previous purchases.

If you are having problems downloading with a peer to peer program, check your firewall. Unless you allow the program, you won’t be able to do any uploading or downloading. Windows comes with a firewall built in, and this will have to be altered to allow for your program’s actions.

If you are looking for music for your iPod, consider a subscription based site. There are several available, and they allow users access to a huge library of tunes for a one time membership. In most cases, the membership is for life. This is a great way to save money while still finding the music that you love.

You have to always pay attention to the size of the files you’re downloading. A music file is going to regularly be anywhere between two and five megabytes. If you notice anything much smaller than this, beware. This is usually only going to be a text file and might contain a harmful virus.

Know that sometimes things aren’t what they seem. If you are using a dubious peer-to-peer network a file labelled as music could be something else completely. It could be something malicious. See if there are any reviews or comments on the torrent before downloading. It’ll help you make the best decision.

Torrents are still around for sharing all sorts of files. If you are looking for songs which are hard to find but posted by their authors, that’s a good place to look for legal MP3s. You can find a great deal of independent artists that way, exposing yourself to new music.

Stay away from any music downloads that require a peer to peer client, also known as p2p software. No matter how slickly designed such sites are, they are probably just an access point for music pirates and torrent users. Avoid these, as almost all torrent activity is a legal risk.

Are you familiar with The Internet Archive? They store more than just websites. In addition to archiving websites, it offers an enormous catalog of mp3s that can be downloaded free. They wish to archive everything online, and you can benefit from this hard work.

Always ensure that when you’re downloading music files, they really are music files. Most music files will be around 2MB to 5MB, but in some rare cases may even go up to 10 MB. However, if the file you are downloading is less than 1MB, so it is measured in kilobytes, they are generally text files.

By reading this article, you have learned a lot about downloading music from the Internet. You should know more about the various sites that offer downloads, as well as how to find the songs that you want. Virtually any song ever recorded is available for download, so building a great music library is a snap.