How to Download Music for Free

Disclaimer: Distributing copyrighted material for free is illegal, and there are severe repercussions for someone who is apprehended doing so.

If you're tired of paying a few dollars every time you want to download some new music to listen to, then it is worth exploring the different ways to get music. In spite of what the industry may have you believe, there are plenty of sources from where you can carry this out.

Music piracy is undoubtedly one of the biggest threats that this industry is facing, and no matter how hard they try, it will never go away. This problem is further compounded due to the Internet.

Peer to Peer Networks

One of the best ways to get music downloads is to access some peer to peer networks. What happens here is that the music files that one person has can be downloaded by any other person who is connected to the network at the same time. This is a very attractive choice because there are millions of such people on the network at all times. What this means is that, at any moment in time, you can find pretty much any song or music album you want through file sharing. And what's more, you can go ahead and download it on to your machine.

Napster was the program that paved the way for this technology, and today Limewire is the most popular P2P network around. Some other popular choices are Kazaa, Bearshare, iMesh and Morpheus. There is a raging debate about the morality of this technology though, because it inadvertently means that music artists and companies do not get the proceeds from the sales of the albums. There are tons of copyright issues that are infringed as a result of these networks, and this is a debate that will go on for many more years.

Some musicians have accepted this as the norm, and are finding new ways to utilize the full potential of the Internet. On the other hand, some artists are completely against this practice and deride the Internet for ruining their futures. Whether you choose to get music from these sources or not, is completely up to you.

Google Search Engine

Another way is to simply search for the song on the Google search engine box. You need to just mention the word 'download' after the name of the song, and you will find hundreds of thousands of results for the query. These legal downloads just go to show that getting music is as simple as it gets, simply because of the large number of sources that can be accessed over the Internet.

Some other good sites that provide music are MP3raid, YouTube, AOLMusic, eMusic and VEVO. One major concern about downloading from these sources are computer viruses. Since there is no authorized control, and since they come from a wide assortment of sources, there is a very high possibility of some songs having some viruses embedded in them. To download songs without getting viruses is just wishful thinking, and all it takes is one dangerous virus for your machine to get infected.

Websites that offer free downloads are undertaking illegal practices and are severely breaching copyright laws, so this is a risky venture. People who are caught distributing music this way can be subjected to 5 years of prison, and they can also be forced to pay a fine of $250,000 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). In spite of this, it is something that will always find a presence on the world wide web, and there is no escaping this fact.

It is in your hands to decide if you should actually go ahead with getting free music or not. There are plenty of risks involved, but you also get an unlimited library of songs to choose from.