What You Ought To Know About Music Downloads

With invention of the Internet, downloading music has never been easier. No longer does one need to go to the store and purchase CDs; one simple click of a mouse and you can get any song you want. Here is some information about music downloads to help you take advantage of this convenience.

Tracy Randall

If you are on the Internet looking for free music downloads, you have to be extremely careful. Downloading music without paying is illegal and is punishable by law. Another reason you want to avoid this is because hackers use music downloads as a way to send viruses to your computer.

If a site is free, download at your own risk. These MP3s often contain viruses added by malicious users. They have no problem attaching viruses to the music that is downloaded by unsuspecting fans.

If you are looking for new music to download, consider visiting websites that provide music from up and coming artists. These music sites offer song tracks plus reviews from listeners who have listened to them through streaming. This is a good way to add good music to your collection that is not in the mainstream yet.

For safety sake, download music only from sites you know and trust. This will ensure that the song doesn't have some sort of virus in it which can leave your computer a mess or your private data open to criminals. Stick to sites like Amazon or iTunes who scan the files they provide.

Peer to peer software may seem like a great way to get free music, but the fact is that it opens you up to viruses, malware and more. To keep your computer free from these problems, stick to downloading through iTunes or from online retailers like Amazon.com or HMV.com.

When downloading through peer to peer networks, play with your settings until you are getting good results. While they may seem complex and over your head, you can find explanations of what those settings do online, making the process of tweaking them much easier. The more you fiddle, the better your downloads can be.

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.

There are literally thousands of sites which host music files. Even though many of these website are safe, there are still a great number that contain some infected files. Downloading just one of these infected files could possibly destroy your computer, so it is wise to be cautious. Before downloading a file, always scan it first with your anti-virus program.

As this above article already mentioned, it's very simple to download pretty much any song you are looking for these days. But, to be sure you are really taking of advantage of what these downloads offer, it is helpful to have information. Use the tips above and enjoy downloading music.