Where can I get free music downloads online? What is the best online music store?

Best Sites for MP3 Music Downloads

Yahoo Music (music.yahoo.com) doesn't offer FREE music downloads, but is does offer over 1 million songs available for download at a cost of $5 bucks a month. It's Yahoo music engine software organizes your music and lets you find the songs you are looking for. You can also transfer any songs you download to a portable player. If you want to burn CDs, the cost for a single is 79 cents. Not a bad deal for a music junky who wants to dabble. Yahoo also has a large section for online viewing of music videos, although you cannot download them to your PC - they are streaming only (they force you to watch a commercial before EVERY video, not just the first one - ughh!). Unfortunately, your songs will only remain playable for as long as you are a member - not a terrible deal if you just want songs for the moment, but if you are planning on building a lifelong catalog, you either pay per song or keep paying Yahoo $5 bucks a month for the rest of your life!

Of course, Apple's iTunes has made a big splash in the market for internet music downloads, giving you access to a ton of songs to download. The iTunes software interface is the star of the show, making it easy to organize and play your MP3 music, import songs from CD, find songs by artist and album. At 99 cents per song, this is "almost" free music downloads! Their selection of songs is very good, and the ability to make playlists and export your music easily to your iPod (which dominates the portable player market) makes iTunes one of the better choices in the internet music download space.

Napster: Back from the dead, they offer unlimited access to over 1M songs. With a Napster membership, you get to listen to and download unlimited songs, access 50 commercial free radio stations, share music with other members, fill any mp3 player without paying per song or album. And Napster is legal and safe. They offer a free 7 day trial for music downloading. The standard membership is $10 bucks a month, which gets you unlimited free music downloads - play them on your PC, keep all songs as long as you are a member - copying songs to CD or a portable mp3 player is 80 cents per song. Napster Light lets you browse songs and buy just the ones you want for 99 cents - burn to CD, keep forever, copy to mp3 player, no monthly fees - basically same as Apple iTunes store. Napster To Go is $15 bucks a month, and includes the option to fill and refill any mp3 player with those million songs. What's the catch? When you cancel your membership, any tunes you downloaded will no longer play - think of it as "renting" the music for as long as you are a member. And Napster songs come in WMA format, so your MP3 players must be compatible.

MP3.com (part of cNet) offers online music downloading by connecting you to Napster, iTunes, RealRhapsody, and MusicMatch. Theirs is not really a free music download site, although they do offer samples. Real Networks also offers a free music download service called Rhapsody. Likes the others, they offer over 1 million songs for download, with good reviews for their service from the Wall Street Journal and PC World Magazine.