In recent years, less people have been buying CDs and many are now downloading music online. This is due to the emergence of music download sites like Napster, and the rising popularity of MP3 players from iPod and other similar companies.
People are now choosing downloads over CDs because of the expensive price of a whole CD, and they want to take advantage of the free music that downloads can offer. However, a crackdown on free music a few years ago has made shareware illegal and turned legal music downloads a popular alternative.

The creation of legal music downloads came about because of the complaints of many artists and musicians. They pleaded with the government that they owned their music, and it therefore should not be available for free downloading through shareware like Napster. The government decided that shareware sites are indeed illegal, and allowed companies to provide music downloads for a small fee, as long as it was not free or through shareware.

As a result, music downloading websites began popping up online, with ITunes being the most popular. Napster also began providing legal music downloads to consumers for a monthly subscription fee. ITunes became increasingly popular mainly because they provided legal music downloads for a very nominal fee of only ninety-nine cents per song, and it was also more convenient than other sources. You don’t have to pay a costly monthly subscription if you just want to one or two songs. There are now more than a hundred of sites that offer music downloads ranging from small start up companies to established ones like Yahoo and ITunes.

There are even a handful of international sites that offer legal music downloads. Russia has the most popular and widespread international sites. However, they are monitored very closely because they offer songs for as little as five cents each. Music companies and artists are not very fond of music being sold for that little. It has been difficult to crack down on them because other countries do not fully recognize intellectual property laws.

You can find legal music downloads in several ways. It is advisable that you go through reputable and well known sites such as Itunes or Yahoo. You can also take a risk and download your music through one of the international sites that currently offer legal music downloads. However, you have to run the chance of a government crackdown or glitches in the site that can prevent you from fully downloading the music you paid for.