Music Download Services - US and Worldwide

eMusic: Allows you to download in MP3 format, enjoy full use of over half a million tracks - copy and transfer to any digital music player, including iPods. For $9.99 per month, you get to download 40 tracks, and the first 50 tracks are free. You can also burn your downloads to a CD. Much of eMusic's songs come from independent labels.

Apple iTunes: You need iTunes software.Tracks cost $0.99 each, and some entire albums are available for only $9.99 encoded in Apple's protected ACC format. Simple pricing and user-friendly digital rights so you really own the tracks you buy; you can burn them to disc, transfer them to an iPods, or even share them with up to three other computers.
The library has a million tracks. You can listen to a 30-second sample of any track for free.

MSN Music: Tracks are 99 cents per song or $9.90 per album. The protected WMA format requires you to have Windows Media Player, but you can burn the purchased selections to a CD and transfer them to a compatible music player.

MusicMatch: With more than 800,000 tracks, MusicMatch offers songs for 99 cents each or $9.99 for an entire album. Once you purchase a track, it is yours to copy to CD, move to a player, and keep in your music library forever. Tracks are WMA format and work with the MusicMatch software, Windows Media Player, or any WMA-supported portable player.

AOL MusicNow: With a library of a million tracks, MusicNow uses protected WMA format, which means you can transfer purchased music to your portable player, burn tracks to a CD, or listen on demand from your PC. Yyou don't need special software. Most songs are 99 cents each and $9.99 per album. For $9.99 per month you can listen to any track, plus listen to thousands of radio stations on your PC. Free 30 Day trial.

Napster: Boasting a library of one million tracks, Napster charges $14.95 per month for unlimited downloads to Napster-compatible players that support WMA files and PCs running Windows Media Player. To burn the tracks to CD you must use Napster Light for 99 cents per track.

Rhapsody: Rhapsody 25 allows users to listen to 25 tracks for free each month and then buy individual songs a la carte. The standard Rhapsody service costs $9.99 a month for access to Real's million-plus song library. The ACC-encoded songs are usually go 99 cents each, but some popular tracks, including new releases, cost as little as 49 cents. Rhapsody To Go gives you unlimited downloading and radio station access for $179 a year.

Mp3Search.ru: Singles are incredibly cheap at $0.10 per single and you can choose whatever file format and quality you want, with no DRM and complete freedom to use the files as you want. They also sell on credit so you can try up to $1.50USD of music. The site claims to be legal under Russian law and remits a percentage of proceeds as royalties to the copyright holders in Russia. Huge archive of popular English songs.

Australian Music Download Services

The majority of Australian music download sites offer Windows Media Audio (WMA) music files, so users wishing to play their files on Apple Ipods don't have much choice except to buy from the Apple iTunes Music Store, which recently launched in Australia. Each song or album you buy will have some sort of digital rights management (DRM) that determines how many times you can burn it to CD, what types of portable players you can play it on, etc).

	Apple iTunes	Creative Music Store	DestraMusic.com	MP3.com.au	MTV Music (Optus)
No. of songs	1,000,000	300,000	500,000	70,000	150,000
Average price	AU$1.69/song, AU$16.99	AU$1.49/song, AU$15/album	AU$1.89/song, AU$18.95/album	Free	AU$2/song, AU$18.50/album
File format	AAC	WMA	WMA	MP3	WMA
Requirements	iTunes software	Windows Media Player Creative MediaSource	Windows Media Player	Any program that can play MP3 music files	Windows Media Player, Optus Mobile (with Optus Zoo)
Restrictions	Songs can be played on up to five PCs Songs can be burnt to CD unlimited times Music purchased can be transferred on an unlimited number of iPods	Burn the song to CD up to three times. Copy the song to up to three compatible portable music players.	Burn songs up to three times onto CD. Transfer unlimited times to three portable music players that play licensed WMA files. Four re-installs per year allowed.	None	Burn the song up to two times onto a CD. Copy songs to up to two compatible portable music players. Up to two reinstalls in the first year after purchase.
Compatible players	Any Apple iPods or Motorola's Rokr phone.	Creative portable music players.	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)	Any that can play MP3 music files.	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)

	Mulemusic	nineMSN HMV	Soundbuzz	Sound Foundation	Telstra BigPond Music
No. of songs	200,000	780,000	300,000	1000	500,000
Average price	AU$1.69/song, AU$16.60/album (Prices vary)	AU$1.49/song (Listening to a live stream of a song costs 5c)	AU$1.49/song, AU$15/album	AU$1.20/song	AU$1.49 for BigPond internet customers. AU$1.89 for others. AU$18.50 average for albums for non members.
File format	WMA	WMA	WMA	MP3	WMA
Requirements	Windows Media Player	Windows Media Player	Windows Media Player	Windows Media Player. Mac compatible	Windows Media Player
Restrictions	Burn songs to CD three times . Copy songs unlimited times to two portable music players. Up to two reinstalls in the first year after purchase.	Varies from record label to record label.	Burn songs to CD three times Copy songs unlimited times to three portable music players. Up to two reinstalls in the first year.	None	Can only play songs on the computer you download the licence to. Burn songs to CD up to three times. Copy songs unlimited times to two portable music players. Up to two reinstalls in the first year.
Compatible players	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)	Any that can play MP3 files.	Any that can play licensed WMA files (Full list here)

Apple iTunes Music Store
iTunes Australia features an impressive number of tracks from local and international artists, also sells music videos and short films from Pixar for AU$3.39, which can be used exclusively on video-capable iPods.

Creative Music Store
Similar to iTunes, Creative Music Store is a program customised to be an on-line store. The MediaSource software comes with Creative players or can be downloaded from Creative's site. Only compatible with Creative players.

DestraMusic.com
Destra Music powers the on-line music stores of several leading Australian retailers, including Leading Edge, JB Hi Fi, Sanity and more. The first company in Australia to launch a legal digital music service.

MP3.com.au
Songs are mainly by unsigned who upoad their songs as MP3 files on the site. No digital rights management at all. Good if you want to sample new music, but you won't find Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake here.

MTV Music (powered by Optus Zoo)
MTV Music allows you to purchase songs either through your PC or through your Optus mobile, with the bill being charged to your Optus mobile account. The service also allows you to download true tones for your mobile.

Mulemusic
A stronger focus on alternative and indie artists, but you can still find well-known popular music.

nineMSN Music
Rights to copy and transfer songs vary from label to label, you can easily see before you buy.

Soundbuzz
Soundbuzz has an Asia-wide focus, has Cantonese, Mandarin, Indian as well as Western music.

Sound Foundation
A showcase for independent artists. Once you purchase a song you are allowed to download it as many times as needed

Telstra BigPond Music
BigPond internet users get a substantial discount. 500,000 songs and 1000 new songs added every week