Guide to choosing a music download shop and avoiding scams

Making our music portable through new codecs and amazing hardware has arguably been one of the biggest changes in the way we enjoy our favorite artists. Nearly everyone want's or already has a portable player of some sort. Recently, iTunes reported it's 500 millionth sale of a song at the iTunes music store. Proof positive that a lot of music lovers would rather download or even subscribe to a service for tracks, than purchase and rip a CD. 

But herein lies the problem, which service is best for you? What are some of the services and how do the Digital Rights Management schemes (DRM) differ? Also, with so many DRM "solutions", which is right for our particular hardware or lifestyle? You've also heard about the scam sites, how can you tell these from a legitimate site prior to giving your credit card information?

For just these reasons, staff member Seán Byrne has written a guide containing information that can help us to make informed decisions. Hopefuly, with these tips and definitions, you will find a service you are truly happy with and one that fills your needs. All without getting disappointed by making a mistake or worse yet-being ripped off!

Here's just a small snippet from the article:

Even though there is a wide selection of music download shops to choose from, most novice users and even those familiar with online shops would not know how to determine which sites are genuine and which ones are not. Some scam and con websites claim that their services are legal since they effectively sell their 'service' and are not responsible for the music that is transferred through the 'service' they offer. For example, many scammers trick consumers into paying for freely available software such as Limewire, Winmx, iMesh, Kazaa and so on. The following tips mention techniques that are generally only used by scammers and sites that falsely trick consumers into paying to access file sharing networks that are freely available. Use these before you register or join a service or website, not to mention pulling out your credit card. See if you can browse their music library. A few legitimate services such as iTunes require the user to download software first in order to do so, however there should be no need to subscribe first. A simple test is to try browsing their music service. If you keep getting presented with a page asking to join or register without being able to browse anything, then this is a clear sign of a scam.

For the full article, please follow this link. Thanks Seán for the great guide and surely this will help those that need some answers to their concerns. In addition, please feel free to visit our Music Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum if you would like to share any knowledge you have, or possibly wish to compare your experiences with online music purchases with others in the CD Freaks community. Maybe you have a favorite service or you would like to relate a story of a not so desirable site that you want to warn others about.

Source: The Club CD Freaks