Music Download Sites Reviews

MusicMatch is supported by an impressive range of major labels, and at the time of writing a subscription costs a measly $4.95 per month.

MusicMatch is an unusual character in that it does not allow you to directly download tracks in any way, shape or form.

Instead MusicMatch can be seen as an online radio station on demand.

It sounds far more complicated than it is so please let me explain a little further...

You start your subscription and can then log onto your personal password-protected area of their site whenever you desire.

In this way you can log on at home or at work.

Once there, you put together a "playlist" of your favourite artists from their selection of, according to them, around 10,500 different artists.

Their software will also, if you want, find similar sounding artists based on your music choices so you can discover new artists that may well appeal to your tastes.

Then, MusicMatch mixes this up to create your own personal favourites and creates a radio station specially for you.

You can log in and listen to it any time you like or change your preferences.

Of course the real downside to this is that firstly you need to be logged onto the Internet to listen - not great for those paying by the minute for dialup access.

Secondly, there's no way you can take your tracks and listen to them by uploading them to mp3 portable players or burning them onto CD.

Finally, whilst you can skip forward unlimited tracks incase MusicMatch suddenly plays that one Eminem track you can't stand in amongst all your other favourites, you still don't have total control.

You just choose the artists, not the tracks. So if you're dying to listen to a particular track because of the way you feel, as I often am, too bad!

Whilst popular and well-supported by major-label acts, I personally don't like the limitations imposed on members, and at the time of writing there's no free trial either.

If you'd like to find out more, visit MusicMatch here or read on to find out about the two services I really do love, that you're going to have difficulties topping!

PressPlay offers an amazing service with over 300,000 tracks available to members comprising probably the most up-to-date collection of the very latest, most popular big names such as Madonna, U2 and Eminem.

PressPlay offer two forms of downloads from their site - a "standard" download and a "portable download".

The "standard" download enables you to download any tracks that you like to up to two different computers. That way you can listen to them using free mp3 players both at home and at work.

In this way, you don't need to be online to listen to your music like you do with MusicMatch.

This is a great bonus.

However, you still have a limited radius in that you need to be close to your PC to listen to your downloadable music.

Which is where the "portable" downloads come in.

These downloads are "fully functional" in that unlike the "standard" downloads you can upload them to mp3 portable players or burn them to CD.

You can then have your cake and eat it - a huge range of quality acts, and the ability to transfer as many or as few as you like to CD for future listening in the car, on the train, in the plane or when you're out jogging.

With this sort of exceptional service, you are paying slightly more.

At the time of writing, a membership costs $9.95 per month which covers unlimited "standard" downloads. For "portable" downloads you pay a small additional fee of around a dollar per track.

Sure, it could be cheaper, but it's still very reasonably priced in comparison to buying CDs from the music store. It also offers you a fantastic opportunity to try out albums and "listen before you buy".

For the music enthusiast whose primary motivation is to get a catalgue of the newest music as quickly and cheaply as possible, there really is no comparison to PressPlay.

In my opinion, definately in the running for the best of all of the music download sites - a compliment indeed.

To take a free trial which lasts for 3 days and includes unlimited "standard" downloads, simply visit the PressPlay music download site now.

eMusic boasts that it is the world's biggest MP3 site - with more subscribers than any of the other music download sites anywhere.

Sounds like a good start, eh?

I mean, after all, surely it wouldn't be that popular if the quality was poor would it?

You'll be pleased to hear that you're very unlikely to be disappointed.

Why?

Whilst in my humble opinion eMusic doesn't offer as many new artists and tracks as PressPlay, they win on cost effectiveness, and they are the ideal choice for those looking for as cheap a deal as possible.

eMusic offers over a quarter of a million tracks for you to download - and one feature I particularly like is that they offer you the ability not to just download individual tracks like PressPlay, but also to download entire albums to your computer with just one click. Neat!

Their lineup includes 17,000 albums from over 10,000 different artists - so there must be something here you'll enjoy! Another helpful feature, which will broaden your horizons, is that when you search for a particular artist, the eMusic website also brings up a list of "people who listened to this, also liked the following artists" recommendation box and it can be a great way to find gems you didn't know about but soon learn to love.

At as low as $9.99 per month for a subscription at the time of writing it is almost identical in price to PressPlay - but here's the clincher...

It costs you nothing - that's no extra ontop of your membership fee - to download as many tracks as you want. And these are full tracks. Unlimited tracks. Tracks you can burn into CDs, listen to on your PC, transfer to portable MP3 players - you name it.

With eMusic the world is your oyster.

Finally, it's worth me saying that they offer probably the best and most tempting free trial offer of any of the big, reliable music download sites.

It's this.

You can signup for free, for a full 14 days trial, and download up to 50 free MP3s.

That's, what, 4 or 5 full CDs worth of music - free.

Signup today and you can be adding to your music collection within minutes.

If you're interested in getting a free trial of what is probably my favourite music download site of all, please click here.

You've seen the options of music download sites then, based on my own experience.

The choice, as they say, really is yours.

PressPlay is more expensive, but offers more new big name artists. eMusic offers fewer, but still has a good range, and works out considerably cheaper.

If I were you, I'd take out a free trial subscription to both, and try them out for size.

Then make your choice - and enjoy the free downloable music while you're having your trials!

Click here for a free PressPlay trial and click here for a free eMusic trial.

Enjoy yourself!