I used to blithily download music from WinMX but no longer wish to do
so. I want to act responsibly and pay for music downloads. And it is,
of course, very risky to the health of my computer system to download
for free from sites that allow free downloads, though I never had a
problem with WinMX. So, my question is - what is the best site you
would recommend for me to use for downloads of music? I'd like to get
single songs and occationally full albums. I run Windows XP ver 5.1
and have a cable modem.

Although I myself don't use it, I am aware that iTunes is generally
considered to be very safe and very efficient. There is a Windows 2000
and XP compatible version (the latest, which is iTunes 6) that is
freely available at <http://www.apple.com/itunes/download>. To learn
more about iTunes, look at <http://www.apple.com/itunes/>.

Sources: Shown above (iTunes website)

There are a few different ways to go with Legal music downloading, all
with their pro's and con's.
Here are the services:
iTunes: Pro's: Very secure, one click purchasing or shopping cart
purchasing, huge song collection with many indie labels, free
podcasts/vodcasts, tv show content, music video content, movie
trailers Con's: the songs are encoded with a DRM that [at first
glange] only works with the iPod. You can get around this easy by
burning your music to a cd and re-importing this

Napster: Pro's: Subscription based serice, you pay a monthly fee to
"rent" the music. Unlimited downloads for a low monthly price. Good
selection of tunes. Works with a wider range of mp3 players than
iTunes. Con's: Doesn't work with iPod, you have to keep on updating
your account or your music gets deleted, to buy it permanentally you
must pay another 99cents.


There are more services, but these are the 2 biggest contenders on the
market today. You can also download from such services as walmart
online. Each has their special DRM's.