Online music has grown in the last ten years to become the biggest media for storing, listening to and purchasing music. Music can be accessed online in various file formats for download to a pc or laptop. Files can then be transferred to a variety of MP3 players or simply listened to directly from the computer.
Music downloading can be done in a legitimate way from many websites. The artist or distribution company uploads the album or songs to a retail site. Consumers select the music they wish to purchase with the added advantage of being able to select individual songs, rather than purchase a whole album or single with b-sides. They then proceed through a shopping cart and make payment for the files, in the same way shoppers would purchase goods to be delivered to a home address. The online retailer takes a proportion of the sale, with another cut going to the record company and, ultimately, to the artist.
Music can also be obtained illegally on the internet. There are many sites which allow downloads without any payment either in regular files or in bit torrent downloads. Depending on the file type these can sometimes be detected and traced by internet service providers; in recent months prosecutions of the most prolific illegal downloaders of music have begun.
Online music is most recently available on sites which take advantage of broadband internet connection to stream music directly to the user’s computer while they are online. This music cannot be transferred to an MP3 player and is not available when the computer is offline. The most popular music-streaming site free to users and funded by advertisements. The user can choose to pay a monthly fee at which point the advertisements are removed and music is uninterrupted.
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