What You Need to Know About Paying for Music Online

If you are a music fanatic, you most likely make mix CDs, have an MP3 player, and search for songs and albums online. There are many different companies that now offer music subscription plans and require you to join a service in order for you to even find compatible songs for your device. Other sites and plans offer music for a myriad of compatible devices. While many of these sites have excellent software and vast collections of music in all genres, it is important to read the fine print before signing up for an online music service and to know all of the details that accompany the plan you choose.

The larger music service providers are well known (iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, etc.) and essentially offer the same thing: paying for music to transfer to MP3 players, PCs, and blank CDs. They have downloadable stores and tools for the user to customize and organize their files in, most of which are very fluid to operate. With laws about piracy and file sharing becoming stricter, and free downloads now a memory, these providers require you to pay for their songs in a multitude of ways.

One way is to purchase individual songs, usually for around a dollar a piece, or an entire album for between fifteen and twenty dollars. This way is generally hassle free, but can surely make a large dent in your wallet, especially if the novelty of garnering fresh songs is a weakness of yours. Many music providers only offer this kind of payment plan with no other substitutes. These plans also can hide hitches; just because you purchased the song for your CD or player does not mean you have paid for it to be shared with others. Certain subscriptions hide these rules very well within their agreements and FAQ's.

Let's say you paid for one song that you selected for your library of songs. You may then have to pay again to transfer it to your own devices, and most assuredly pay again for sharing it with friends who use the same service. Be sure to read everything the site has to offer before you sign up, and also check out the main web site's forums for what current users have to say for the service itself. Don't entangle yourself in a monetary commitment you do not care for.

The methods of paying above are not the only ways that these music services offer payment for their content. The other way is to pay a monthly fee to download all the music you want. If that sounds too good to be true, it can be. Plans such as these can be pricey, and range from ten to fifteen dollars a month. For that price, you can browse their music library and pick which songs you want to ad to your own set list. Again, just because you pay a flat fee for downloading all the songs your heart desires every month does not automatically mean you can transfer or share with others without paying again. Just read and research the service before you join to avoid surprises like these.

As well, from my own experience, the songs that you pay for every month are not technically yours to do with what you please. The service I joined was a monthly pay plan. I had collected a large amount of music for my MP3 player, and the first month was great. When the second month came, I found that all the music files I had transferred from the service to my device would not play at all unless I logged in to my account and paid for another month. Needless to say, I was annoyed. The plan I read said unlimited downloads, which was true enough. I failed to realize that their music files were still connected to the service itself, making the fifteen dollars a month I just paid to have my music play worth nothing unless I paid again and again month after month. If that does not sound appealing to you, search for other alternatives.

It is exciting to know that so much music is available for downloading to your PC and portable players, in good quality with functional tools provided by these services. However, before you pick a payment plan or strategy, do research and be warned. Browse forums and FAQ's for user comments. Search for fine print in all of the agreements that you must abide to before you begin your plan with the service. Also make sure that no surprises in payments or music playback kick you from underneath just when you feel you have found the perfect service. Small hitches in payment and even playing songs that you though you owned are a big letdown if you had no idea such terms were part of your music plan. There are fair sites and online music services out there; know as much as you can before you pay and find the songs you love.