Digital music - what you need to know

Almost all the music we listen to these days is digital. Compact discs, iPods, the tunes stored on our PCs and internet radio are all forms of digital music in one way or another.

But more recent developments have revolutionised the way we listen to music all over again. New digital music formats have made it easier to carry our favourite tunes with us wherever we go, with huge libraries of the stuff shrunk down to fit in our pockets.

The same breakthroughs have also allowed us to buy and download whole albums straight to our computers from virtual record shops on the net.
Sadly, all the good things digital music has to offer can sometimes be overshadowed by aspects like the perplexing variety of different file formats and the confusion surrounding the legality of music downloading.

We took a look at some revesaling research from The Leading Question, which showed that people who downloaded music were more likely to pay for more music. The British Phonographic Institute, which represents the music industry in the UK.

We also covered a number of programmes and services for getting hold of music files,. Aside from the file sharing application BitTorrent, which is not a source of exclusively legal tracks, we looked at legal download services from Napster, iTunes, Wippit, MSN Music and Sony Connect. Of course, the way that these different sites and programmes offer music differs. There's also a plethora of other legal download services out there apart from the five mentioned above. We mentioned Woolworths, HMV Digital, Virgin Digital, a download service from Tesco, and Web sites such as Arkade, MP3.com and betterPropoganda.

We also looked at the various media players out there. You can download Windows Media Player, iTunes, Quicktime, RealOne player and WinAmp from the Computeractive site.

More sites worth checking out are social networking pages at Myspace, BBC Radio, Live365, and music broadcast site Pandora.