On Amazon, for example, you would need to navigate to the MP3 store using the tab at the top of the page.Ĭlick the "Buy MP3" button, or something similar, and confirm your purchase. For a large store selling items other than music, you will need to go to the relevant department. For subscription-based services like Napster you will usually pay a monthly fee. For some sites, such as Amazon, you will pay per song. You'll need an email account and your credit card. Examples include Amazon, HMV and Napster. Go to the signup page for a site offering commercial music downloads. Downloading Songs from Other For-Pay Sites Click on "OK" to begin torrenting the song.
Your torrent client will launch and you will see a dialog box open with the files you are about to download.
Navigate to a free legal torrent site such as Legit Torrents.Ĭlick on the "Download Torrent" link for the song you want.
Download and install the torrent client on your desktop computer.
Navigate to the download page for a torrent client such as uTorrent or Vuze. Once payment is complete, the song will be downloaded into your iTunes library. Click the download button with the price for the track to purchase the song. You will see a selection of new songs you can choose one of these, search for a different song by category or type a term into the search field.Ĭlick the "Play" button next to the title to preview the song you're interested in. Click on "Register" to sign up with a new account. The first time you launch iTunes, you will have the option to add any existing music on your computer to your iTunes library. Once the installation program has downloaded, run it to install iTunes on your computer.
Make sure you put the file somewhere you can find it, such as your computer's desktop. If not, you can remove the checks from both boxes and leave the email field empty.Ĭlick "Download Now" and choose "Save" from the pop-up dialogue. There are two check boxes and a field for an email address these are only necessary if you want to receive regular mailings from Apple. It must have at least a 500 MHz processor and 256MB of RAM as of May 2012 - greater if you want to play videos. Downloading from ITunesĬheck that your computer meets the minimum requirements for the iTunes software. Your default media player launches and the song plays. Play your new song by opening the "My Music" folder and double-clicking on the file. Save your songs to the "My Music" folder in Windows - they'll be easier to find. A window will open showing you the possible locations on your computer where you can save the file. While this may sound a bit oppressive, subscribing to a streaming service is a convenient way to access music just about anywhere, and in most cases are a better alternative to maintaining a vast physical music library.Select "Save Link As." from the menu.
For instance, Emusic only allows you to download a song once per purchase. While there are services like Amazon Music and Emusic that allow you to download albums a-la-carte, there are still a variety of restrictions on how it can be distributed. Something to bear in mind is that while you can download and cache songs on your computer or mobile device, you technically won't own any of the music you download. Thankfully music streaming services, for better or worse, have managed to fill that gap, putting a virtually limitless supply of music at your fingertips. And unless you've managed to keep your iPod from giving up the ghost, you probably aren't exactly swimming in MP3s either. Unless you're a vinyl connoisseur, odds are your physical music collection is pretty sparse.