We want music in our lives. We want some melody, some rhythm, and beautiful sounds to please our ears and warm our hearts. Music is such a part of us that we have to have it.
Music sites offer you streaming or downloading services, or both. The real attraction is, of course, accessing free music. Reliable and legit music sites require you to pay. They have huge music collections of up to 70 million songs. Some of these you can download and play even when offline.
Which Music Sites are Legit?
These are music sites that pay the artists for music streaming or downloading. Some like YouTube give the artists exclusive control of what is made available on the music site.
They pay royalties to artists for using their music and distributing it to consumers. They are legal and safe to use. Here are a few examples:
Free Music Sites
Pay Music Sites
Illegal Music Sites are Risky
But why buy what you can get for free, you ask?
- Consider that artists make their music to earn an income from it. Downloading it from illegal sites for free is pretty much stealing from the artists.
- You run the risk of also downloading malware, viruses and other malicious software that could harm your computer along with the “free” music. Please beware.
- You could ignorantly download spyware that collects your personal data. Identity theft hackers are known to collect login credentials for social media and emails from some of these suspicious sites.
- You could fall victim to financial fraud. Some music sites have tons complaints that once payment details are filled in, they cannot be removed. The subscriber keeps getting monthly deductions that he/she cannot stop. Give your payment details only to genuine music sites and save yourself the pain of having to re-arrange your accounts just to keep one bad website out!
- Penalties for illegal downloads are hefty in Germany and the United States of America. Copyright laws indicate that it is illegal to download unauthorized versions of copyrighted music from a file-sharing service, to copy music using stream-ripping software or mobile apps. Illegal downloads are a violation of copyright laws and could land you in trouble with the law. And why would you want your name on a criminal record over something like music piracy?
How to recognize illegal music sites
- There is no such thing as a free lunch. Music sites have to make money in one way or another to pay the artists. This can be with advertisements like Youtube or by charging you a subscription fee.
- Always read the site reviews. Check Google, Trustpilot, Sitejabber, for example. Do NOT trust reviews listed on the site itself. These can be manipulated. Read our article on How to Recognize Fake Reviews.
- Finally, you can check the website’s trust score, reviews, and more for free at Scamadviser.com. Just copy the link to the website in question and paste it on the website search bar. It will be analyzed on 40 data points and results displayed for you to see.
Enjoy music streaming while you work online. But do it safely and legally on the legit music sites.
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
― Bob Marley
You will feel the pain of losing money when you use suspicious scam sites!
