Legal Music Downloads For Macs

In a lot of cases I think people worry too much about Apple Macs.

They seem to see Macs as a world away from PCs. However in a lot of cases there aren't too many differences.

Whilst there *are* some PC-only legal music downloads sites there are just as many that are compatible with both types of computer. Indeed, as I'm sure you're aware, Apple themselves own Itunes, one of the most popular sources of legal music downloads for Macs.

But let's take a quick look at some of the most popular music downloads s ites at the moment to see just which are available for Macs.

Napster - Requires a PC running Windows 2000 or later, along with various other limitations - Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher and Windows Media Player 7.1 or higher.

Music Match - Requires a PC running Windows XP or later at present plus Windows Media Player 11 or later so their requirements are even more stringent.

Itunes - Itunes of course is available on Macs.

Emusic - While I don't personally use a Mac everything I can see suggests that Emusic should indeed be compatible with a Mac. It offers arguably the best value and widest range of mp3s online.

P2P - Depending on how you use these pieces of software they *may* offer legal music downloads for Macs or they may not. You will need to be careful and if unsure they are probably best avoided. However if you *do* want to investigate this option then both Kazaa and Limewire offer a Mac compatible version to try out.

So while clearly some of the front-runners won't work with your Mac there are legal music downloads for Macs available. My suggestion would be to get a free Emusic trial to see how you find it, and experiment with one of the P2P programs.

At the end of it all if these options don't work out then you can try the slightly more expensive and more limited option of Apple's own Itunes.

Whatever you do - have fun with it!