MP3 music downloads have taken the music world by storm. In 2004, legal music downloads, worldwide, increased tenfold to more than 200 million. With the ease of downloading your most acclaimed tunes directly onto your computer and then burning your own CD, people have really accepted the MP3 format for music downloads.

MP3 music downloads work very simply. Find a site that offers MP3 music downloads--there are hundreds of sites offering free of cost music and there are subscription sites available as well (just search the Web for your personal most approved )--scan the inventory of songs available, select the songs or albums you want, and click on it to download it to your computer.

Truthfully, why do people download music from the Internet? To hear NEW music that is not available in any other form or to listen to records that have been deleted by the big label companies and are no longer available for purchase. The primary wants is not to save $5 in the used CD bin at your local record shop, but to hear music they simply can not find any place else. And lets face it--most many people do not want to spend $17.95 to experiment on a CD they may not like or a CD that has only one grand track.

Who gets hurt by Internet downloads. Besides a very few super-stars like Celine Dion, not many. In fact most artists actually benefit. The primary way that an artist becomes famous and successful is through exposure. Without exposure, no one buys tickets to concerts, no one buys CDs, no one buys the T-shirts, beer mugs or posters. Downloading music gives an opportunity to the newcomers and those struggling to make it "big."

While the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sheds crocodile tears over the file-sharing programs they claim "rip off" the recording artists, the truth is, on average, a musician makes 41 cents on each CD sold. The record shops earn a couple of bucks per CD, and the greedy record businesses accumulate astronomical and shameful profits.

While downloading music is brain friendly and legal--so long as you follow all