Every year, the demand for online music increases as more online retailers capitalise on market growth to tap into the lucrative market. As we have all being tightening the purse strings as the recession continues, internet users are becoming savvier by searching many online retailers to locate singles and albums at the cheapest price before purchasing.

This trend also sparked an increase in ‘price comparison’ sites to do the hard work for the consumer, but buyers are also looking for a user experience that goes beyond simple price comparisons.

There are numerous online music stores to purchase CD’s and mp3’s, in fact since the world opened their eyes to the power of the Napster file sharing community, the big players saw an opportunity to increase music sales whilst decreasing piracy. Some of the top music stores now providing downloadable music content include:

7digital

Delivering music to the masses, 7digital.com offer a vast catalogue of downloadable content from £5 per album or 79p per track. Music promotions include free music downloads and classic albums at a discounted rate.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon stock over 800,000 albums and millions of DRM (Digital Rights Management) tracks in MP3 format. MP3's can be played in any device that plays MP3 files and can be copied to a number of devices without restriction.

Tracks start from 29p and albums from also promote music by offering free downloads.

HMV

The UK's first music download service offering more that 1 million songs and exclusive downloadable content. In 2005, HMV joined forces with Microsoft to launch a windows based music and jukebox service on a pay per track / album or subscription basis.

Tracks start from 79p or £14.99 per month for unlimited temporary downloads for the lifetime of your membership.

iTunes

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc and is the largest seller of downloadable content in the United States. iTunes has sold over 6 billion songs, accounting for 70% of global music sales since its opening on April 28, 2003.

At the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo, it was announced that the iTunes Music Store would be DRM-free, with conversion complete by April 2009.

Songs cost typically cost 79p for a track or £7.99 for an album.

Napster

Napster was the pioneer of online music sharing and although shut down by court order in 2001, the service re-launched with a legal pay per download service, now offering over 8 million tracks through a subscription service or pay per download.

Subscription costs £9.99 per month and offers unlimited access to all genre's of music, including playlists and over 90 ad free radio stations. Individual downloads start at 79p per track.

eMusic

Over 6 million tracks are available to download from this US based by globally subscribed service, the majority being from independant labels. Prices are cheap and a broad selection of music is available from as little as 25 cents. The files are in MP3 format which allows the tracks to be played in any music device.

New members also benefit from a free download service and if you unsubscribe, you still get to keep the music!

There are loads of great deals to be had and with Internet Service Providers being put under more pressure to ban illegal file sharers, now is a better time than any to start searching stores for the best music deals without infringing on copyright. Amazon and 7digital regularly promote music by offering free music downloads, and subscription websites such as Napster offer unlimited music streams and 5 downloads per month for as little as £5.