Despite the growth of music streaming services similar Spotify and Apple Music, many people still adopt to buy (at least some of) their music.

Buying music online ways y'all own information technology outright rather than using it under license. As such, tracks aren't going to disappear from your library of a sudden. Plus, there'due south no danger of the parent company going out of business and taking your music collection with it.

If you desire to buy music rather than stream music, here are the best places to buy music online.

one. Amazon

When y'all buy a song or album online, there are ii ways you tin can receive the content—either digitally (in the form of an MP3 file) or physically (as a CD or vinyl record). Amazon caters to both markets.

When you lot enter the listing of a song or album that'due south available on Amazon, you lot will see a choice of purchase options available. Depending on availability, you can choose to grab the MP3 or physical version. The MP3 version is generally cheaper. If you lot buy the CD version, y'all will typically be granted a gratis re-create of the MP3 version.

And think, if you download the Amazon Music app, you can stream all of your digital music purchases from within it.

2. iTunes Store

Apple iTunes Shop was the original online music store, and information technology continues to thrive to this twenty-four hour period, albeit in a slightly reimagined format. About singles on iTunes cost $0.99, though pop songs are normally $1.29. The default cost of an album is $9.99.

Merely how can you lot access the iTunes Shop? Information technology depends on which operating system you lot're using.

  • If you use a Mac, the iTunes Shop has been office of the all-new Apple Music app since the release of macOS Catalina. The onetime iTunes app no longer exists, only y'all can yet use your iTunes drove in the Apple Music app.
  • The iTunes Store is a standalone app on iOS.
  • Conversely, iTunes does still exist on Windows. Y'all will discover the iTunes Store inside it.

Regardless of the app, the consequence is the aforementioned—you can buy a digital version of a song and download it onto your device.

3. Beatport

Beatport is the all-time online music store for fans of electronic trip the light fantastic music (EDM). You lot tin can buy music as singles or albums; most singles cost $1.29 or $1.99, while albums run to almost $10.

Ane of the store'south best features is the ease with which you can observe new tracks. EDM is notoriously hard to navigate for newcomers—the sheer number of DJs, producers, and remixes brand information technology difficult to discover fresh music you'll dear. Yet, with Top 100 charts, DJ charts, countless genre categories, and fifty-fifty an accompanying blog, Beatport lowers the entry barrier considerably.

four. 7digital

7digital is arguably the king of high-resolution music downloads. The company has been effectually since 2004.

Most songs are available in three formats: 320kbps MP3 (standard quality), 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC (CD quality), and 24-bit/96kHz FLAC (high-res quality).

Unless you're an audiophile with an expensive speaker setup, the high-res version is probably an unnecessary expense. Information technology'due south easy to spot which formats are available for which tracks/albums thanks to the tags on the album artwork thumbnails.

The number of songs/albums bachelor for buy on 7digital is in the millions. As such, you lot can be confident you will discover the music you want, even if it falls into a niche genre. All the latest hits from the world's biggest music stars are also available.

5. HDtracks

The other big proper name in the high-resolution audio world is HDtracks. It directly competes with 7digital.

In that location are both pros and cons when compared with its rival. On the upside, HDtracks has a greater number of audio formats available. The highest quality tracks (24-chip/176.4KHz) are a pregnant step upwardly on the best high-res tracks on 7digital, though virtually of the music bachelor in the highest-quality format falls into the classical music genre.

On the downside, the site is more geared towards albums. If yous prefer buying singles, you might take amend luck with 7digital.

Make sure you lot also check out the various "Top" lists. They are divided by genre and permit y'all explore the most popular music on the site for a given area.

Be sure to cheque out the best streaming services for audiophiles if y'all love hi-res music.

6. Bandcamp

Musicians have spent much of the last decade criticizing services like Spotify for their payment models. At $0.006 to $0.0084 per play, artists and bands need to rack upwards hundreds of thousands of listens before they brand money.

Bandcamp, which is an independent platform, offers a more band-friendly model. Musicians can make their ain stores on the site and sell their songs directly to fans.

Every bit a buyer, you tin can download a track equally many times as you want once you've paid for it. Concrete CDs and vinyl records are also available for purchase (though aircraft costs can sometimes be prohibitive).

Multiple formats are available for digital downloads, including MP3, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, OGG, WAV, and AIFF.

7. CD Universe

If you're a traditionalist who prefers owning CDs over digital music, check out CD Universe. The site is fairly basic, but information technology has ane of the most in-depth collections of CDs and vinyl records bachelor for purchase anywhere on the web. At the last count, at that place were more than 800,000 titles.

We also like that CD Universe accepts payments via PayPal. That sets it apart from Amazon, the other big physical CD seller on our listing. The toll of a CD is slightly higher on CD Universe, notwithstanding.

eight. Walmart

Walmart might not be the first name that pops into your caput when you retrieve about music, but the grocery giant has long offered CDs and vinyl records in its stores and online.

The collection of titles isn't as deep nor every bit niche as Amazon and the similar, but if you lot're looking to pick up the latest music from today's stars, you'll find the albums readily available along with competitive prices.

And remember, Walmart offers a pickup service. You can get the music you desire in a concrete form without waiting for a delivery commuter or needing to ready foot within a store.

Buying Music vs. Streaming Music

Everyone has their preferences, and we're non going to say that ane approach is better than another. It depends on whether you prefer the ease of Spotify or the legal ownership of buying music outright.

Recollect, you can download your about-loved albums on Spotify for offline listening. Withal, you cannot export them outside the Spotify ecosystem.

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About The Writer

Dan Price (1609 Articles Published)

Dan joined MakeUseOf in 2014 and has been Partnerships Director since July 2020. Reach out to him for inquires about sponsored content, chapter agreements, promotions, and any other forms of partnership. Yous can as well observe him roaming the show floor at CES in Las Vegas every year, say hi if you're going. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.

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