Considering I have no experience or knowledge about how to download, I limit myself to information gathered together over the internet.
Illegal (including criminal!) music download is usually done through 'exchange' music files on the computer with other users through a peer - to-peer program such as LimeWire, Vuze, Soulseek Ares, BearShare, Kazaa Lite or others.
Copyrighted music may only be downloaded with the consent of performers and producers. Some - especially beginners - musicians make their work freely available on the Internet to gain more publicity.
For music of established artists you will however usually have to pay to download it in a legal way. This can be done from several international websites that offer songs for which they pay in accordance with the copyright law.
Some of these websites are:
- iTunes Store: https://www.apple.com/benl/itunes/download/
- 7digital : https://nl-be.7digital.com/
- eMusic : https://nl-be.7digital.com/
iTunes Store is by far the largest and most popular online music store in the world.
The iTunes software is not an online program. You first need to download (free) and install the program on your computer.
If you want to listen to your favorite music with another program or on an mp3 player then you must first convert the songs to mp3. This can by adjusting the settings in ITunes.
Quality
The quality of the music depends on, among other things, the bit rate, in other words the extent to which the music is compressed. MP3 is a popular compression way. MP3 with a bit rate of 128 kbps is 11 times smaller than the same sound file in wav format. The higher the bit rate, the better the quality, but the larger the file. A bit rate of 192 kbps delivers a very decent sound quality, even on a good sound system. At a bit rate of 256 kbps quality differs little audible from a CD.
MP3
MPEG1 - layer3 is abbreviated to MP3. A file in MP3 format is approximately 10 times smaller than a 'rough' music file. Mp3 has now become the world standard for digital music and is supported by many software. The loose of quality of the music is small, although it does not meet all the quality of the high standards set by sound engineers.
WMA
Windows Media Audio is Microsoft's answer to MP3. WMA has a smaller file size than MP3: WMA is 30 times smaller than the original music format. Microsoft WMA focuses primarily on major labels. Because WMA files are protected included against unlimited copying. So keep that in mind if you decide to download WMA files.