1. iTunes or through the Amazon MP3 store. Using these services is the safest method of downloading music. Of course, you'll have to pay for the music you download. Similarly, you can sometimes download albums from the artist's website or from a music label's online store. http://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads/ http://www.galleryac.com/ ...are examples of this. The prices are usually very good. 2. Through BitTorrent. Bit Torrent is similar to Limewire in that you are downloading music from other people for free. However, it works a little differently. Firstly, you'll need to download a program like Halite. Download link: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/halite/Halite.0_3_1_1.setup.exe Project Website: http://www.binarynotions.com/halite-bittorrent-client Then you can visit a website (http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/peersharing/a/torrent_search.htm has a list) which lists files or groups of files other people are sharing. It's more likely that you'll download an album at a time, or a whole discography at a time, then getting a song at a time. The nice thing about bit torrent, which makes it a bit safer in terms of viruses or trojans, is that everyone is sharing the same file, not a whole bunch of copies of one file. So, it is more likely that the files you are downloading from bit torrent have been "checked out" by many other people already. If the file did contain a virus or other nasty things, it is unlikely that people would continue to share it with others. Check the comments that are associated with the torrent you are about to download just to make sure no one else has had any problems. The downside of torrents is that you are downloading files that you haven't necessarily paid for, which is always something to consider. It's also possible that the torrents do contain viruses, so you still have to be careful. 3. Sites like rapidshare or megaupload. These sites allow users to upload files to share with others. By googling around a bit you can usually find a link to an uploaded album you'd like to download. (I just found this one: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IULHP4Z8 for an Andrew Bird album) While convenient sometimes (especially when a new album just comes out) there is a chance that the particular album you want will be hard to find. This is not as risky as Limewire, but is not exactly safe either. There is a risk that what someone has labeled as the newest Cannibal Corpse album is really visustrojan-muahaha.exe. Just make sure to virus scan anything you download from sites like that, and don't open anything that isn't a .zip or .mp3. 4. Usenet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USENET. Usenet is the great grandfather of p2p programs. It's something I have not used before, but I've heard from people who have that it is the Cadillac of file sharing.