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 means yous own it outright rather than using it under license. Equally such, tracks aren't going to disappear from your library suddenly. Plus, in that location's no danger of the parent company going out of business and taking your music collection with it.

If you want to buy music rather than stream music, hither are the all-time places to buy music online.

one. Amazon

buy music amazon

When you buy a song or anthology online, at that place are two ways y'all can receive the content—either digitally (in the course of an MP3 file) or physically (as a CD or vinyl record). Amazon caters to both markets.

When you enter the listing of a song or album that's bachelor on Amazon, yous volition encounter a selection of buy options available. Depending on availability, you tin choose to catch the MP3 or concrete version. The MP3 version is mostly cheaper. If you buy the CD version, yous will typically exist granted a free copy of the MP3 version.

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

2. iTunes Store

itunes store

Apple iTunes Store was the original online music shop, and it continues to thrive to this day, albeit in a slightly reimagined format. Almost singles on iTunes cost $0.99, though popular songs are usually $1.29. The default price of an album is $9.99.

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

  • If you utilize a Mac, the iTunes Shop has been part of the all-new Apple tree Music app since the release of macOS Catalina. The old iTunes app no longer exists, simply you lot can nonetheless use your iTunes collection in the Apple Music app.
  • The iTunes Store is a standalone app on iOS.
  • Conversely, iTunes does still be on Windows. You will find the iTunes Shop within it.

Regardless of the app, the upshot is the aforementioned—yous tin buy a digital version of a vocal and download it onto your device.

3. Beatport

beatport buy music

Beatport is the all-time online music shop for fans of electronic dance music (EDM). You can buy music equally singles or albums; nigh singles cost $i.29 or $1.99, while albums run to almost $ten.

One of the store's best features is the ease with which you lot can discover new tracks. EDM is notoriously hard to navigate for newcomers—the sheer number of DJs, producers, and remixes make it hard to discover fresh music you'll love. However, with Acme 100 charts, DJ charts, countless genre categories, and fifty-fifty an accompanying blog, Beatport lowers the entry barrier considerably.

4. 7digital

7digital buy hi-res music

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 lot're an audiophile with an expensive speaker setup, the high-res version is probably an unnecessary expense. It's easy to spot which formats are available for which tracks/albums cheers to the tags on the album artwork thumbnails.

The number of songs/albums bachelor for purchase on 7digital is in the millions. Equally such, you can be confident you volition observe the music you lot desire, even if information technology falls into a niche genre. All the latest hits from the world's biggest music stars are also available.

5. HDtracks

hdtracks

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

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

On the downside, the site is more geared towards albums. If you prefer ownership singles, yous might have improve luck with 7digital.

Make sure you also check out the various "Top" lists. They are divided past genre and allow you explore the most popular music on the site for a given area.

Be sure to check out the best streaming services for audiophiles if you love how-do-you-do-res music.

vi. Bandcamp

bandcamp

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

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

Equally a buyer, y'all can download a runway every bit many times as you want one time you lot've paid for it. Physical CDs and vinyl records are too available for purchase (though shipping costs can sometimes exist prohibitive).

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

7. CD Universe

cd universe

If y'all're a traditionalist who prefers owning CDs over digital music, check out CD Universe. The site is fairly bones, but it has one of the most in-depth collections of CDs and vinyl records available for buy anywhere on the web. At the terminal count, there were more than 800,000 titles.

We as well like that CD Universe accepts payments via PayPal. That sets it apart from Amazon, the other large physical CD seller on our list. The cost of a CD is slightly college on CD Universe, however.

viii. Walmart

walmart buy music

Walmart might non be the beginning proper noun that pops into your head when yous think almost 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 as niche equally Amazon and the similar, just if you're looking to pick up the latest music from today's stars, yous'll observe the albums readily available forth with competitive prices.

And recollect, Walmart offers a pickup service. You tin get the music you want in a concrete form without waiting for a delivery commuter or needing to ready foot within a shop.

Ownership Music vs. Streaming Music

Anybody has their preferences, and we're not going to say that 1 arroyo is better than some other. It depends on whether yous prefer the ease of Spotify or the legal ownership of buying music outright.

Remember, you can download your most-loved albums on Spotify for offline listening. However, you cannot export them outside the Spotify ecosystem.

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