The only thing that I download of the internet is music. There are many advantages of downloading from the internet rather than going to the shop to physically buy a copy. One advantage is that you don’t have to buy a whole album to have one song. You are aloud to pick and choose particular songs that you want, this means that it becomes cheaper for the user. Downloading music can be done at anytime making it easier for the user to purchase music as they don’t have to wait until the shop opens. It also means that the customer doesn’t have to travel to the shop this saves petrol and money. Also by downloading music you get the music almost instantly. Also it makes it easier to transfer to different mediums such as mp3 players and iPods as the user doesn’t have to upload the CD to a computer programme. Also the quality of the downloaded file is normally the same as that from a CD so the user isn’t missing out.

Although there are many advantages there are also some disadvantages. For example if you download all the tracks from an album you end up paying the same amount if you just bought the album from a shop so you don’t end up saving any money. Also if you download the album, you miss out on extras such as lyrics and pictures in the album booklet. Also many artists also spend al lot on album artwork so you miss out on that. If you download music illegally sometimes the file can contain viruses that may damage your computer and sometimes illegal sites can reduce the quality of the file. It also depends on the speed of your internet connection as this may make the download time longer.