Legal Music Downloads

[#1]

I am intending to sign up to one of the myriad of music download sites but wish to make sure that the one I go with is both legal and ethically okay.  I know that P2P sites are a bit taboo in this respect for various reasons so I am trying to steer clear of those but there are many other sites that look interesting and cheap, but not free, so I don't know for sure if these are P2P sites in disguise.  A couple of them for example are 'Mp3DownloadingNet.Com' and 'mp3va.com'. 
Can anybody advise on what to look for please.  I don't want to pay any money up front to these places only to find that they're not what they claim to be,  i.e legal and 'proper'.    I would also like to know where Plusnet stands on music downloads, I don't want to get a warning letter threatening me with disconnection etc.  etc.

[#2]

7 digtal are partners with spotify so are trusted, plus you can listen to the whole track on spotify as much as you like before deciding to buy it, if you have an iphone or one of the other smart fones you just pay spotify a monthly fee and stream and have your playlist offline as well with you on your fone.
plusnet well not say anything about legal downloads, and ive never heard of them warning any one of ileagal downloads p2p or not
if you want to try spotify out on free account to start off with am sure if you ask nicely one of the comuntiy members sat on any invites will pass one on to you

[#3]

I have a spotify invite left.... amazon is reasonably priced for some stuff on their mp3 downloads.

[#4]

Thank you both for that.
Are you offering your spare spotify invite various woo's ?.  If so, I would say 'yes please'.  Not sure how it works but I'm sure you would advise.

[#5]

wondered what the hell the woo's bit was all about, now i see adie has changed his username.
http://www.spotify.com/en/ have read here tells you all you need to know about spotify, it will save tracks to your harddrive but not in a form that is of any use to you apart from playing in spotify to save re streaming it to you and it will all so uploads the tracks youve got your hard drive to other spotify users. yes a LEGAL use for p2p
if you send various woo's a PM with you email he can send you the invite offerd to you.
do we need to mention itunes as a source for music downloads

[#6]

Today I saw an advert on TV, advertising a what I think is a new product as It was the first time I have seen it, by Sky, called SkySongs
I have no idea if its any good, how it works or anything to be quite honest but I just thought I would inform you about this incase you wasnt aware
I hope you do find what you are looking for
Lee
http://songs.sky.com/

[#7]

Have itunes removed their DRM yet? If so you will be hard pushed to get a bigger selection.
Napster maybe?

[#8]

Many thanks everyone for your interest and help.  Have browsed around a bit following up your various suggestions and I think I will probably give iTunes a try.

[#9]

remember the very strict DRM that comes with the itunes tracks thoe

[#10]

You couldn't be further from the truth – iTunes songs have been completely without DRM since the beginning of the year. (Note I said iTunes songs though – TV programmes, films, and some music videos still carry DRM.) Unfortunately however iTunes aren't always the cheapest source, as the music labels were getting scared about iTunes becoming too dominant so they basically charge iTunes higher wholesale prices that other download services. On the other hand, there are a couple of ways a person can save money on iTunes. One is Quidco, who currently offer 6% cashback on all iTunes purchases (and that figure can get as high as 10%), plus there's also the occasional discounted iTunes voucher available from various stores, particularly at this time of the year.

[#11]

Just launched have a look at this http://www.tunechecker.com/ meant to find the cheapest legal downloads.

[#12]

I like the look of that, many thanks

[#13]

Further to what I said about discounted iTunes vouchers, there're coupons in today's (Thursday's) Metro and tomorrow's Times for 2x £15 iTunes cards for £20 when purchased with a greeting card in Clintons. So if you needed to buy a card anyway, and managed to salvage a free coupon from the Metro, that's a whole third off.