Q: How can I listen to or download music online without breaking the law or getting sued?

If you’re asking this question, then you are probably starting to get the caustic message coming from the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) which has brought 1600 lawsuits against illegal file-swappers. Fortunately, there are lots of options for finding legally-available music on the Internet. The bottom line, however, is that most of them will cost you money.

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Legal but Brief: 15-20 Second Tune-Teasers
At the very least, you can legally listen to music through your favorite artists’ Web sites. Most popular artists will offer 15-20 second previews of their songs to encourage you to purchase their CDs. You can also listen to and download entire songs from selected featured artists (which change from week to week) on the Web sites of popular music channels, such as the Country Music Television and MTV.

Listen Only: Internet Radio
Many mainstream artists offer their songs to Internet radio stations for listening only. LAUNCH Music on Yahoo offers an online radio station that streams music from the genres you select as your favorites. Live365 (www.live365.com) allows you to listen to a more eclectic variety of music. Like LAUNCH, the music is organized by genre; however, Live365 is unique since its music is not programmed by the site owners, but plugged in by listeners just like you who post their own playlists. Of course, neither of these radio options permit downloading, but they do offer free exposure to new music and serve as an alternative to traditional radio, which tends to play the same songs over and over again.

Songs a la Carte
If you’re willing to open your wallet, the Internet has many great services that allow you to purchase music by popular artists for very low prices. To get started, check out Bumbles MP3s which provides a guide to over 40 legal MP3 download sites on the Web today.

Most services offer songs for under a dollar, with Napster, iTunes and MusicMatch charging ninety-nine cents per song. Some sites, such as BuyMusic.com, allow you to preview a 15-20 second clip of the song before you download it.

An important caveat for a la carte buyers who transport files to a digital music player, such as an iPod: make sure your music files are compatible with your player. Mp3 is not the only file format (there are others, such as .wma and .aac), and not all players support all formats. MusicNow claims that its downloads are compatible with 40 different digital music players.

Musical Buffet: Monthly Subscription Services
For a small price per month, subscription services like Rhapsody provide the option of streaming music for only $9.95 per month. You get access to a large legal collection of albums and can select the songs you want to hear, but you can’t download them to your computer. You can, however, save your playlists and access them from other computers. Even better, a majority of the songs can be burned onto a CD for just ten cents per song. Rhapsody offers a 7-day free trial.

As you’re choosing which option best meets your needs and your finances, just remember that all of these choices are a lot cheaper than hiring a lawyer or paying a $12,000 settlement to the RIAA.