An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. The realization of the market for these services grew widespread around the time of Napster, a music and file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning that made a major impact on the Internet scene during the year 2000. Some services have tethered downloads, meaning that playing songs requires an active membership.

In 2000 Sony became the second company to make music from one of the major labels available for sale on the internet, with 'The Store'. However, it was not the first online music sharing company, because the first one was shut down in a lawsuit under the DMCA. The big record companies were apprehensive to license their catalogs to outside companies and refused the late 90's requests of MP3.com, Cductive and eMusic (then called Goodnoise) to sell digital song downloads. They eventually decided to start their own services, which they could control directly.

Sony's service turned out to be an ill-conceived affair. Not only was the service difficult for consumers to navigate and use, Sony's expensive pricing of US$3.50 per song track turned off many early adopters of the service. Furthermore, as MP3 Newswire pointed out in its review of the service, users were actually only renting the tracks for that $3.50. After a certain point the files expired and could not be played again without repurchase. The service quickly failed.

Undaunted, the record industry tried again. Universal Music Group and Sony teamed up with a service called Duet, later renamed PressPlay. EMI, AOL/Time Warner and BMG teamed up with MusicNet. Again, both services struggled, hampered by high prices and heavy limitations on how downloaded files could be used once paid for. In the end, consumers chose instead to flock to the free file sharing programs, which were far more convenient to use and also free to use.

Non-major label services like eMusic, Cductive and Listen.com (now Rhapsody.com) sold the music of independent labels and artists to keep in the game, however digital music downloads began to gain popularity after the launch of the iTunes Music Store and the creation of portable music and mp3 players. This enabled music fans to take their music with them, wherever they went.

Recently, there has been a boom in "boutique" music stores that cater to specific audiences. For example, Beatportand Bleep cater to the electronic music community. Magnatune, Amie Street, and Mindawn are other examples of sites that cater to specific audiences. Another trend in music download sites include Fonogenic which combine the ideas of the slective editorial nature of an MP3 blog with online music stores which provide instant access to buy and download songs.

As of May 2006, the largest online music service is iTunes Music Store with 61% of the market followed by emusic with 12%. [1]

Much controversy surrounds this issue, so many or perhaps all of these points are disputed.

• More respectful to copyright law as interpreted by groups like the RIAA.
  • Decreases chances of legal disadvantages.
  • Avoids some social stigmas and moral regrets that some people have.
• More consistent and higher quality meta-data, because the entering of the meta-data is more centralized and done by groups with financial interests.
• Companies sometimes behave more accountably to users than other users.
• Centralized repository of music makes it easier to find the songs you want.
  • Notably Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs claimed in his introduction of the iTunes Music Store that file swappers get paid less than minimum wage for the work required to download audio.

• Some stores cannot be accessed on a Linux computer.
• Many stores offer music in few audio formats.
• Users do not have a "hard copy" of purchased music, such as a CD, for archiving although music can usually be backed up to a CD or portable music player.
• Some stores do not provide artwork or liner notes.
• Stores have limited catalogs, because of more attention paid to copyright concerns.
  • Some file swapping advocates claim that, because file sharing costs nothing, any pay service essentially costs infinitely many times more than file swapping.
• Some stores use Digital Rights Management, which limits use of music on certain devices (for example, iTunes Store tracks can only be played on computers and iPod digital audio players). The restrictions vary between different services, and sometimes even between different songs from the same service.

Comparison of online music stores

• Priced to Lose? Labels Sell Music Online - August 3, 2000 MP3 Newswire article on the major label's first paid download efforts.
• http://www.museekster.com/legalmusic.htm
• Review of New Online Music Sites
• Song List - mapping of songs to multiple online music stores.