Apple iTunes is a favorite for downloading inexpensive music right to one's computer. Before iTunes, most people got their music by going out and buying CDs or downloading illegal versions of the song. However, this led to viruses. What it demonstrated, though, was that people were not always interested in entire albums, but instead, in particular songs. This led to the iTunes revolution.

Downloading music on iTunes is not difficult. To begin with, make sure to download the latest version of iTunes. Every time you turn on the program, it will alert you to the fact that you are not using the latest version. To ensure that you download your music without a problem, simply download it and install. This should only take a minute or two at most and it will protect your downloads.

Create an account and attach a credit card to it. This way, you can buy songs right from your credit card. It will prompt you as you go through the sign up process. If you don't feel comfortable adding a credit card–which many people don't because it is so easy to just click "buy" on any song–leave that part blank. You can always go out and buy an iTunes gift card to get your music.

Once you have finished creating your account, the next step is to authorize this computer to play the downloadable content. Apple allows up to five different computers to play iTunes music. Therefore, if you have a laptop and a desktop, you can access the music and transfer it between computers. However, after five computers, you can't listen to the music on a sixth.

With iTunes open, click on the "Store" link on the left sidebar. This will load the store. On the homepage is a list of the top movies, TV episodes and songs/albums. It also lists different genres in case you are unsure what type of genre you want to purchase. Select what you want or go to the top right where the search bar is located. Type the specific song or artist into that.

Once you have found the song, click the buy song button. If you are using your credit card, it will ask you to confirm that you want to use that form of payment. If not, input the gift card that you have purchased. This will automatically add the funds to your account.

Allow the download to complete. Once you have hit buy, it will download the song and you can go on to look at other songs. It will queue downloads, so you can purchase more than one song at a time. Upon completion, the songs will be stored on iTunes for you to listen to or, if you so choose, transfer to your iPod.