Are you a Zune owner and wish that you know where to download music conveniently, instantly and most importantly without expensive pay per download fees? You may be looking for the latest songs by Beyonce, Maroon 5 or Justin Timberlake but the thought of the cost makes it a little hard to bear. If this describes you, then you may want to read on as we share about how you can pack more music to your player and where are the best places to download music for Zune.

HMV, Amazon and iTunes are some mega online stores where you can download music together with other media files like videos, music videos and movies. Microsoft also has a marketplace where you can find a huge library of over 2 million music files. But buying at these music stores is not the cheapest thing to do. Downloading one or a few music or songs is perfectly fine for your pocket as each download costs around $0.99 onwards. But you would feel the pinch if you were trying to build a private collection.

Of course another option is to head to some of the free music networks where you can download music for Zune for free. While this sounds like a great idea, I can almost assure you that you may regret it like some others. Be prepared to open your computer to the risk of spyware, adware and viruses. Trojans, worms and all are but common files that are attached to the music download. Not only that, the copies might not be the full complete songs!

Another way is to go the route of CD ripping. Either you rip your own CD for songs or you can always pop by a friend’s place for a CD you like. Since the Zune player is no different from other MP3 players, you might already be familiar with how to rip music from CD to your player especially if you own one MP3 player like iPod or Zen currently.

Ripping music for your Zune player requires a media player like Windows Media Player. There are others like Winamp, RealPlayer and so on. If you are using Windows Media Player, once the CD is loaded into your CD ROM, you can see the song list from which you can select the tracks you want. Then all you have to do is to right click the mouse and go to “rip” or simply just click the “Rip” icon on the interface. Once it is done, wire the player to your computer via the USB cable and synchronization between your player and your PC takes place. It will download music onto your player.

Sometimes, the synchronization may be interrupted and the files are not downloaded properly. When this happens, all you need is to copy the music downloads and paste it directly onto your music player. Your player would appear as a removable drive, typically Drive E on your computer when you explore it.

The file format for music is crucial if you wish to successfully download music for Zune playback. The reason why we encourage users to use Windows Media Player is so that the files are compatible with your device since it supports them. If you are using a different media player, make sure you can save the files as one of these formats – WMA, WMV, MP3, MP4 and MOV. DivX and RealMedia are not supported.

Other than the free sites as well as music CD ripping, you do have a third option which is a favourite among current owners. This alternative comes in the form of paid membership services where you can have unlimited access as well as movies, videos, games and even the latest software. All these are available without any bandwidth limits at a price lesser than $49 which is something even teens can afford.

Hopefully, these tips would help you to decide your choice for music downloads. For more details about the top download sites that allow you instant access to download music for Zune, go over to my recommended blog