You don't have to look hard to find places to download music online - websites of all sorts will readily pop-up at your mouse click. Many will tempt you with fantastic free offers, including the software that enables you to download music online for free and then share it with other users. And while everybody knows that these music sharing or p2p sites are potentially dangerous, to resist their offers may be really difficult.

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is taking action against some big time culprits who are sharing music online. This can be a potential pitfall against you if you download free music as well as share them using Peer-to-Peer P2P networks. So you are responsible for the way you treat this way of getting music. Of course, there are safer ways to download music online legally by spending a couple more dollars.

The file sharing client application that the P2P websites provide to you free is something you need to be careful with. While you may at first jump at joy that they are giving it to you free to download music online, this software is actually a gateway to a host of unwanted problems such as infiltration of spyware, adware and computer viruses.

These client software needs to be installed on your PC. Each time you download a music MP3 file, you could also be downloading an adware together. Once your computer gets clogged with too many of these advertisements spawning software, your entire computer would slow to a halt. Another malware, Spyware is a worse culprit in the sense that it would secretly send your personal details to people who can do a thousand and one things with the information.

As if these are not enough, when you download music online through these free services, your computer can suffer attacks from viruses. While efforts have been made to make the file sharing cum downloading software safer to use, you are still in a vulnerable position since the viruses do get stronger as well. It can be better to turn to other legitimate and safe sources for music.

This piece of advice is for all regular music junkies who pop by P2P sites every now and then. The very bare minimum you need to do is to ensure that your antivirus software and anti-adware and anti-spyware are all top notch stuff and constantly updated against the newest threats. But that said, your computer can never be 100% safe since the environment you are downloading in is unsecured in the first place.

You need to guard yourself against another potential threat when downloading music online for free - pornography. The music file you have downloaded could actually lead you to pornographic site. If you have kids or teens at home, this is something you do not want them to be exposed to when they get free music using P2P sites.

Take time to understand more about the free service as well as the file sharing application they want you to download. If you can do a little bit more research online to find other alternatives, I am sure you can find other ways to download music online without spending too much money.

For example, you can get hold of a lifetime membership from the recommended music services at my blog that allows you to download music online for unlimited number of times at anytime, anywhere for less than $50.