Hit Me Baby One More Time

While exploring your iPod and iTunes, you may feel like the entire world has opened up to you. And you’re right!

The iTunes Store is built to be the iPod user’s primary “mini-mall,” but you have other music options, as well. Subscription sites, like FeedMyiPods.com and iPodNetDownloads.com, make software and music available for a small fee and their interfaces are created to work seamlessly with your iPod. Be extremely wary of sites that offer “free” music or of borrowing your friends CDs to copy them onto your iPod: Downloading music without paying for it is a serious crime and a gamble.

Take the advice of Bruce Upbin, assistant managing editor for Forbes magazine: “Don’t steal music. There are great services like LaLa.com where you can swap CDs you own for ones you want for a nominal fee. If you get tired of your collection, you can swap out for different music at your convenience and without doing it illegally.”