The cheapest places to buy music online

If you're looking to grab some music online, these are the cheapest places to do it.

How should we buy our music online and how much do these different options cost? Here's a round-up of today's most popular music services, including their pricing.

CDs

If you're a middle-aged, old-school music lover like me, then you may prefer to own a physical copy of every album you buy. You can then rip this CD to whichever music service you listen to most.

Another bonus with CDs is that you can rip music using near-lossless compression, which produces higher-quality digital copies than, say, 256Kbps MP3 files. This is another reason why I keep buying CDs, rather than digital albums.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, the traditional 'physical model' for buying albums can sometimes be cheaper than buying digital copies. What's more, with Amazon AutoRip, you get the best of both worlds, as the retailer gives you a free digital copy of CDs you buy from it.

Which websites currently offer the best deals on CD albums? Right now, the UK's number-one album is US rapper Jay-Z's Magna Carta...Holy Grail . Here's how much this album costs at five leading online retailers, contrasted with the price of Adele's 21 -- an album that has sold millions since its release in January 2011:

* Earns 16 Nectar points

** Earns nine Clubcard points

*** Includes free MP3 version via AutoRip

**** Earns 14 Nectar points

***** Earns eight Clubcard points

As you can see, Sainsbury's wins by a penny by selling Magna Carta at £8.99, closely followed by Asda and Tesco at £9. Amazon is £1 dearer than Sainsbury's, but throws in a free MP3 copy of this album. Play.com comes in a poor fifth, with this CD priced at nearly £11.

For Adele's 21, the price range is extremely narrow, ranging from £7.99 at Sainsbury's to £8.02 at Play.com. This could indicate that once an album exits the Top 40, retailers may decide against discounting it heavily. For sure, many online retailers' best deals are reserved for what's riding high in the charts, rather than for albums in music companies' vast back catalogues.

Digital tracks (MP3s)

In 2012, seven in ten albums bought in the UK were physical formats, with 30% being digital downloads. However, almost all singles (97%) were bought in digital formats.

Now let's find out how much Jay-Z's latest collection and Adele's 21 cost in MP3 format:

* Earns 16 Nectar points

Although there are some giant names in this list -- including Google, Amazon and Apple -- all are beaten on price for Magna Carta by UK-based 7digital, which charges just £5 for a 320 Kbps MP3 version. All other sellers in this list are between 40% and 80% more expensive than 7digital for Jay-Z's album.

For 21 on MP3, only two price levels exist: £7.49 at Google Play and Amazon and £7.99 elsewhere. The cheapest I could find 21 online was £6.99 at UK-based TuneTribe.com. Once again, this shows how digital downloads can be as expensive as physical albums, despite being obviously much cheaper to distribute.

What's more, it's worth noting that 7digital downloads are DRM-free (no Digital Rights Management protection), which means that they are not tied to a particular platform (such as iTunes) and can be played on any MP3-enabled device.

In my experience, 7digital is most often the winner for MP3 albums, but Amazon is usually cheaper for digital singles. For example, each track on Jay-Z's new album costs 89p at Amazon, whereas most other sites charge 99p per tune.

What's more, it's almost always far cheaper to buy an entire album than download several individual tracks from it. For instance, Amazon charges £7.49 for this MP3 album, but buying each of the 16 individual tracks at 89p each would cost £14.24 -- almost twice as much.

Streaming services

One alternative to buying music piecemeal is to sign up to one or more online streaming services. These music-on-demand sites include the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and Last.fm. Here's a brief rundown of these four services:

Spotify (Free; £4.99/month; £9.99/month)

Spotify allows users to stream DRM-protected music from a wide range of record labels, including Sony, EMI and Warner Music. It has 24 million active users, including over six million paying subscribers. Its catalogue contains 20 million songs, growing by 20,000 tracks a day.

Spotify's free service offers instant music to desktops and laptops, supported by advertising (limited to 10 hours a month after six months). £4.99 a month gets you unlimited, ad-free music to desktops and laptops. A further £5 a month extends this service to include tablets and mobile devices and also allows you to cache songs on devices to listen offline.

Rdio (£4.99/month or £9.99/month)

Rdio is broadly similar to Spotify, but with two main differences. First, there is no permanent free ad-backed option. Instead, you get unlimited web streaming for £4.99 a month, or streaming and caching to mobile devices for £9.99 a month. (However, you can get up to six months free web streaming as part of a trial, or you can get the mobile app for free for 14 days.)

Second, you don't need a Facebook profile to use Rdio, whereas this is a must for Spotify.

Deezer (Free; £4.99/month; £9.99/month)

Deezer has more than 25 million tracks, 30,000 radio channels and 30 million users, including four million paying subscribers. As well as streaming tracks to devices, Deezer allows users to buy music via iTunes.

Naturally, its free service (just two hours a month) comes with ads, but paying £4.99 a month gets you ad-free, higher-quality music. Another £5 a month gives access to music via mobile devices and offline.

Alas, in most reviews I've read, Deezer usually finishes third to Spotify and Rdio, thanks to its less user-friendly interface. Of the three, Spotify seems to be the tech pundits' favourite for ease of use, accessibility and all-round performance.

Last.fm (Free; £3/month)

Finally, Last.fm. It builds a profile of your musical tastes by creating a note (called a 'scrobble') of what you're listening to on internet radio, your computer and other music devices. These scrobbles build up a picture of which music you like, allowing Last.fm to recommend music to you.

As scrobbling and web radio are free at Last.fm, almost 80 billion scrobbles have been produced to date. By paying £3 a month, subscribers can remove advertising, gain priority on Last.fm's servers and access internet radio on mobile devices.

How do you enjoy, consume and buy music online? Please tell us about your favourite sites in the comments box below.

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