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iTunes, Napster and now the new MSN music store plus a growing number of smaller players are all offering to sell commercial music tracks and albums by way of legal downloads.

But how many of these services are available to Kiwis sitting half a world away from the USA and Europe?

Is it possible for derainged teeny-boppers clutching dad's Visa card to download the latest Britney Spears CD or are Kiwis still being forced to walk down to their nearest music store and buy their music on CD?

Do you buy your mainstream music online? If so -- where do you buy it from and how do you find the service on offer?

I have to admit that I have absolutely zero experience with these new download services -- mainly because I've seen nothing on any of them that would convince me to open my wallet.

I'm also more than a little concerned that services such as Microsoft music store would trap me into the evil empire's own proprietary formats and preclude me from burning the music I'd bought and paid for onto a CD in the formats that are most convenient to me (MP3 or CD-audio).

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I don't have a WindowsMedia-capable portable music player and I don't want to be tied to my computer just to listen to the music I've purchased through such a system.

Let's hope that Microsoft have thought of this when designing their service - obviously Apple did when the developed the iTunes product.

What I want to know however is, once you've bought a particular track from one of these online music services, can you go back and download another copy -- in the event that your hard drive crashes or the CD onto which you've archived the track(s) gets damaged?

To date, the recording industry has refused to acknowledge that purchasing their wares (on CD) constitutes a "licence to listen". They say that if you damage the CD then you just have to buy another one at the full retail price.

In the case of a download however, it is very clear that all you're buying is a licence to listen.

Bearing in mind that these services will obviously have a record of your purchase, should you not be entitled to go back and download another copy of previous purchases in the unfortunate event that the original downloads are lost?

And what is the local recording industry doing about online music downloads?

Could I legally pay for and download the latest Brooke Frazer album if I felt so inclined (which I don't)?

Will online music sales remain a per-track item or will the industry be innovative enough to consider per-month subscriptions?

Is the current price-point of US$0.99 per track (NZ$1.50) acceptable?

Will you be buying a WindowsMedia format player so that you can use the music being offered on Microsoft's music store?

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