If you are a music lover, and even if you are an avid user of iTunes, this could still be of interest to you. Or are you one of the millions of illegal file sharers who just download the latest tunes from BitTorrent? With the advances in illegal file sharing detection and prosecution (I won't get into that in this article), are you looking for a legal alternative to listen to your music? Then read on.

This product was demonstrated on the Gadget Show a while ago and I have been using it since. It is called Spotify and allows you to quickly search and stream music direct to your PC. It has a free subscription which is subsidised by adverts which are fairly short and infrequent, or you can pay a monthly subscription to listen without the adverts.

Once you have visited their site, created an account and downloaded and installed the application, listening to your favourite tunes is easy. A comprehensive search function that returns results quickly allows you to find your chosen track without wasting too much time, and the program even remembers your last 5 searches on the left hand pane.

Once you have found your tracks, you can build playlists which also appear on the left side, and the iPod like control makes controlling the music easy. This is not the option to use if you want to download music, but if streaming is good enough for you, this is one of the best products on the market.

Originally one of the main products used to illegally share files, Napster reinvented itself after legal intervention. They don't offer a free ongoing service, but you can buy and download individual tracks as well as subscribe on a monthly basis for just under £10. Finding and playing music is easy with a well refined interface, similar to the iTunes look and feel.

With the Napster unlimited program, you can listen to music on up to 3 different PCs, but be advised that once your subscription lapses, that music disappears and you will either need to resubscribe or purchase the music to continue enjoying it. Napster also allows you create custom playlists and listen to live streaming radio stations too.

The two products listed above are not the definitive list, but they are the best I have found to be able to listen on demand to your chosen music. There are several other websites which are not as good in functionality, or simply throw you onto a streaming radio station of your artist, which means you don't have control of the song.

These products give you a legal way of trying before you buy, or at the very least, an alternative to illegal file sharing. No more excuses.