Let's face it, almost all of us at one time or another has thrown away $10 or $20 buying an album for the enjoyment of a single song. Thanks to music downloads, that just doesn't have to be the case anymore. This new, fast and quite portable technology has enabled total control over a music library for a whole lot less money.



Music downloads are taking over the industry for a number of reasons. The biggest reason, which has its own subset of smaller ones, is the fact this form of listening can be completely personalized.

Let's look at how this is the case. Music downloads enable:

* Single song downloads. This beats the heck out of plunking down the cash for a full album when only one or two songs is desired. Rather than spend that $20 to net two favorites, you can apply every dime towards tunes you love.

* Creation of play lists. Depending on the music download service and listening device you're using, the creation of play lists can be very simple. These are simply the songs that will be loaded to play at any given time. On a computer with music downloads, for example, you can have different play lists for different days of the week.

You can even download to portable devices entire play lists (depending on storage capacity) and change them out as you want without losing the purchase.

* Ultimate music management. The play lists themselves enable some major organization of music purchases. All your holiday music, for example, can be stored on one list while your jazz collection resides in another. If you're feeling particularly eclectic, you can even create a new list by mixing up the songs from different collections.

* No need to store tons of CD cases while creating an impressive library. Since most music download services enable the storing of buys within their systems, you don't have to backup to CD and store the physical disks to keep a great library going.

* Versatility. Since many download devices, such as computers and some MP3 players, enable the storage and play of multiple types of files, it's possible to have a machine that's ready to rock for any purpose.

From video games and music to movies and television shows, some players can handle them all and many music download services are making adjustments to accommodate. This means you can completely personalize your devices with not only your favorite songs, but also your favorite games, TV shows and even movies. Storage capacity of the device, of course, will come into play as will ability, but the fact is these options are out there and they're totally portable.

It used to be people would listen to the radio and wish they could take over for the deejay and create their favorite play list. Thanks to music download services and devices, there's no need to wish any longer. These advances in technology put music lovers in the driver's seat and that's precisely why they've become so popular. When it comes to tailoring to meet individual tastes, few things can compare.