Hey everyone, random off-topic question. Does anybody know a store where I can purchase and download music as an mp3 file, obviously legally? I don’t mean albums but finding individual songs. Actually, I guess albums too, but I’d only buy them If the album had multiple songs that I want from it.
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You can buy individual tracks or full albums from Bandcamp. Of course they only have the songs that their artists publish there. I doubt there exists a site that has just about everything you could imagine. It’ll be hard to find old stuff controlled by the major record labels.
Amazon offers digital downloads of music from many of the major record labels, but it’s case by case on if you’re able to buy single tracks or have to buy the whole album or not. Although I do not know for sure what sort of DRM Amazon applies, if any.
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iTunes is a good bet if you use Apple products – which I don’t, but several close friends do.
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Amazon lets you buy some individual tracks of a digital album or you can buy the entire album.
It used to let you buy more individual songs, but now for whatever reason they only allow for sales of specific songs from an album.
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Amazon & Google play.
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iTunes screws over artists. I would use as a last resort. (also they don’t technically sell .mp3, it’s .aac)
@THEFIREGAMER123
I don’t know what type of music you listen to.
If you are into Electronic music, you can try beatport.com
@Fraggles’s recommendation of bandcamp is good.
@TR3NT’s mention of Amazon and GPlay are also viable options.
Also consider what type of music you’re into. If you really like the music, say Monstercat, puts out, see if they have a store (Monstercat does).
I’ll be honest I’m not super knowledgeable on this.
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Not only mp3’s are available on these sites but FLAC’s are available too. I always go with FLAC though (when I can’t buy physical album).
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7digital was a potentially interesting site. It did have some of the odd stuff I like to pretend I’d buy if only it was available for purchase at a reasonable price… well damn.
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I use Google Play Music and it also allows you to purchase single songs, albums or subscribe every month and get unlimited music (I subscribe). It has a lot on it, although not everything 
I know Spotify and Youtube music have the same sort of thing that you can use for free when connected to a network but you need to subscribe if you want to download the music/listen offline 
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Hence why I don’t use Apple products and also despise anything Apple-related.
However, I thought giving all viable options was better than just talking about what I use when I listen to music – Bandcamp and SoundCloud, as well as Deezer, IndieShuffle and Hype Machine, which are music-related but not what OP asked for.
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I want mp3 files because I don’t want to pay for subscriptions. But anyway, thank you all for the suggestions, I’ll check them out.
@Pylinaer I’m into music from the 40s-90s.
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That is pretty broad. But if I get what you’re saying, Beatport really won’t hold anything for you.
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Classic rock, and hip hop music, and I guess metal as well which by today’s standards would just be rock.
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I know that you asked for sites selling MP3’s but, since some albums and tracks might be hard to come by digitally, maybe you could try Discogs as your last resort? It’s always an option, if you’re not interested in Spotify etc. You can find lots of albums there (physical), often for a reasonable price. People are selling from all over the world, so shipping would not be that bad too. I use Discogs regularly, since I am not fond of music streaming services. You can always rip your CD to any format and quality you like 
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Avoid Google Music if you are using it via PC. Has limited (3) downloads for each file, unlimited only if you install their downloader and download YOUR WHOLE LIBRARY at once. Even if you only want that newly bought track, you’ll potentially have to download another 1200+ lol
That program also doesn’t work more than once for me, always requires a reinstall 
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I just kinda rip them out of mp4’s from YouTube. They are mostly old and I already own them other ways…
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This is somewhat off topic.
I am currently reading a book that talks about the creation of Mp3/Mp2 and piracy of music. If interested, the book is How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt.
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