The Lowdown

By Barbara Kiviat

ITUNES MUSIC STORE www.apple.com/itunes

HOW MUCH IS IT? 99-c- a song, with no subscription charge

WHAT IT OFFERS: More than 200,000 songs from major record labels, plus exclusive tracks from artists including Eminem, U2, Sheryl Crow and Sting

THE GOOD AND BAD: Free 30-second preview. One-click downloads to buy, not rent, a song. Portable when downloaded onto iPods. But available only on Macs until later this year

RHAPSODY www.listen.com

HOW MUCH IS IT? $9.95 a month for unlimited streaming plus 79-c- a song burned

WHAT IT OFFERS: About 375,000 songs from 14,000 artists. Many can be burned to a CD; the rest are for streaming only

THE GOOD AND BAD: Good for music fans who don't mind listening to music on their computers. Windows-based format makes it accessible to most. But extra cost to burn tracks can add up

MP3.COM www.mp3.com

HOW MUCH IS IT? No fees since most artists use it for publicity and CD sales

WHAT IT OFFERS: More than 750,000 songs from 250,000 artists, mostly indie, but also some big-name acts like 50 Cent and Eminem

THE GOOD AND BAD: Once among the best-known services, it was crippled by legal troubles with labels. Now owned by Universal, it's coming back--but some tracks are only for streaming

BUYMUSIC.COM www.buymusic.com

HOW MUCH IS IT? 79-c- to 99-c- a song, with no subscription fee

WHAT IT OFFERS: About 300,000 songs by such artists as John Mayer, Dido and the Ataris, available for downloading and burning to CDs

THE GOOD AND BAD: Made a splash with its July launch as a PC answer to iTunes. But rules and restrictions on downloads that vary by song can leave heads, not tunes, spinning

MUSICNET@AOL AOL KEYWORD: MUSICNET

HOW MUCH IS IT? $3.95 to $17.95 a month, based on number of streams, downloads and CD burns

WHAT IT OFFERS: More than 400,000 songs from all major labels. It's the music-shop arm of the popular AOL Music channel

THE GOOD AND BAD: A convenient way for AOL users to download tunes all on one bill. Parents can set content controls. Limited for now to AOL subscribers