Despite the growth of music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, many people still prefer to buy (at least some of) their music.

Buying music online means you own it outright rather than using it under license. As such, tracks aren't going to disappear from your library suddenly. Plus, there's no danger of the parent company going out of business and taking your music collection with it.

If you want to buy music rather than stream music, here are the best places to buy music online.

1. Amazon Music

When you buy a song or album online, there are two ways you can receive the content—either digitally (in the form of an MP3 file) or physically (as a CD or vinyl record). Amazon caters to both markets.

You can find a song or album by using the search bar on the Amazon website. To narrow the results, click the dropdown menu to the left of the search bar and select Digital Music. Clicking on a listing will show you the Amazon Music page, where you can click Purchase Options to view all the ways you can buy the music.

Depending on availability, you can grab the MP3 or physical version. Sometimes, this can include a cassette copy too. Buying MP3 music online is generally cheaper. However, if you buy the CD version, you will typically be granted a free copy of the MP3 version.

And remember, if you download the Amazon Music app, you can stream all of your digital music purchases from within it.

2. iTunes Store

The Apple iTunes Store was the original place to buy music online, and it continues to thrive to this day, albeit in a slightly re-imagined format.

Depending on what operating system you use, iTunes can be downloaded in a few ways.

• If you have an iPhone or iPad (iOS), the iTunes Store can be downloaded as an app from the App Store.
• If you use a Mac computer (macOS), the old stand-alone iTunes Store app no longer exists. However, you can still use your iTunes collection and access the store through the Apple Music app.
• For Windows users, iTunes can still be downloaded as normal, and you can make music purchases within the app.

Regardless of the app, the upshot is the same—you can buy a digital version of a song and download it onto your device. Most singles on iTunes cost $0.99, and the price of an album will vary from artist to artist.

You'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that you can also import music that you own to the Apple Music library.

3. Beatport

Beatport is the best online music store for fans of electronic music. You can buy music as singles or albums; most singles cost $1.29, while albums vary accordingly. Simply hover your mouse over any featured image to quickly check out the price.

One of the store's best features is the ease with which you can find new tracks. Electronic music is notoriously hard to navigate for newcomers—the sheer number of DJs, producers, and remixes makes it hard to discover fresh music you'll love.

However, with Top 100 charts, DJ charts, endless genre categories, and an accompanying site called Beatportal for news, reviews, and articles, Beatport lowers the entry barrier considerably.

4. 7digital

7digital is a company that has been around since 2004, offering a place to buy music downloads at extremely high resolution. Songs on the site are available in up to three formats: 320kbps MP3 (standard quality), 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC (CD quality), and 24-bit/96kHz FLAC (high-res quality).

Unless you're an audiophile with an expensive speaker setup, the high-res version is probably an unnecessary expense. It's easy to spot which formats are available for which tracks/albums, thanks to the tags on the album artwork thumbnails.

The music available for purchase on 7digital numbers in the millions. As such, you can be confident you will find the music you want, even if it falls into a niche genre. All the latest hits from the world's biggest music stars are also there.

5. HDtracks

Out there competing in the high-resolution music market is HDtracks. There are both pros and cons when compared with its competitor, 7digital.

On the upside, HDtracks has a greater number of audio formats available. The highest-quality tracks (24bit/192kHz) are a significant step up from what 7digital offers, though most of the music available in the highest-quality format falls into the classical music genre.

On the downside, the site is more geared towards albums. If you prefer buying singles, you might have better luck with 7digital.

It's also worth checking out the various "Top" lists. They are divided by genre and let you explore some of the most popular music.

What's most interesting is that you are likely to stumble across some of the greatest albums of all time being offered at an audio quality that wasn't possible at the time. Music by Joni Mitchel from the 60s and 70s, for example, can be downloaded at a whopping 192kHz/24bit.

Be sure to check out the best streaming services for audiophiles if you love hi-res music.

6. Bandcamp

Musicians have spent much of the last decade criticizing services like Spotify for its payment models. Historically, at $0.006 to $0.0084 per play, artists and bands needed to rack up hundreds of thousands of listens before they would make money.

Understanding how Spotify makes money can be confusing, which is why buying a physical CD or vinyl feels like a much more direct way to support your favorite artist.

This is where Bandcamp offers a more artist-friendly model. Musicians can make their own stores on the site and sell their songs directly to fans. As a buyer, you can download a track as many times as you want once you've paid for it. Physical CDs and vinyl records are also available (though shipping costs can sometimes be prohibitive).

Multiple formats are available for digital downloads, including MP3, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, OGG, WAV, and AIFF. Can't decide what format to select? You can read our guide to the most common audio formats and which one you should choose.

7. CD Universe

If you're a traditionalist who prefers owning CDs over digital music, check out CD Universe. The site may look a bit dated—perhaps owing to its origins as an online retailer established in 1996—but it has one of the most in-depth collections of CDs and vinyl records available online. At the last count, there were more than 800,000 titles.

We also like that CD Universe accepts payments via PayPal, which sets it apart from Amazon, the other big physical CD seller on our list. The cost of a CD is slightly higher on CD Universe, however.

8. Walmart

Walmart might not be the first name that pops into your head when you think about music, but the grocery giant has long offered CDs and vinyl records in its stores and online.

The collection of titles isn't as deep nor as niche as Amazon and the like, but if you're looking to pick up the latest music from today's stars, you'll find the albums readily available at competitive prices.

It's also worth noting that Walmart offers a pickup service. You can get the music you want in a physical form without waiting for a delivery driver or searching through the store.

9. Bleep

Bleep offers digital sales in the form of MP4, FLAC, and WAV, with the addition of CDs, vinyl, and even cassettes to buy. Founded in 2004, Bleep has aimed to support independent artists and labels. So for all indie-music lovers, this is a fantastic store to buy music.

What makes this site different from the rest is a dedicated merchandise section, which means fans of an artist can buy clothing, prints, posters, candles, and mugs. There are also plenty of exclusive artist releases, which means you can buy things like limited-edition vinyl that isn't available anywhere else.

On top of all this, you can preview entire songs and whole albums before buying, which is not always a feature available on other sites.

10. Qobuz

Qobuz has been around since 2007 but only became available in the US in 2019. Long-time purveyors of hi-res music, this site offers a dedicated online store with a curated selection of current and past albums.

When browsing its selection, look for the black and yellow Hi-Res audio badge for top-quality downloads that reach up to 24-bit/96kHz. Another interesting feature to look out for is the hand-crafted album descriptions written in-house and not copied from marketing blurbs.

Across the board, Qobuz strives to offer music as it was conceived in the studio, trying its best to create a catalog of 24-bit hi-res downloads, as opposed to CD quality or MP3. Added to this, something you don't always see with other sites is that it has a dedicated category to 5.1 surround sound format.

Buying Music vs. Streaming Music

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to where to buy or stream music online, and we're not going to say that one approach is better than another. Whether you prefer the ease of streaming music on Spotify or find satisfaction in the legal ownership of buying music outright, there are still plenty of options regarding the best places to buy music.

Remember, you can download your most-loved albums on Spotify for offline listening. However, you cannot export them outside the Spotify ecosystem. On the other hand, buying music means you get to keep it for life, whether in mp3 format, CD, or vinyl, all the while supporting your favorite artist too.