Music and files is a much needed search engine that lets you find downloads of the music you’re looking for on the main filesharing and uploading sites, including Rapidshare, MegaUpload and MediaFire. I tried it out and managed to find albums I had been looking for on other sites without success – in fact it found a good number of them. It’s easy to use: just type in the name and then click on the list to be directed to the download site.

Sites like RapidShare offer free downloads that are slow, but you can be getting on with something else as it’s going on in the background, and they have premium services that let you get faster downloads for a subscription. One option is to take a minimum subscription for a short period and be ready with a list of all the music you want to download so you can organise it quickly, and for those on a tight budget the slower downloads are still bearable. It takes about half an hour for a whole album depending on your connection.

The filesharing sites do filter out pirate copies but it can take a bit of time if somebody has just uploaded one. When I was searching I could see a list of recent searches, and these included searches for material still protected by copyright. With new legislation on the way and tough penalties for filesharing pirate copies it’s important to make sure what you’re downloading is legal. Perhaps the filesharing sites will need to make it clear which ones have been approved for download and which are new uploads and not checked yet.