Music downloads are a temptation that few of us can resist. Once you make an investment of a couple of hours, it becomes quite easy to download your favorite music. However, there is a danger in using the easiest methods possible to acquire music. For instance, many file sharing, peer to peer type of sites pollute the legitimate sound files with fakes. These fakes are sometimes an annoying noise like a high pitch whistle or even a car alarm type sound. The band Guster infamously released versions of all the songs they did for an album but instead of the lyrics, they just said meow for the duration of the song.
While this is a clever way to combat music theft, other sources are much less humorous about the situation. In fact, many of the files you download and share are likely to be stacked with malicious software and tracking agents. In essence, when you’re downloading these songs, you are inviting these tracking agents into your computer.
What to Watch Out For:
1.) Files of Unusual Size- Most songs you download are 4 to 5 MB. A short song might be a little smaller and a long song might have a slightly bigger size. By and large however, if you see a song that is way off in size from this number, it is probably not the track you are looking for.
2.) Misspelled Band or Song Names: While it is not always the case, a band or song name spelled incorrectly is most likely a bad sign. Quite often those people who simply have malicious intent when posting fake music files do not take the time to make sure they are spelling things correctly.
Far be it from me to pass judgement on music downloaders but at least be smart about it. Protect your computer and don’t download dangerous fake files.