Sometimes the debate over illegal UK broadband file sharing (P2P) can overshadow the fact that there are a lot of legal alternatives to getting the same content and indeed many are actually quite well priced. To that end we've put together this simplified comparison of legal website sources.

The simple list of websites and services we have produced is based on data that was collected in November, thus some prices may have changed since then. It is benchmarked by price comparisons for the X Factor finalist’s charity single and the new Leona Lewis album. Note that some sites may also offer special promotions that we have not fully factored in.

iTunes
http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 79p
Album Cost: £7.99
Size of Music Catalogue: 6 million+

Napster
http://www.napster.co.uk
Subscription Fee:
* Napster unlimited = £5 p.m (streaming only)
* Napster On the Go = £14.95 p.m (unlimited downloads, but music is not owned [rented] outright by the customer)
Single Track Cost: n/a
Album Cost: n/a
Size of Music Catalogue: 8 million+

Sky Songs
http://songs.sky.com
Subscription Fee:
* £6.49 Per Month (Unlimited streaming + 1 Album or 10 songs)
* £7.99 Per Month (Unlimited streaming + 1 Album or 15 songs)
Single Track Cost: n/a
Album Cost: n/a
Size of Music Catalogue: 4 million+

Tesco Digital
http://www.tescodigital.com
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 67p
Album Cost: £6.97
Size of Music Catalogue: 7.5 million

Amazon MP3
http://www.amazon.co.uk
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 79p
Album Cost: £7.99
Size of Music Catalogue: 5 million+

Play.Com
http://www.play.com
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 65p
Album Cost: £8.95
Size of Music Catalogue: 3 million+

HMV
http://www.HMV.com
Subscription Fee: Free and £5.99 monthly for unlimited streaming
Single Track Cost: £1.99
Album Cost: £8.99
Size of Music Catalogue: 4 million+

7digital
http://www.7digital.com
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 79p
Album Cost: £5
Size of Music Catalogue: 4 million+

eMusic
http://www.emusic.com
Subscription Fee:
* £9.99 monthly = 24 downloads
* £13.99 monthly = 35 downloads
* £17.99 monthly = 50 downloads
Single Track Cost: n/a
Album Cost: n/a
Size of Music Catalogue: 6 million+

We7
http://www.we7.com
Subscription Fee: Free
Single Track Cost: 97p
Album Cost: £6.85
Size of Music Catalogue: 3.5 million+

Spotify
http://www.spotify.com
Subscription Fee:
* Free with adverts (unlimited streaming)
* £9.99 monthly for advert-free streaming
Single Track Cost: n/a
Album Cost: n/a
Size of Music Catalogue: 6 million+

Last FM
http://www.last.fm
Subscription Fee:
* Free with adverts (unlimited streaming)
* £3 monthly for advert-free streaming
Single Track Cost: n/a
Album Cost: n/a
Size of Music Catalogue: 3.5 million+

Remember these examples represent prices for newly released content but it's worth keeping in mind that some sites, such as Amazon (i.e. 29p for some single DRM free MP3 tracks), sell certain music (often older releases) for a lot less. Of course this door swings both ways and other content can also be more expensive.

For the record (no pun intended), we found Amazon and Tesco to be among the cheapest for older single track downloads. However we did not conduct a fully comprehensive search and it should be noted that the quality of Amazon's music files can be variable. Please help us by adding any sites we missed to the comments of this news item.