This page provides information on two main subjects (A) Irish Music from all ages and (B) How to download music. Irish Music is very popular even on the world music scene, U2 in particular are a global headline act. On this page we teach you how to download Irish Music.

There are many popular Irish acts to download, from classical flautists like James Galway to traditional Irish Folk Music as played by Foster & Allen. In pop music there is Boyzone and Westlife and there is plenty of choice in the rock genre with Snow Patrol and Thin Lizzy being good examples.

This guide is split into 3 steps, these are listed below:

• Step 1: Irish music genres – In step 1 the various genres of Irish Music are detailed and popular performance artists from each category are listed. The genres are Traditional/Folk Irish Music, Irish Classical Music, Irish Pop Music and Irish Rock Music
• Step 2: Research the Irish music you want – Before downloading music it is essential to research the music you want and write down a list. More information in step 2.
• Step 3: Music download websites – Music downloading is now very straightforward. Lists of music download websites are provided in step 3.

Disclaimer Bear in mind that it is illegal to download copyrighted material without permission. See the RIAA website for more legal information. Always ensure that download files are totally legal before you start to download them.

In step 1, Irish music genres are investigated. Irish music can broadly be split into 4 main categories:

• Traditional/Folk Irish Music
• Irish Classical Music
• Irish Pop Music
• Irish Rock Music

These are now all detailed in turns and artists from each genre are also listed.

Traditional/Folk Irish Music

• Traditional Irish folk music includes instruments such as harps, reels, hornpipes, flute, fiddle, uiellean pipes, accordion and the concertina.
• Popular musicians include Turlough Carolan, Daniel O Donnell, Dolores Keane, Eleanor McEvoy, Ann Moray, Maura O Connell, Mary Black, Frances Black, Lisa Hannigan, Sharon Shannon, Stocktons Wing, The Dubliners, The Chieftains, Clannad, Phil Coulter and Foster & Allen

• Irish Classical Music
• Although not exceptionally popular, Ireland has had a number of famous classical composers. John Field was the creator of the Nocturne format of classical music, later mastered by Frederic Chopin.
• Irish Classical Musicians include Barry Douglas, Catherine Hayes, Charles Stanford, Gerald Barry, Sir James Galway, John Field, Liam O’Flynn, Margaret Burke-Sheridan, Michael Balfe, Richard Kearns, Shaun Davey, Thomas Moore, Turlough Carolan and William Wallace

Irish Pop Music

• Ireland has produced some very successful pop musicians; the list below has all emerged over the past 20 years.
• B*Witched, Bellefire, Boyzone, Enya, Finbar Wright, Kirsty MacColl, Ronan Keating, Samantha Mumba, Sinead O Connor, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Westlife

Irish Rock Music

• Ireland has a legacy of producing rock musicians. Acts like the Boomtown Rats and Van Morrison lead the way in the 1970’s. U2 are undoubtedly the most successful Irish act ever, having released 12 studio albums, selling 145 million copies and receiving 22 Grammy awards.http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/02/u2-horizon-gram.html
• Ash, Bob Geldof, Cathy Davey, Cruachan, Damien Rice, Fight Like Apes, Gavin Friday, Geasa, Hothouse Flowers, Jape, Kila, My Bloody Valentine, Stiff Little Fingers, Snow Patrol, That Petrol Emotion, The Boomtown Rats, The Frames, The Pogues, The Undertones, U2, Van Morrison, Waylander.

In step 1, you will have learned about the various genres of Irish music. You will have also learned about the variety of artists available from Ireland – the Emerald Isle.

In step 2, the challenge now is to write a list of the music you actually want to download. It is always advisable to do this for the following reasons:

• Work out how much you can afford to spend. On iTunes the cost is 69c, so for $20 for example you could buy about 29 tracks
• YouTube and other online video websites are an excellent way to familiarize yourself with certain tracks. It is advisable to play the tracks you want on YouTube and just make sure this is the track you actually wish to purchase
• Researching into each Irish Musician will be an education in itself and may create new musical listening opportunities to you
• Researching into the Irish Music before purchase, will make it much more likely that you will download the music you actually want
• Writing the artist, track and year down will considerably reduce the chance of downloading a track by error

In step 3 a wide array of music download websites information is provided. These sites are listed below:

• 360 Sharehttp://www.360-share.com/
• 1 fee of 99c per month, gives access to download an unlimited number of music.

• iTuneshttp://www.apple.com/itunes/
• iTunes is the world’s most popular music download service and is provided by Apple. There is a cost per download, but at least you can rest in ease that your downloads are legal. Visit the Mahalo page How to use iTunes for information on using the service. You will require an account.

• Legal Soundshttp://www.legalsounds.com
• Legal Sounds is a popular music download service. An extensive variety of music is available for download on the site.

• Limewirehttp://www.limewire.com
• Limewire provides access to the Gnutella and BitTorrent networks. A basic version is available for free, the pro version is $21.95 for 6 months, the extended pro version is $34.95 for 1 year.http://www.limewire.com/features

• Napster
• Once an illegal service, Napster is now a fee per track or listen to the entire collection for a monthly subscription fee.http://www.napster.com>

• Play.comhttp://www.play.com
• Play.com is a very popular music download service. Visitors have the opportunity to listen to a snapshot of the song before purchase. Music can be downloaded once an account has been set-up.