Online Music stores compared to P2P sharing sites

Advantages

• More respectful to copyright law as interpreted by groups like the RIAA.
• Decreases chances of legal disadvantages.
• Avoids some social stigmas and moral regrets that some people have.
• More consistent and higher quality meta-data, because the entering of the meta-data is more centralized and done by groups with financial interests.
• Companies sometimes behave more accountably to users than other users.
• Centralized repository of music makes it easier to find the songs you want.
• Notably Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs claimed in his introduction of the iTunes Music Store that file swappers get paid less than minimum wage for the work required to download audio.
  
  Disadvantages
• Some stores cannot be accessed on a Linux computer.
• Many stores offer music in few audio formats.
• Users do not have a "hard copy" of purchased music, such as a CD, for archiving although music can usually be backed up to a CD or portable music player.
• Some stores do not provide artwork or liner notes.
• Stores have limited catalogs, because of more attention paid to copyright concerns.
• Some file swapping advocates claim that, because file sharing costs nothing, any pay service essentially costs infinitely many times more than file swapping.
• Some stores use Digital Rights Management, which limits use of music on certain devices (for example, iTunes Store tracks can only be played on computers and iPod digital audio players). The restrictions vary between different services, and sometimes even between different songs from the same service.