• Newer versions of Norton 360 often warn users of potential viruses and worms contained in newly downloaded programs. Some music downloading programs, for example, come with warnings from Norton 360 stating that the program is dangerous and can potentially harm your computer; however, some of these warnings are false positives and may not contain malware or spyware. To be on the safe side, there are a few music downloaders that Norton 360 deems safe so you will not have to worry.
  
  

Freecorder

• Although Freecorder is not strictly a music downloader, you do have the luxury of recording music from many media outlets--including music players, YouTube and Veoh player--and you can download these MP3 files onto your computer. Available from Applian, Freecorder is free to download and Norton 360 deems it safe to use.
  
  

Mp3Raid

• MP3Raid is a website that lists music that is downloaded legally onto the Internet. This site makes sure that the songs are free of malware. Norton 360 Internet and website protection shows that MP3Raid is clean and music is safe to download. Instances of low-level tracking cookies do appear once a user visits the site, however. Norton 360's quick scan option removes these cookies.
  
  

iMesh and iTunes

• IMesh and iTunes are basically interchangeable, as they are both compatible with the Apple iPod. However, there are some differences. For example, iMesh is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) program; iTunes is not. Overall, iTunes is the safest of the two programs and Norton 360 allows all downloads from iTunes to be placed on your computer. With iMesh, the majority of music downloaded is safe, but more obscure songs are viewed as suspicious and are blocked. If you are willing to deal with a few exceptions, iMesh is 100 percent free, whereas you will have to pay for music via iTunes.
  
  

BearShare

• BearShare tested clean in Norton 360 scans; however, some P2P clients did not. Norton 360 will allow you to add the music downloader onto your computer, but it may block you from fellow peers, showing you reports of malicious software that a peer is sharing and what damage may be done to your computer. From here, Norton 360 will give you the option of downloading files or not, but if you choose to download music from known spyware or malware-sharing peers, the antivirus will show you reports of unsafe files floating in your computer every time you open BearShare.