How to Download Free Music to a CD

By Lucosi Fuller

Free music downloads can really pile up on a computer's hard drive and slow it down tremendously. If you know you're going to compile a collection of hundreds of songs, your best bet is to start saving the music on CDs so that you'll have them and your computer won't suffer from the space they take up. Putting the songs on CDs, either as a collection of files or an audio disc, is easy on both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Step 1

Download the music you want to put on the CD. There are countless programs for downloading free music, including LimeWire, Ares, BearShare and Shareaza, to name a few.

Step 2

Insert a CD into your disc drive and a dialogue box will appear. Open the CD folder.

Step 3

Click on "Burn files to disc."

Step 4

Name the disc, and then click on "Show formatting options" in Windows and then click on "Mastered" for an audio CD, or "Live File System" to just save the files.

In Mac operating systems, you'll click on "Standard (HFS+/ISO 9660)" to listen to the songs on Mac computers and computers with other operating systems; "iTunes (Audio CD)" to play the CD in any audio disc player; or "MP3 (9660)" to play it on MP3 players and computers without Mac operating systems.

Step 5

Click on "Next" in Windows, or "Prepare" in Mac operating systems, to format the CD.

Step 6

Open the folder that contains the files you want to download to the CD.

Step 7

Copy and paste or click and drag the music over to the CD folder if you're using the file format.

If you're burning an audio CD, an open box will appear upon which you'll load the songs you want on the disc.

Step 8

Click on "Burn to Disc" to start the burning process. The disc should eject automatically once the burn is complete, and you can then listen to the CD.

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