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There is no minimum order and with most songs available at 99 cents a pop, you should be able to get an album's worth for free.

The first iPhone was able to bring iTunes integration and all parts of the Internet* to the mobile arena, to the delight of millions. When it was followed up with the App store and the iPhone 3G, millions more were once again enthralled by the ability to surf the Internet, read their email and play games on the go. From the way that the Internet and the mainstream media have reacted, you'd have thought that the iPhone was the second coming of Christ.

It's hard to imagine how we got by without the ability to do these cool tasks for all those years -- Oh wait, I forgot -- the same tasks that the iPhone can do, Windows Mobile users have been doing for years. On top of these shared tasks, Windows Mobile also lets users install any program they want without the need for it to pass through Apple's vetting and censorship process. Unfortunately, loading iPhones with Apple-vetted applications via the App Store has caused many an iPhone to crash. Those who choose to load other software must first jailbreak their iPhone, thereby voiding the warranty.

Don't miss the rest of our series on Overrated people, places and things!

The iPhone looks cool and maybe it even makes you feel cool (in the same way cigarettes do for 14-year-olds), but in the end it is still just a phone. While it has aesthetic beauty, the usefulness of the phone has been overrated by many, helped in part due to the cult of Apple followers who lined city blocks just to shell out for a new phone. Seriously, how good can a phone with all of these features be if making full use of it requires users to break its warranty. Did I mention the iPhone can't copy and paste?

Nine Inch Nails' latest album "The Slip" hit retail stores last week, but devoted fans have owned the tracks for months, and for free.

In May, the band released the album on its website with a note from lead singer Trent Reznor. "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years -- this one's on me," wrote Reznor.

And he's not the first to give fans free tunes. Music veterans Radiohead and Prince are also music heavyweights redefining the pay model of music online.

Nine years after Napster shook up the music industry, artists are now determining how and when to monetize sales, and giving consumers an opportunity to glimpse musical jewels without a price tag. "We put the artists and the label in control," says Ali Partovi, CEO of Seattle based iLike.

As artists and fans continue to restructure the age-old business model of record labels, some major outlets are struggling to generate album sales. But many are capitalizing on marketing platforms and Web sites that allow artists to make music available on their own terms.

For music-heads, take a look at where you can discover music online before a financial transaction.

One treasure trove for money-hungry politicians who haven't found a tax they didn't like, is digital downloads. There has been a constant argument over internet sales for years, as consumers have found many of their online sales haven't had sales tax applied. Governments wouldn't want to waste such a lovely opportunity, would they?

Instead of managing budgets and cutting the outrageous levels of spending, politicians seem to always be looking for a new tax to levy. So taxing digital downloads seem to be the next frontier. After all, the states should be getting a cut of every penny we spend anywhere, right?

Tennessee has apparently already been taxing digital downloads, and no one even noticed. State laws currently say that only "tangible goods" had sales tax applied, and politicians wanted to change the law so that digital downloads fall under the definition of "tangible" (and are therefore required to be taxed).

But a consumer has informed the world that digital downloads have already been subject to sales tax in Tennessee since the beginning of 2008. Sure enough, consumers took a look at their iTunes purchases, and found that Tennessee sales tax had been added to their bills. This is a slippery slope. Governments expand their ability to tax each year, leaving consumers in the position of turning over more and more of their hard-earned money to politicians. When will it stop?

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

The music industry has seen many changes since digital downloads started becoming popular. Consumers are definitely in the driver's seat when it comes to music, demanding more and more that digital music be accessible and competitively priced.

With those demands, iTunes has become America's biggest retailer of music, as of the end of February. It has surpassed Wal-Mart, and following Wal-Mart are Best Buy, Amazon.com, and Target. The future of music seems clear: Digital is the way to go, and record companies should not even try to resist!

iTunes is rocking and rolling with over 50 million customers, and its dominance is clear. Amazon.com is working on cutting into their market share, but only time will tell. So what's your preference in music? Are you still stuck on CDs? Or have you gone all digital? And if you're digital.. are you an iPod fanatic, or would you rather use a format that is more compatible with other products?

I've come to love digital downloads with abandon. I've always been the kind of person who likes two songs from one album, and often couldn't justify buying a whole album just for those favorites. The minute I was able to purchase individual songs, I was hooked on iTunes. And certainly the music industry has never been a big fan of that option: They'd rather I spend five times as much on buying the whole album from them. Yet I think that if they consider all the people like me who would skip buying the album all together if that was the only option, they will quickly see that they are selling more... now I'll buy the two songs I want instead of skipping the album all together.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Compact discs are quickly becoming a thing of the past, as all the activity on iTunes has made it the second largest music retailer in the world. iTunes has passed up Best Buy in sales figures, and that's for all forms of music -- digital and CDs. iTunes sits behind only Wal-Mart in music sales.

Ars Technica is reporting that legal music downloads are up big, but that overall music sales are down. This dip in overall sales is attributed to the opportunity to download single songs, versus having to purchase an entire album to get the song or two that you really want.

And here's a sobering statistic: 48% of teenagers in the United States didn't purchase even one CD in 2007. That tells you definitively that the future of music is in digital downloads. And it makes sense. CDs are an "old" technology, and the ability to download music to a computer and use it on more than one device is a clear advantage.

Unless the brick and mortar stores become a real player in the digital download game, I can't see them hanging on to substantial market share for much longer.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Today Amazon announced an agreement with Warner Music Group to distribute music through the Amazon.com digital music store. The key feature to these downloads will be the absence of digital rights management (DRM), meaning that customers who download these songs will not be restricted in their use. They will be able to play them with any music player or computer, unlike Apple Inc's limited format.

Now, more than 2.9 million titles will be available at Amazon, including those by many well-known artists. Warner Music is added to the line-up, which already included Universal Music Group, EMI Music Group, and thousands of independent labels.

Songs on Amazon cost $0.89 to $0.99, with full albums priced at $5.99 to $9.99. These prices are somewhat comparable to Apple's iTunes, whose individual songs sell for $0.99, with album prices varying.

While some consumers and analysts feel that DRM is necessary to protect the financial interests of the artists and record companies, others think that the lack of DRM will actually benefit them more in the long run. By making the music more accessible and transferable, some people think that consumers will be more likely to buy more music. (I agree!)

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

I admit it. I love iTunes. How can you argue with 99 cents per song? Especially if you're like me and you only like one or two songs per album. You can pay a small price for just the songs you want, rather than purchasing the whole album.

But there are other players in the music download market who may be poised to snatch some market share from Apple.

One up-and-coming competitor for music downloads is Amazon. Its MP3 store was launched in September, and single songs are selling for only 89 cents.

An extra benefit from Amazon? The songs are in basic MP3 format without any of the "digital rights management" controls on them like on Apple's downloads. This means that consumers can download the songs and put them on any MP3 player (not just an iPod).