Let's take a look at what SongBeat is actually doing in here lies the problem. SongBeat allows you to search for music using any number of actual legitimate music sites such as Seeqpod, Project Playlist, Last.fm. Which gives people the impression that the software is a legitimate source of music. Unfortunately they were only using the sources as a virtual catalog of information. Just referencing the song names before switching over to a peer-to-peer network to actually download the music. Obviously this is where things get a legal. Now Songbeat makes the following statement on the website concerning the legality of their service.

“The downloading of music is not fundamentally illegal. However, it lies in the hands of the user to discern whether or not they have the right to download the particular music file at hand.”

Now if any legitimate company had to post that disclaimer on their company website they would immediately cause people to think twice about purchasing a product. Unfortunately the lure of free music downloads from Songbeat causes people to push that simple fact into the back of the minds. Another common excuse I hear from users of the service is the fact that they had to pay for Songbeat and then that must make it legal to download the music for free. All I have to say is this, if you watch the traffic on your system they are actually using your computer to host files on a peer-to-peer network. This means that you are in fact acting as an accessory to the theft of music. Which opens you up to legal matters from the RIAA which is the legal arm of the music industry and most commonly known to press lawsuits against users who disseminate free music or in other words stolen music. So think twice about using Songbeat to get free music because you're playing with fire and sooner or later you might get caught. Plus when the site gets closed down you are going to lose your registration fee.