If you like to swing and sway to the beat, nothing surpasses digital music. You can play it on a computer, listen to it on an iPod or other digital music player, or even play it on a smartphone or a tablet PC.

Digital music has transformed the way we buy and play music. No more going to the store to buy a record, album or CD. Now you can purchase music from your favorite artist online and download it instantly to your computer or portable device.

It doesn't matter if you like Beethoven, Bach, Pat Boone, the Beach Boys or Justin Bieber. You'll find them all online and you can buy their music without leaving home.

If you already own CDs and want to digitize your music, you can simply put the CD in your computer and use a free program such as iTunes to create a digital copy of your CD. Once that is accomplished, you can transfer it to whatever device you like. With services like Amazon's Cloud Player, you can even copy your music to the Internet (Cloud) and play it on any device that you own.

Digital music has also transformed how we interact with music and how we find new music. I was thrilled when I found a website called Midomi (www.midomi.com), which identifies any song that you sing or hum. I found it amazing when it quickly recognized every song that I tried and also named the most popular performers of that song and gave links to their recordings.

I also love Pandora (www.pandora.com), a website that lets you name your favorite artists and/or songs and presents you with music that it thinks you will like based on your choices. In Pandora, you create radio stations with different types of music that you enjoy and listen to any of them as the mood strikes you.

For instance, if you create a radio station by naming Benny Goodman as your artist, Pandora will play Benny Goodman plus other similar artists. You may find that you also like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Stray Cats and Squirrel Nut Zippers. It is truly astonishing to find that the music of all of these artists have similar qualities.

I've used Pandora for years, and it just keeps getting better and better. It recently added lyrics to the songs, so you can sing along (or at least know what the artists are singing). Pandora is also available as an app, so you can use it on an iPhone and iPad or an Android Phone or Tablet.

Pandora lists the lyrics of the song, but I recently found an app that does it even better. SoundHound is like a combination of Midomi and Pandora. Install the free app on your Apple or Android device and sing or hum a song and SoundHound with identify it.

If some music is playing on the radio or television or any other device, just start the SoundHound app, place your phone or tablet where it can "hear" the music and tap the icon that says, "What's that song?" SoundHound will identify the song and the artist, and in many cases will give you Live Lyrics that scroll by as the artist sings.

I don't know about you, but there are many times that I simply can't understand the words of a song. As a matter of fact, I can remember being a kid and wondering why Mary and baby Jesus wanted to sleep in heavenly "peas" every Christmas. So I absolutely loved the SoundHound's Live Lyrics.

There are also many ways to play your digital music either at home or on the road. In your car, you can purchase an FM transmitter to play your iPod or digital device through the car radio. At home, you can buy a dock for your device that includes speakers so you can hear your music through the speakers. You can even purchase a whole house transmitter or a multi-room digital music player to play your digital music in every room in your home.

Yes. If you love music, digital may be just what the doctor ordered!

Contact Sandy Berger at sandy@compukiss.com.