Most of you are probably quite familiar with the various bi-coastal hip-hop wars and battles that have played out in pop culture over the past couple of decades, the most prominent being the wars of words, and eventual deaths, of rappers Tupac Shakur (West Coast) and Biggie Smalls (East Coast). Well, now the war has extended beyond rap to a surprising new front - dance music download services: NYC's Star 69 Records vs. Los Angeles' Masterbeat. To be honest, there really isn't a tiff between Star 69 and Masterbeat, or between their leaders, Peter Rauhofer and Brett Henrichsen, respectively. This supposed "war" is a concoction of my own making, used as an interesting literary angle to get folks to read this article. So now that I've got you hooked, let's take a look at these two popular dance music download sites. Masterbeat.com Besides having the most incredible p.r. and marketing photos (my abs could look like that if my parents gave me better genes, if my late night runs to White Castle after a night of drunken excess were eliminated, and if I went to the gym more regularly than I do), the folks at Masterbeat have recently launched an extremely impressive music download site (www.Masterbeat.com) that focuses on the dance music you hear your favorite DJs play at the big national parties you attend as well as at the local clubs and bars you frequent. While most dance music download sites are geared toward and marketed to DJs and industry folk, Masterbeat.com has smartly developed a user-friendly site that will have great appeal to basic consumers of dance music: the dancers on the dance floor. And while many have turned to iTunes' growing library of dance tracks to augment their personal collection, Mastebeat.com is sure to lure many in its direction with easier site navigation and more precise searching (and finding) of the songs you really want to buy. The Masterbeat.com site is extremely attractive with large bold tabs to help guide you around. In addition to the normal Top Sellers sections, the Charts section lists charts from the likes of Billboard and XM Radio's BPM station. There's also a section called Playlists, which lists the songs that were played at certain circuit parties and other big events. And when you do listen to a sound clip you hear a lengthy portion of song in order to really get a good feel as to whether it's track you want to purchase. Masterbeat.com is a real winner in my book and is a site that is sure to have lots of traffic: from you and me. Star 69.com Representing the East Coast in this epic "non-struggle" is the online store at www.Star69Records.com. The site is fairly basic and offers the impressive and extensive music library that Star 69 has built over the years. This includes mp3 downloads of singles as well as downloads of the beatmixed compilations such as Rauhofer "I Love " mixes. Other artists and remixers found here include Offrer Nissim, Hector Fonseca, Robbie Rivera, Oscar G, Suzanne Palmer, Superchumbo, Celeda, Chus & Ceballos, and Nick Terranova. At the Star 69 Store you can also order the physical full-length CDs and CD singles and have them shipped to you. And for those out there who are still spinning it old-school with vinyl records, Star 69 has a few of them left in inventory.