If you’re like many music lovers, you have a portable music player and enjoy taking it with you to wherever you go. Of course, you realize you can simply take your CD collection and convert the music to the correct format, just as you’re aware of places you can buy digital files, as well as the option of using file sharing programs. They all have disadvantages, from quick and easy to time-consuming and possibly illegal.
What this article, which is of course not exhaustive (a quick Google search for “free music downloads” will turn up almost 300 million hits!), will attempt to give a music listener a place to start in finding free and legal music to download off the Internet.
Amazon.com Free Music Downloads – It might seem odd to start a list of places to get free music with a commercial website, but it’s true. Amazon.com does offer free downloads, although only six or seven at a time. Still, the music is free, the artists are often new or up-and-coming, and it’s worth a look just to see what they’re pushing.
Free iTunes Store Downloads – This website links to the few iTunes Store tracks that are free of charge. It’s a quick glance to see what’s new (iTunes, as far as I know, only updates the free track once a week), and like Amazon.com, the music is often from artists that might just be making a name for themselves, so why not try it out?
Rhapsody – I actually agonized over whether this website should be on this list. Technically, since the free service doesn’t allow downloads, it shouldn’t, but the site is so organized, put-together, and easy-to-use, that I added it. Plus, it makes a really good radio station for those who are able to listen to music at work. All you need to do is sign up (for free), then pick a bunch of tracks you want to listen to. Anything on Rhapsody is up for grabs, although you’re only allowed to listen to any particular track for free, five times. After that you need to buy it, but there are so many songs that it would likely be years before you’ll run out of stuff to listen to.
Jamendo and Magnatune – What is happening on these two websites may well be the future of releasing music online, although likely not for a long time. Both these websites offer music from artists you’ve probably never heard of, since they’re mainly unsigned or very small labels. In each case, you can download digital files of complete songs and albums, for no charge. With Magnatune, the free versions have a quick note added at the end of each song, telling you it was downloaded for free, while the Jamendo tunes are completely free of any advertising. In fact, the Jamendo music is all released under the Creative Commons license, which allows anyone to download, modify, remix and redistribute the work, as long as attribution is given to the original artist. Of course, with both Jamendo and Magnatune, you can purchase the music (either as a digital download or an actual CD), and with Magnatune, you actually get to set the amount you want to pay. All in all, very cool places.
Free Kids Music – Wouldn’t want to forget the kids, now would we? This is also a very cool website, especially if you’re in the mood to listen to “Mosquito From Toledo,” “Ooey Gooey Stew,” or “The Haircut Song.”
Live Music Archive – This is probably my favorite website on this list. It currently has 38,000 different concerts, all available in full audio and most available as unrestricted MP3 files. You won’t find Metallica or Britney Spears in their archives (all the artists available for download have given explicit permission to have their concerts archived here), but you will find such musical acts as Jack Johnson, Apples In Stereo, Grateful Dead, Jason Mraz, Blues Traveler, Tenacious D, and more.
Another Page of Links – Since I’m all too aware of how much music is actually out there, and that this list couldn’t HOPE to include it all, this last link is to another page. It has many more links, but no explanations, but if you still want more after finishing my list, give it a shot as well.
So… there you have it, little-known places where you can find a wealth of wonderful music that’s both free and legal. Enjoy!
