Download Free MP3 Music

From LoveToKnow Music

Free MP3 music on the Internet falls into two categories – the legal and the not-so-legal. Legal music downloads are available on band sites, label sites, and various legal MP3 sites who receive licensing to distribute tracks from a label or a band free of charge as a promotional tool. The “not-so-legal” music - that is to say, music that is traded on sites which have no licensing or copyright control over the songs they are distributing – can be found through peer-to-peer networking sites.

Disclaimer

LoveToKnow does not condone the illegal downloading or distribution of copywritten material. Please download music responsibly and support your favorite bands by purchasing their music. Only download MP3 music if it is free or has been authorized by the copyright owner for personal use. Learn more about Downloading Legal Music.

Download Free MP3 Music Legally

Legal downloads are not hard to come by on the Internet. Sites like MP3.com and Napster offer free downloads in addition to their pay to play selections, and subscription services like eMusic usually offer a trial period of free downloads. Record labels and bands usually offer free downloads from their home pages as a promotional tool. Keep in mind that some of these downloads may come with software that only allows you to make a certain number of copies of a song, or the number of devices to which you can download the song. Remember: downloading and sharing copywritten material is illegal!

Download.com

Download.com, owned by C|Net, offers a database of 75,240 free MP3s, and counting. They require the user to create an account, and then the user has access to their entire database, including music videos, for free. The MP3s on Download.com are submitted by the artists as a promotional tool and they can remove a track whenever they wish, so the catalog may vary.

Registered users may also write reviews and rate tracks.

Peoplesound

Peoplesound has approximately 20,000 free MP3s on their site, from major label artists to unsigned talent. What you can do with the track depends on what the label will allow, so some MP3s, mostly by major label artists, can only be listened to by streaming audio from the site. There are, however, still a number of MP3s you can download directly to your computer. Peoplesound also offers a forum for registered users.

MP3 Hits

Mp3sHits works like a search engine. You search for the artist, track, or whole album you are after, and MP3 Hits will either allow you to download it from their database, or it will link you to another free download site that is able to offer the track free of charges. This model of a free download site is becoming common, but MP3 Hits is the most popular.

Other Downloading Sites

Peer-to-peer file sharing sites offer free downloads shared between two computer users. Since the music shared on these sites is not licensed in any way and the swaps do not generate royalties, users of these sites have been targeted by the recording industry and lawsuits. The jury is still out on how to deal with peer-to-peer file sharing, and the answer in some cases depends on where you live. For instance, the peer-to-peer network Kazaa is illegal in Australia. However, in Canada, the legality of file sharing has been held up by the courts.

Kazaa

Kazaa is the most popular of the file sharing networks. Users can get their software for free and download unlimited files from the network. The selection is pretty exhaustive for major label and some independent music across genres. However, the selection varies as users come on and offline.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and Kazaa use is not without complications. Users can be barraged with pop-up ads, which they can choose to avoid by joining Kazaa’s premium pay service. Also, the quality of the tracks is undependable, and sometimes what you get isn’t what you expected at all – the files are only as good as the user who has made them available.

Soulseek

Soulseek is the main file sharing network for independent and hard to find music. Soulseek works as more of a community than Kazaa and expects users to contribute music to the collective if they want to download music from the collective. Users may download entire albums from Soulseek, something not done on Kazaa.