Downloading Free Music

From LoveToKnow Music

Free music can be found everywhere on the web. From band's official websites you can find free songs, lyrics and much more. Getting free music legally is becoming easier with several artist-centric websites popping up to help independent musicians distribute and promote their music. Take advantage of this and discover new bands!

[edit]

Legal Free Music

There are two ways to download free music from the internet: through reputable websites or through the highly controversial peer-to-peer (P2P) clients. The former contain legal songs released by bands or record labels to promote an album or just for the listening pleasure of fans.

Although P2P programs themselves aren't unlawful, downloading and sharing copywritten music is. LoveToKnow does not condone the use of P2P programs for the illegal downloading or distribution of copywritten material. Please use these programs responsibly and share only Free Music and other freely-distributable media. Also learn more about Downloading Legal Music.

[edit]

Downloading Free Music

To download free music you'll need a broadband internet connection and a good music player. It's possible to download music on dial-up, but expect to wait anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes to download just one song. With DSL or another broadband connection you can zip songs to your hard drive in a matter of seconds.

Popular music players include Winamp and 1by1.

[edit]

Amazon.com

The relatively new Amazon.com free music download section is buzzing with activity! There are tons of artists both commercial and independent. You can browse by artist, genre or even popularity, or just search the database for your favorite bands and get personalized recommendations based on your musical tastes. And the best part is after you get your free songs, purchasing a CD for a great price is just a few clicks away.

[edit]

mp3.com

CNet's mp3.com features one of the cleanest free music download interfaces on the web. Your screen won't be cluttered with ads, links and text in every corner. Instead, mp3.com offers lots of music, mainly from independent artists but a good selection of popular music as well. As with most music download sites you can search or browse by genre, popularity or band name. It's a great place to find an unsung hit that will kick start your new obsession.

[edit]

Freeplay Music

Freeplay Music is a high quality production music library with over 1200 original song titles, geared towards the professional user for broadcast and non broadcast commercial use. Though most commercial uses require a paid license per Freeplay's Terms of Use and Standard Rate Card. Freeplay also offers "free" use of their music per their Terms Of Use for home, private, non commercial use as well as for student - on school grounds educational use. For now you won't find popular songs or artists on Freeplay Music since its not a file sharing service like a Napster or Limewire but Freeplay does offer a good variety and option for all those who need music for commercial use be it a film festival - competition, direct to video or dvd type product or even a major motion picture theatrical release and judging from the nearly 9 million hits their website has received it seems to be a very popular site so check them out at www.freeplaymusic.com

[edit]

Artist Direct

The music destination Artist Direct aims to be your one-stop music website. It has an enormous selection of popular music songs and music videos as well as concert tickets and links to buying music online. The site itself is a bit cramped, but once you get used to the interface you can find some big hits on this website.

[edit]

People Sound

People Sound is a great free mp3 download site for emerging artists and independent musicians. The clean interface allows you to find what you want by genre or musician and read a little about the bands you're interested in. Then, simply download a one minute sample of many songs or even the full tracks right from the website. All for free!

[edit]

SKWik

The wiki-based website SKWik.com is a user-edited database of free and independent music. You'll find many songs released under the Free Music distribution philosophy, meaning you can download, remix and distribute the songs as you like.

[edit]