Ever wanted to be able to just go on the Internet and download the new song everyone was talking about? Sure, your friends will probably tell you to go get limewire or start using bittorrent (both these ways are highly illegal if copyrighted material is being passed on), but taking that route will only result in your computer getting infected with viruses and spyware. Here are 5 ways you can get free music and guess what - they are totally legal! To be honest, there aren't a lot of ways you can really get free (DRM free as well) music on the Internet. However, here are a couple of websites that offer free music downloads, so if you have a mp3 player that is just waiting to be filled with songs (that weren't downloaded illegally), this is the best place to start.
1 million Free and Legal Music Tracks - Tracks created by independent artists can now be downloaded from their websites. The Red Ferret Journal provides a comprehensive page that features the websites of such artists from where their music can be downloaded. Bear in mind though that these artists aren't prominent artists, so you probably won't find Akon or U2 tunes on there.
SpiralFrog.com - A website where you can download a lot of the latest music content, completely free. It will be in the WMA format wrapped with DRM restrictions though, so you will have to convert it to .mp3 or AAC (the act of removing DRM is illegal though) before you transfer those songs to a portable music player such as an iPod. The catch is that when you go to their website, you'll be bombarded by loads of advertisements so that they can pay the artist's royalties. Although their business model is a bit sketchy, it is legal and totally free.
The good thing about this website is you get to download all the latest hits and music all for free. The only downside of downloading music from this website is that it is DRM protected. So you'll have to figure out how to get rid of DRM (which is illegal of course) in order to use it freely. You also need to sign up in order to use spiral frog's service.
Download.com Free MP3 music downloads - Another website where you can get free music, One thing you need to keep in mind is that the music they offer isn't necessarily popular. It's very unlikely that you'll probably find the latest Gwen Stefani song on here and the same goes for other popular artists. But if you are open to new kinds of music then why not give this website a try! If you are into other stuff like instrumental music, it's quite a great website.
Freeplaymusic.com - This is a great website for getting mostly instrumental songs. It's also a great site if you are looking for intro/outro music for your podcast. According to their site, all music is for personal use only, but I'm sure they'll let you use it in a podcast if you put in a plug for them.
Ruckus.com - A great way for students to download free music from up and coming artists. You'll need a .edu address from universities that have an agreement with Ruckus, and you can find a list of universities signed up on their articles page.
Got a question, tip or comment? Send them to beyondteck+question@gmail.com and we'll try to answer it in a blog post!
you may also want to try the free downloads section of Dada.net
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