The advent of streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music has lessened the impact of music piracy. Illegal downloading has plagued the music industry since the turn of the millennium, but for a few dollars a month, the risks are now too high for most people.
However, music streaming services are not without problems. For many people, the biggest turnoff is lack of ownership. If You Use Spotify, You Don't Own Any Music The End of Ownership:Netflix, Spotify, and The Streaming Generation The End of Ownership:Netflix, Spotify, and The Streaming Generation Streaming media is convenient, but you're giving something up. Important:ownership of digital media. Read More
But do not worry. If you're the kind of person who loves to watch a huge collection of music on your PC or mobile device, there are still ways to get free music. They are totally legal, and the music will be yours forever..
Here are seven websites to get you started.
This website may seem a bit dated, but don't let that put you off. BeSonic is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to kickstart their own music collection.
The music is divided into five broad genres:“Rock and Alternative,” “Pop and Electro,” “Hip-Hop, Soul and Urban,” “Jazz and Blues,” and “Mixed.” Each of the five genres is subdivided into several subcategories.
To help you find something you'll enjoy listening to 5 ways to discover new music without feeling overwhelmed 5 ways to discover new music without feeling overwhelmed How do you discover new music? These five easy tools will help you find new songs and new albums without feeling overwhelmed. Read More You'll also find sections dedicated to new tracks and new artists.
The Free Music Archive has been around for many years, but is still as popular as ever. The site focuses on hi-fi tracks. 10 Common Audio Formats Compared:Which One Should You Use? 10 Common Audio Formats Compared:Which One Should You Use? We may all be familiar with MP3, what about AAC, FLAC, OGG or WMA? Why are there so many standards? Which ones should you be interested in and which ones can you ignore? Read more.
WUFM, an independent freeform radio station in New York, curates the content. Most of the songs available are by lesser-known artists, but every once in a while you'll see a famous name pop up.
You don't need to worry about legality as all the tracks on the site are free for personal use. However, if you plan to use the songs in a commercial setting, you should check the license associated with each individual recording.
Jamendo has a similar premise to SoundCloud five years ago:letting unsigned 5 Netlabels independent artists download free music albums. , such as MP3, Ogg Forbis, or WAV. Netlabels typically offer a large portion of their releases for free, often creatively... Read More It currently has more than 400,000 tracks from 40,000 artists..
The music is built around. “Communities.” Navigating to a particular community (for example, #Rock) will present you with their top tracks, albums, and artists. You can sort music based on all-time popularity, trending, and latest releases.
If you want to test the waters before committing to a download, you can tune in to one of the site's themed radio stations.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. At least not if you use NoiseTrade.
Artists who have included their music on this site want something in return for the free download, usually a postal or email address. The idea is for bands to easily connect with people who like their music, perhaps to announce an upcoming tour or highlight a new album release.
The flip side is that you are more likely to find artists you recognize. Sure, you're not going to find the latest Killers release, but most bands are already signed to a record label and have albums available.
What if pop, rock, and the other mainstream genres aren't your thing? Well, if you like classical music more, you're in luck..
Musopen has recordings of some of the most famous classical musicians of all time. You'll find everything from Bach and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Holst. You can search by composer, performer, instrument, period, and form to locate the content you want.
The site extends beyond music downloads. You'll also find lots of free sheet music Top 7 Sites to Find and Print Free Music Start Top 7 Sites to Find and Print Free Sheet Music Have you been looking for free sheet music to print? Here are seven awesome resources to give you a hand. Read More
Amazon is comfortably the most recognizable name on this list. At the time of writing this article, it offers more than 50,000 songs for free. The project is an offshoot of Amazon Music Unlimited Amazon launches Music Unlimited as Spotify Killer Amazon launches Music Unlimited as Spotify Killer After months of speculation, Amazon has launched its own ad-free, on-demand music streaming service. So what's the deal with Amazon Music Unlimited? Read more.
To see what's available, go to Amazon's website and navigate to Departments> Movies, Music &Games> Digital Music> Offers> Free . You can filter the results by gender in the column on the left side of the screen. The most popular genre is “International,” but, with a little digging, you can find everything from Blues to Broadway.
Unlike some of the other sites I've covered, you can often find famous bands. JJ Gray and Mofro, Foo Fighters and Blondie have tracks available for download.
Did you know that the Internet Archive is useful for much more than just making fun of how bad the web looked in 1999? It's also a fantastic free audio library.
For a music lover, the best part of the site is the Live Music Archive. It was built in partnership with etree.org (the leading distributor of lossless digital audio on the web) and features shows and concerts from a variety of leading artists. On the first page of results alone, you'll find music by The Grateful Dead, The Smashing Pumpkins, and The Cheese String Incident.
The library doesn't just cover music; You'll also find old news and public affairs talks, radio shows, audiobooks, and poetry readings.
Almost these sites specialize in helping you download music from unknown and upcoming artists instead of current stars. It's largely unavoidable, bands that have already done so have no need to give away their music for free.
As a general rule of thumb, if you see a site offering you a free copy of the latest Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift album, it's probably illegal. In which case you should proceed with extreme care.
Be sure to also check out these online sources for legal free Christmas music downloads.
What websites do you legally get free music from? What websites have I overlooked? Which website on this list is your favourite?
Feel free to leave your advice, tips and recommendations in the comments below.
Originally written by Tim Watson on April 19, 2009.
