Download Free Music

The good news: There are lots of free mp3 music downloads made available by musicians that have released there music to the public domain.

The bad news: You may have to listen through hundreds of songs to find quality tunes that match your taste.

The Music Choices:

Use your browsers "back" button to navigate the free music download menu below.

Free music downloads - P2P
Know the risks!

Free music download services
Discover unsigned artists.

Free music download trials
Try before you buy.

Free P2P Music Downloads Are Illegal

P2P stands for peer-to-peer where you install software that allows your computer to directly share files with other computers connected to the Internet. This type of networking is consider controversial and illegal due to non-payment to the licensed artists and record labels. Unless an artist gives permission, such as a live concert recording, sharing copyrighted mp3 files is currently illegal in the court of US law. Fines can be thousands of dollars as the Recording Industry Association of America is bent on curtailing illegal file sharing. Sophisticated methods are used to locate file swappers.

Free Music Downloads - P2P Dangers

When trading free, unlicensed, music downloads with p2p other software other dangers include:

Spyware - software contained within the p2p network that gathers user information and activities without the user knowing.

Adware - software may come with intrusive advertising.

Spoofing - fake files that may only contain the first ten seconds repeated over and over.

Rather than use MP3 file sharing, it's best to use legally licensed services to get your free MP3 music downloads

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Free Music Downloads - MP3 Services

This is the place to discover great unknown artists, however you may have to listen to lots of bad to mediocre music before you strike gold.

Some mp3 music comes only in Windows Media format which only allows for streaming and no downloads.

On the other hand, Free mp3 for downloading and burning to CD are available.

Artist Direct - A great place to hear new and confirmed artists. Occasionally stream or download the latest singles by popular artists.

People Sound - Rejects about one- third of applicants. The music tends to be of a higher quality from unsigned artists.

Ampcast - Free music and MP3s to play or download, artist CDs, free MP3 software, MP3 news, MP3 product reviews, free personal account for CDs and MP3s, free radio stations, programmed play lists.

IUMA - offers unsigned artists, independent bands, local talent mp3 music free airplay, publishing and promotion plus free new mp3 and real player music track ... Description: All styles covered. Short reviews. Full songs in Real Audio. CD sales.

Vitaminic - 20,000 artists and 600 labels in Windows Media and MP3 formats.

MP3 - Closed down their site 11-1-03 Look for CNET to reorganized this service in the spring of 2004.

Exploring to download free music is fun as long as you know the type and quality of songs you like and how much time you are willing to invest in your search.

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Legal Music Download Trials

This review of Legal music downloads is an unbiased look at the various services available on the Internet.

Here's how it works:

Monthly subscriptions give you access various catalogs of music. You can also purchase single or any combination of songs for download. Once downloaded the music files can be copied to a recordable audio CD, or to a portable MP3 player such as an iPod. Some songs can be restricted in their use due to licensing arrangements.

Most all of the paid for services have good search engines, the ability to customize play lists and offers various programmed radio stations. All of the top pay-for services have access to the major labels, Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI and BMG which accounts for only 20% of all recorded music.

Legal Music Download Reviews - The breakdown of all the current music services.

Legal Music Downloads

Napster

Now a legal site with the backing of major music labels offering 500,000 tracks and 45 fully-interactive, commercial-free stations. Napster

$9.95 a month
$.99 per download

Music Match

200 stations, 12,000 artists. Create custom radio play lists with unlimited streaming. Offering individual tracks or entire CDs for sale. If you hear something you like while listening to a station, it's available for purchase. Music Match

$19.95 one time cost for the Music Match Jukebox player.

Rhapsody

9,000 artists, 400,000 songs. 50 radio stations, skip ahead, build your own play list.Rhapsody

$9.95 a month
$4.95 a month Radio only
$.79 per download
7-day free trial

EMusic

Offers access to all the non-copyrighted-protected MP3s. 275,000 songs Minor labels. Minimal top billboard songs. Burn or copy MP3 files. Downloads do not terminate after membership expires. EMusic

$15 for three months
$9.99 a month.
Two week free trial - 50 free MP3s

Wippit

Smaller selection of songs but with unlimited downloads and less cost per month. Wippit

iTunes

A Mac friendly site that sells music downloads. 500,000 tracks including all 5 major labels and 200 signed Independents and weekly exclusive tracks. 5,000 audio books, including current bestsellers and classics. iTunes

$.99 per music track

Music Now

400.000 titles from the major labels. Free music previews Music Now

AOL’s Music Net

Disappointing lack of features and faulty software. Music Net

Hear It First

Christian based site with poor software and very limited selection. Free previews Hear It First

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Converting Music Downloads

Mp3 Rippers

Actually nothing gets ripped apart when you "rip" a CD. It's just an easy way of saying Digital Audio Extraction (DAE)

High quality files that reside on an audio CD are in a format called WAV. An MP3 ripper converts a WAV file by compressing into a format called MP3. Compressing WAV files make them smaller in size and therefor easier to transport and store. Remember that making copies of copyrighted material is sensitive. Check what the laws are in your country. Some allow backups and burning to portable players, but most will not allow MP3 ripping for file sharing purposes.

Burning CDs

First convert your downloaded MP3 files to WAV format, then you can copy or "burn" them with a CD-RW (write-read) drive to a blank CD. This will allow you to play back your music with a CD player. CD burning software like MusicMatch Jukebox and iTunes allow you to customize your own music CDs.

Popular ripping and burning software:

Music Match Jukebox (PC) - $19.95 one time fee

iTunes Software (Mac/PC)