Today there are more options than ever for downloading free music, and this includes legal MP3 downloads.
When you download legal MP3s, you reduce the odds you’ll pick up a virus or spyware through illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. You also respect copyright laws and artists’ rights by refusing to download pirated music.
The following are 6 options for downloading free music legally online:
1. Find free samples on MP3 retail sites.
The iTunes Music Store regularly offers free downloads. You can browse a current list of free iTunes music downloads at Get Free iTunes Store Downloads.
eMusic.com offers free music downloads, or you can sign up for a free trial service to download and keep 25 free MP3s with no obligation.
Rhapsody.com offers a free song a day for download.
PureVolume.com, GarageBand.com and SoundClick.com are three smaller online distribution services where you can download free music.
2. Amazon’s Free Music
Few people realize Amazon.com offers many free songs and albums for download. They have a wide variety of types of music available for free in their MP3 sales department.
3. Artist’s Websites
Many artists offer free samples of their music today, and this is especially true of unsigned bands and musicians. You can find an artist’s music available for free download on their official website, MySpace page or blog.
4. MP3 Blogs
These are blogs music fans keep to promote or talk about their favorite music. They regularly post music for their subscribers to download. You can search for MP3 blogs through blog search engines, or use an MP3 blog aggregator.
MP3 Blog Aggregators scan, filter and organize popular MP3 blogs into a searchable database. You can use them to search for downloads by song or artist.
The Hype-Machine is a popular, easy to use MP3 blog aggregator.
5. Music Review Websites
These are similar to MP3 blogs, but they are operated on regular websites. Music review websites specializing in free, legal downloads are a great resource for building your music collection.
Two of the most popular websites that review free music are:
- Finger Tips at FingerTipsMusic.com specializes in reviewing today’s best free and legal music.
- The Consensus at Consensus.com reviews music by independent artists and provides access for free downloads.
6. Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive or FMA is a terrific resource for a wide variety of high quality, legal MP3 downloads. Not only is all music pre-cleared so downloads comply with copyright laws, the music available is handpicked to ensure the quality of the songs available.
You can browse for music at FMA by genres or by curator’s picks, or by entering a phrase in a search box at the top of the screen.
Today there are so many legal ways to download free music, there’s really no need to resort to risky, illegal peer-to-peer sharing. You can build a large library of music with legal downloads.
Best of all, by exploring free, legal music downloads, you’re likely to find you enjoy a larger variety of music genres and artists than you ever imagined.
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