Free MP3’s are getting harder and harder to come by these days. So I thought I would list off a few very good, very legit and very free sites which showcase a decent variety of music with complete and free ‘MP3’ songs (Not partial snippets – full track mp3’s) all of which you can download straight to your computer. Once downloaded you can then throw these ‘MP3’s’ straight into your ‘MP3’ player. Now I’m not sure if this as easy with ‘I-Pod’ players as with other MP3 players like ‘Samsung’, ‘I-River’, ‘Sony’ etc. I’ve never had an ‘I-Pod’ so I’m not sure if there are restrictions on getting files compatible with the “Apple” controlled ‘I-Tune’ world of the ‘I-Pod’. I have a little ‘I-River’ flash memory Mp3 player and an old clunky ‘Archos’ (still a great player, but weighs a ton!) and all the sites mentioned below are great for me to check out for some of the new music that comes out and download and use the free Mp3’s.
Don’t worry, there’s nothing illegal going on here and these links aren’t going to send you to one of those funky sites that link you to other sites that link you to even more sites until you end up linked to a paying site and start to cry at your keyboard upon the realization that once again you can’t find free ‘MP3’s’ anymore. These are REAL free MP3 tracks supplied to these sites for most part by the smaller/independent labels who understand that sometimes the only way people are going to get to hear the music from their respective artists is via a free download and then hopefully they will be inspired to buy/pay for the CD and or download/pay for the track from some official online source. For instance I downloaded the “New Pornographers” ‘Laws have changed’ track from ‘Amazon.com’ a few years back (when ‘Amazon’ had a great cross-section of downloadable ‘MP3’s’ which sadly they don’t anymore) and absolutely loved it and then went on to by their latest release at the time which was at the time – ‘Twin Cinema’ (An absolutely awesome album by the way and the best from 2005′). (Just a note to say that ‘Youtube’ is also turning out to be an excellent way for labels getting their bands out there).
Pitchfork – ‘Pitchforkmedia.com’ – Type in ‘MP3’ in the ‘Search’ Box and you will pull up many pages of downloadable MP3’s. To download just ‘Right-Click’ and pick the ‘Save-As’ from the Little Pop-Up on your screen. Now if the ‘MP3’ is still active then you will see that the mp3 file for the song will end with ‘mp3’. So for instance I pulled up ‘Devendra Banhart – Seahorse.mp3’ so I know that this will download fine. If the file doesn’t end with ‘.mp3’ then you won’t be able to download it because there is nothing to download. The reason for this I imagine is that some of the older ‘MP3” tracks are no longer supported as the site constantly update their mp3 files with the current crop of new tracks being highlighted, so you may find the occasional, basically dead ‘MP3’. But there are dozens and dozens of good ‘MP3’s’ here. Great to check out and see if you’re missing out on some great new bands you wouldn’t otherwise have heard of.
2. http://www.epitonic.com/
‘Epitonic.com’ – This is a nice little site. The interface is very basic. You can find MP3’s in a few easy ways on this site. You can either click on the ‘Top Downloads’ section or the ‘New Releases’ section. Both of which will give you a dozen or so ‘MP3’s’. Doesn’t worry, there are literally hundreds of songs in their archives and if you look around you’ll find them. The easiest way to find these MP3’s is to locate ‘Epitonic’s’ ‘Search’ feature (near the bottom of the screen) and type ‘MP3’ or ‘Download’. This will pull up a big list of Titles such as ‘Top Downloads’ (These include previous Top Downloads from months past) or they will highlight particular albums, which can have from 3 to 6 tracks available for download absolutely for free. Literally hundreds of songs and absolutely no problem downloading
Now although this is a German Site you can quite easily scroll through all the bands and MP3’s highlighted. If you scroll down the right hand side you will see that ‘Mp3’s have been grouped into months. Click on September 2006 for instance and you’ll see a long page load up with many great up and coming European bands with ‘MP3’s’, a lot of times 2 or 3 per band. There may be some American bands but since I don’t speak German I can’t be entirely sure. A nice site to give a listen to some bands you’ve probably never heard before. Hey, experiment! You never know what you might find.
4. http://www.spinner.com/
Here’s another good mix of new music. Go to the Search Engine after you reach the site and type ‘MP3’ and hit enter. This will bring up ‘MP3’s of the day’. For each section there is a sentence – ‘Filed under: MP3’ & click on ‘MP3’. This will bring up the MP3’s in a much clearer way where you can download in the usual manner.
So, there you have it. Four good sites with absolutely free and full MP3 downloadable songs with absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. ‘Lars Ulrich’ from “Metallica” won’t come knocking at your door demanding royalties and you’re not in the ‘Napster-zone’ of illegality. Of course you’re not going to find much in the way of the latest top charting hits but that’s no bad thing. Have you listened to the poop that’s on the radio lately. A bit of experimentation is good for the soul. Check them out!
