Unfortunately these days many online users feel the best way to obtain free music is through peer-to-peer programs like Limewire or eDonkey. The unfortunate part of this is the RIAA has cracked down on illegal or pirated music downloads to the point these services are illegal and can bring trouble to the downloader.
However, there are still some ways to get free tunes, keep in mind the selections may not be everything you want. Check these out:
1 – emusic.com Promo. I recently received an email from Urbanoutfitters.com which had a Promo ad for “50 free mp3s”. I figured this would be some big catch involved, but after investigating further, I determined all you had to do was sign up for a free account for 2 weeks and then begin finding music you wanted. Sure enough my account read “50 songs remaining”. Since then I have downloaded 2 full albums that I had wanted from itunes, and many other great songs. The selection is not as vast as itunes, but 50 free mp3s that work on my IPOD? I wont complain..The other thing I noticed is if you get friends to join you get 25-50 free songs as well for each referral.
2 – Song Giveaways – Itunes & Urge (MTV) iTunes tends to be rather stingy on its giveaways, and its better to be an ipod owner. They will give away a free song each week, of their choice, to promote a new artist. In the past they have had a few which I enjoyed but usually it is obscure groups that may turn out to be 1 or no hit wonders. Urge.com is MTV’s latest music service. They tend to give away newer songs to promote artists, and they are top notch. Be forewarned that these songs are in wma format, which wont move onto an IPOD. The trick is to get a cd’s worth of free songs from Urge, burn the CD and rip the tracks to your ipod.
3. Check out Rhapsody – Rhapsody is part of the RealMusic Network, but they provide a free 14 day trial membership. From this membership you can download 5 favorite songs free off the bat, yours to keep. Give it a spin, Get your 14 day free trial – Rhapsody
So if you’re looking for free digital music, try out the above methods. They are safe and seem to work fine so far.
MC's Tech Talk 