These sites offer a great range of free music downloads. All sites are completely legal and give you a chance to discover new music and emerging talents.
The Free Music Archive was established by WFMU which describes itself as ‘the most renowned freeform radio station in America. The Free Music Archives offers tens of thousands of MP3s, pre-cleared for certain types of uses, determined by the musicians and songwriters themselves. The Free Music Archive is popular with remix artists searching for legal samples and is a great resource for podcasters looking for safe content.
At the time of writing, the Live Music Archive offered just under 100,000 items, making it one of the largest free and legal music sites around. The Live Music Archive is a collaboration between the Internet Archive and etree.org. Their aim is to archive live concerts for current and future generations to enjoy. The music is made available for non-commercial purposes only. The music of popular artists include Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Smashing Pumpkins, Maroon5, Death Cab for Cutie, Ryan Adams and Tenacious and many more is available via the site.
Unearthed is an initiative of the Australian, youth-orientated music station Triple J (or JJJ). Established in 1995, Unearthed has helped launch the careers of some of Australia’s best selling musicians including Missy Higgins, Little Red and Grinspoon. Via the Unearthed site music fans can listen to and download over 50,000 songs from over 20,000 artists. Triple J has also launched an Unearthed Mobile App.
Secretly Canadian is an Indiana-based record label, representing an eclectic and hip range of musicians. The label was founded in 1996 by Ben and Chris Swanson, Jonathan Cargill and Eric Weddle. The artists represented by the label include Animal Collective, Frida Hyvonen, Jens Lekman, Magnolia Electric Co, Richard Swift and Zero Boys. Secretly Canadian offers free MP3 downloads of full versions of songs by many of their artists via the ‘listen’ section of their website.
Large Hearted Boy is a music and literature blog run by a Brooklyn based web developer. In addition to providing news from the worlds of music literature and pop culture, Large Hearted Boy also provides daily links to free and legal music downloads. Along with the blog, Large Hearted Boy has a strong social media presence through Twitter, providing regular and interesting links to music downloads and related stories.
Downloading Music – Play It Safe
Always make sure your anti-virus software is up to date before downloading any files or software. And remember, while the music files provided by the sites listed above are free, they do contribute to your internet download quota. Check with your internet service provider about your download limits and fees for excess usage.
Cate Allan - Cate Allan is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She has published widely on language, travel and the arts.
