free music

from time.com

The Sept. 24 launch of MySpace Music has made it easier to find and listen to free, major-label music on the Web. But it's not the only game in town. As online-music aficionados already know, there are several other free sites where you can pretty much do the same thing, including Imeem, Last.fm and SpiralFrog.

from arstechnica.com

Managing editor Eric Bangeman barged into my office this morning, looking like a kid who has just been given a puppy for Christmas (and hasn't yet realized that he'll have to walk the stupid thing three times a day in the biting Chicago winter). "Dude," he said, "Marillion's new album will be free to download! F-R-E-E free."

from largeheartedboy.com

Fee and legal recordings of live shows, rarities, and demos available via bittorrent, including Be Your Own Pet, The Jam, Neil Young, more:

from bigcontact.com

Hellthy Music sez: Modern, pleasant indie nerd-pop from Gertie Fox . NOTE: Poppy, gritty, sweet. Come and get it....and, at 138 bpm, Modern Love a healthy addition to your exercise track library.

from scotsman.com

MUSIC fans will be able to legally download songs free for the first time from a major provider - after the world's biggest record company announced its tracks are to be made available on a website funded by advertising.Universal Music, home to acts such as U2 , the Scissor Sisters, Texas, Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain, has given its backing to an online-start up called SpiralFrog . The New York-based firm plans to offer songs for free download and pay the record label through money raised from advertising. The tie-up with Universal adds a potential 300,000 tracks to its library.

from daytrotter.com

It was getting late when Jennifer O’Connor and her bassist and most awesomeist friend Arabella Kauffmann pulled up in the Matador recording artist’s station wagon mobile. She was right on time – seven bells on this late July evening – and so were her songs, meeting the humid, salmon-colored sky head-on. It was quiet and the two travelers were completing the most diehard drive of any Daytrotter visitor yet – 10 hours straight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That’s not a drive. That’s work and some overtime.

from baltimoresun.com

Music fans for the first time will be able to download free, legal copies of songs from a major record label under a deal announced yesterday by Universal Music Group.

The experiment in advertising-supported music marks a significant shift for an industry that has spent years fighting to stop global online piracy and was viewed as slow to embrace the potential of the Internet.

Universal's agreement with SpiralFrog will grant free, unlimited access to the hundreds of thousands of songs in the label's catalog, including such acts as Kanye West and U2.

From iLounge

Popular social networking site Facebook today announced a back-to-school promotion to give away 10 million music samplers from the iTunes Music Store. The site said that starting today it will give away 1 million, 25-song music samplers from iTunes each week for the next 10 weeks. Each iTunes sampler will feature “select songs from a different genre ranging from Alternative to Rock, Hip-Hop to Dance and Electronica.” Facebook, which launched in February 2004, has registered over 8.3 million people and ranks as the seventh-most trafficked site in the US, according to comScore.

We've mentioned Daytrotter before, but cool new music from French Kicks recorded lived at the Daytrotter studios outside Chicago whilst on a road trip just reignited our enthusiasm for this sweet and unpretentious source of fresh tracks. These are just some of the tons of free tracks performed live at Daytrotter from "your next favorite band..." In addition to French Kicks, find tracks by Oakley Hall, Maritime, Frog Eyes, Casey Dienel, Sunset Rubdown, and more. Stick 'em in your ear and start your exercise routine.

From Daytrotter

Free Songs: French Kicks

From iLounge

As part of the launch for its forthcoming iPod rival , Microsoft reportedly plans to give consumers free, compatible versions of songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. The ploy would allow music fans to make the switch from the iPod and iTunes to the Microsoft player and Windows Media-based online store without losing previously purchased music. “This way you won’t have to pay twice for your music, which is a huge barrier for Microsoft to attract users to their service,” Gizmodo reports. “If you’ve got $1000 worth of music in your iPod, why would you change to something that required you to buy it all again? This move makes sense.” Also, like the recently announced MusicGremlin device, Microsoft’s offering is said to let device owners wirelessly connect to another owner’s player and share music. Meanwhile, Microsoft remains coy. “The stories you are seeing are based on speculation and rumors and, as such, we didn’t participate,” Microsoft said in a statement. “We don’t have anything to announce at this time.”

I first heard of Daytrotter by way of Wired, and what I read convinced me I had to wander over and check it out. What an incredible concept. I'll let the Daytrotters describe it. Read this, and then get over there and check out the fresh sounds of bands laying down fast tracks between gigs. Awesome!

"Most bands touring in the upper half of the US drive on I-80 on their way to or from Chicago. We get them to stop off and do a live session of four songs at Futureappletree Studio 1, often using our collection of vintage instruments. The tracks are analog recordings, only converted to digital format for the purpose of transmission to you. These are the Daytrotter Sessions, and they’re available exclusively through Daytrotter.com—one featured band and four new songs each week."

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