The Digital World of Free Music

For years, people (namely record companies) have complained about the way in which technology has been “destroying” the music industry. This is not a new phenomena arising as a result of the Internet. Remember cassettes? At one point it was believed that people would stop buying music as they could record it off the radio. We all know this didn't happen, people continued buying records and cassettes, the only hindrance being the advent of CDs. Now, of course, we have the Internet. In a few minutes one could torrent someone's entire discography - I bet the record companies miss worrying about cassette tapes now.

Despite my opening, this post is not on the world of music piracy, far from it, but piracy does have some relation to what I am to focus on. When one thinks of free music via the internet, piracy is what comes to mind. However, there are many free sources of music on the Internet that are perfectly legal. The decision to do this post was made quite some time ago as a result of a discussion with one Williemina.

Last.fm

Last.fm is primarily an Internet radio station. Users create their own radio station consisting of their favourite artists, albums or songs. In addition to users’ own radio stations, it is possible to listen to the radio stations of other users, artist radio stations, a combined radio station of the those with similar music tastes (the neighbourhood) or music recommend by Last.fm based on prior music tastes. In addition to being an online radio site, an event planning site and to an extent, a social networking site, Last.fm is also a source of free downloadable music. Based on the music in your library, Last.fm recommends music to the user. One is not restricted solely to Last.fm's recommendations, it is possible to search the entire free music database. Through this service, I have become privy to such artists as Laura Hocking, Monkey Swallows the Universe and You, Me and Everyone we Know.

Daytrotter

A wonderful place to discover new music or hear music from artists you already like. Each week, Daytrotter (Horseshack recording studio, I recently learnt), record a series of session with different artists. Sessions are usually from independent artists but the variety is immense. The archives consist of sessions from anti-folk stars Adam Green and Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard, British folk musicians Noah and the Whale and Peggy Sue, as well as such artists as Colin Hay, Juliette Lewis, Vampire Weekend, Jakob Dylan, Joseph Arthur, The Low Anthem, Martha Wainwright, Tilly & the Wall, The National, The Hold Steady, Plain White T's, Tori Amos and so many more. I took to downloading music from artist's whose names I like leading the discovery of Mr. Manhattan, Hurray for the Riff-Raff, Japandroids, The Jealous Girlfriends, Lewis & Clark, Lymbyc Systym and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

http://www.daytrotter.com/

Lauren Lavernes' MPFrees

Lauren Laverne's great, not just because she's charming, funny, a great host and a looker, but because she bestows great music upon us through 6Music and provides free music via the 6Music blog. MPFree tracks come from a variety of different free track websites such as http://rcrdlbl.com/; through getting MPFrees, you can find even more free music. MPFrees of the past have included Fool's Day by Blur and Scribble by Underworld. Additionally, Fridays MPFree EPs come with downloadable album artwork such as this:

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/laurenlaverne

Track In The Box

It's a very simple premise, everyday, you get sent a track to your (in)box. Simply potter over to Track in the Box, join the mailing list, and you'll receive a track the next day. You can listen to the track, and depending on how much you like it, download it, or dismiss it completely. Not all tracks are downloadable, this is a tad saddening as on one occasion I spent quite some time on a quest for a wonderful acoustic version of Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs featured on the site. However, many of the tracks are, giving you such great songs as my personal favourite, When the Night Comes in by I said Yes.

http://www.trackinthebox.co.uk/

iTunes

Probably the biggest music service I shall speak of. Every week, the iTunes music store makes available a free track, selected by Apple staff. With such a selection procedure, great variety is inevitable. Over time I have been privy to what I believe to be some rather dreadful songs such as LOL by Little Jackie but I count iTunes' song of the weeks responsible for my having been exposed to some of my favourite artists such as The Hold Steady, Emmy the Great and Slow Club.

Soundcloud

This is a website I have only recently been made aware of. It was brought to my attention as it was the host site for a free download of a body of work by Peggy Sue. Through Soundcloud, artists upload music that can be easily shared with others, as their slogan says - We Move Music. Anyone can use Soundcloud for distibution, as a result of this, some of the most independent of independent music can be found. A great deal of remixes can be found on Soundcloud also.

http://www.soundcloud.com/

A Purple Vagabond

The self-titled wordpress blog of one such Purple Vagabond. Updated fairly regularly, A Purple Vagabond features a hosts of tracks and mixtapes (with a particular emphasis on hip-hop) available for download. It's a wonderful source of new music, old music and familiar music with a twist. Due to it's being the blog of one music lover, it is immediately more personal reflecting a thorough enjoyment of the music featured on the site.

http://www.apurplevagabond.wordpress.com/

White Lies, Yellow Teeth

Presently around a month old with more posts than the sum of this year and last years' for this blog, it would be no deceit to say the White Lies, Yellow Teeth appears to be a pretty consistently updated blog. Like A Purple Vagabond, it is the blog of one person who enjoys music, conversely focusing on dubstep. Honestly, I never really thought much about dubstep and to an extent, ignored its existence. However, upon reading and listening to the tracks on White Lies, Yellow Teeth, I've concluded that I can dig it.

http://www.wlyt.blogspot.com/

The Hood Internet

The Hood Internet is a Chicagoan team that create a variety of mixtapes that mix Hip-hop tracks with a variety of different rock songs. All Hood Internet mixtapes are available from their website in almost any desired format including Soundcloud. Among my favourite tracks is Passion Pit vs Juvenile - Back That Sleepyhead Up, featured below in Soundcloud.

The Hood Internet - Back That Sleepyhead Up (Passion Pit x Juvenile) by hoodinternet

http://www.thehoodinternet.com/

I just realised that the beginning I seemed to making some form of argument with seemingly no conclusion. This is not the conclusion but what I do want to briefly state is that free music often results in the purchase of music. I don't mean that piracy increases music sales, obviously this in not the case, what I do mean is that the sites I have mentioned provide a means of exposing people to music by providing free music which, as a result, sparks an interest in the music provided resulting in record sales.

Thank you for reading.