1 Million Free & Legal Music Tracks
1 Million Free and Legal Music Tracks
From the Red Ferret Journal
| Mega Portals | Review Sites | Specialist | General | Miscellaneous |
| Streaming | Collaborative | Net Labels | Non-English | Band Sites |
Link Fest
Erik Brown's MP3 Links
I
really have to put Erik's site in the position of honour at the top of
this web page, since it features an awesomely large collection of mp3
music site links arranged in an easy to use layout. If you're looking
for free music on the Internet, in a superb selection of eclectic,
mainstream and world music genres, this has to be your first port of
call. Absolutely!!
Monkeyfilter Audioblog Wiki
Taken from the amazing Tofu Hut site.
An absolutely humungous list of mp3 blogs, offering music to stream and
download in an awesome selection of genres. Go there. Do yourself a
favour. The wiki is only editable by Monkeyfilter members, but it's
still fabulous. Really!
Oddio Overplay
Astonishingly
massive music resource which has collated years and years of
downloadable and streaming music from fabulous resources all over the
world. All free and legal, and with a brilliant new design. Check it
out or else!!
SingingFish
A
search engine for music (and video) on the web. Search for artists or
words in titles, not genres. The results are not sorted by title or
sound quality (yet).
OGGLE - Search Engine for OGG music
This is a search engine for music in OGG (an mp3 like) format. Free and legal.
Mega Portals Back to top
Soundclick
This
relatively unknown portal appears to be adding over 40,000 songs a
month to its roster. There's certainly a goodly selection of free mp3
and WMA tracks available for download and streaming in a wide range of
genres. (Update: the site now claims to offer over 1 million free
tracks all on its own. Beware the nasty pop up ads though!)
Audiri
Also somewhat unknown portal, not only lots of music but also watch videos. Lots of smaller bands, but some good music
Amazon
Yep
Amazon! Few people realise that Amazon has simply a huge selection of
free music downloads from all sorts of genres. Some in mp3, some in
WMA. Use a disposable email address.
Vitaminic (down)
The Vitaminic Group now hosts over 350,000 tracks from 78,000 artists. Mp3 and WMA files for download and streaming. Includes Peoplesound, IUMA and FranceMP3.
Ampcast
Slick,
but rather sluggish artist promotion site with a large selection of
tracks in various genres. Mix of mp3, WMA, downloads and streaming as
well as artist CD purchase.
MP3
Great
grand-daddy of all music sites, with over a quarter of a million
artists and 750,000 tracks for stream and download. Soon - as at
20.11.03 - to disappear forever into the CNET stable, to be resurrected
as who knows what? ('Update' 20 July 04: good news, bad news, good news
for music lovers. garageband.com has announced a Recover Your mp3 Account For Free
service for mp3 bands. So hopefully many of the lost tracks will be
restored to the world sooner rather than later. Bad news? mp3.com has
returned as a boring signed artist promotion site. Avoid. Good news? CNet? has added a respectable music section to
download.com, where there are lots of free mp3 tracks available. Fair enough guys, but why mess with mp3.com?)
music.download
CNET's new MP3.COM replacement. Lots of independent artists and a growing handful of record label participants (mostly indie labels).
IUMA
Excellent selection of tracks to stream and download in a huge range of genres, although it is often very slow. Now part of the Vitaminic Group.
Artistopia
Artistopia offers music artists and songwriters a platform to collaborate on musical projects with industry professionals.
Epitonic
Great
selection of stuff from all sorts of predominently modern genres.
Excellent. Be sure to check out all the similar artist selections and
streams.
archive.org - Netlabels
Over
2,500 free EP's/albums (and more than 15,000 tracks?) from mainly
electronica 'net labels', all gathered under the one roof courtesy of
the Internet Archive. Worth a look indeed!
archive.org - Live Music Archive
More than 15,000 freely downloadable concerts - a user-friendly face put onto the Etree live concert trading download service, with explicit permission from the bands involved, by the wonderful Internet Archive.
Easier to use, search and recommend. Warning, some massive sized file
downloads (SHN), although some streaming/downloadable mp3 too.
Besonic (currently down)
20,000 artists and 30,000 songs from 5 countries. Free mp3 tracks for download and streaming. Some interesting Euro bands!
Purevolume
More
than 100,000 songs available for free download (as of Feb 2005). Run by
self-proclaimed indie fans to fill the hole left by mp3.com. Nice
design, nice selection, nice site all round. [Update July 05: Wow, just
taken another look and they've really spruced the place up. It's got
some fab features now elegantly arranged on the band page (like next
gigs etc). Use it with the Greasemap plug-in for Firefox and you even get a map of where your fave band is based. Excellent! Red.]
IC-MusicMedia
Hosts
mp3s and videos, close to 4,000 artists as of October 2004, various
genres, easy interface - free of pop up player consoles, streaming
lofi/hifi for winamp, real and other players, forums, downloads
Altsounds
Community site that hosts alternative (or independent) artist content. Tracks provided free streams and/or downloads.
mp3.com.au
Hosts
thousands of great mp3 files uploaded to the website by artists from
around Australia and overseas. All mp3 files on the site are completely
legal as they have been uploaded by the artists themselves, and free to
listen or download.
Weedshare Search
Search
engine for music in Weedshare format. Weedshare allows you to download
and listen to music for free. Only for Windows users, no special
software needed to listen. After you have heard a song three times, you
can decide to buy the song, pass it on to someone else or just throw it
away.
The Weed Files
Self-service
music store intended for artists and labels who want to distribute
their music in the Weed format. Their services, including lifetime
hosting, are provided for free. They have 1600 independent artists in
their database, including Heart, Kristin Hersh, Gazpacho, Roger
Manning, Abby Travis and Gretchen. They're currently in the process of
adding about 70,000 songs from CD Baby artists to their catalogue.
Review Sites Back to top
3hive.com
Six
different authors scour the web for the best free and legal music and
write a brief review. A new band is posted every day. [Update: Nice
design, nice selection of songs, blog format. Well worth a look! Red.]
Gigatracks.com
Review
site that hand picks each of the songs that are posted and offers them
for free download. The idea is to focus on only posting the best music
that the reviewers encounter.
Zerophase.net (forever down)
A
well designed, independent music site featuring audio reviews (they let
you stream/download a high quality track from the album being reviewed
while you read) and mp3 downloads from a variety of genres.
warr.org
Wilson
and Alroy's Record Reviews. Don't let the site's simple appearance fool
you. This site is a wealth of thousands of album reviews encompassing
popular music from today back to the 1950s. Wilson & Alroy, a pair
of self proclaimed "rock 'n' roll super dweebs" go into a huge amount
of depth and precision in picking apart some of the best (and worst)
albums, and best of all, back up their opinions. An excellent and
engrossing site.
godsofmusic.com
A nicely presented and detailed review site. No downloads, just direct links to the artist sites with mp3's to offer. Nice.
garageband.com
Again
focus is on being a peer review site, which makes it more difficult to
find tracks to download, as you're reliant on the views of a community
to 'bubble' stuff to the surface of the charts. 'Update:' OK, on review
I'm probably being a little unfair here. There's certainly a goodly
selection of music (100,000 tracks) to stream and download, and the
quality is definitely better than random download sites. Well worth a
visit! Also see above!
pitchforkmedia.com
Not
brilliant. Site mostly full of reviews. Looks good and may be useful to
find new stuff, but the downloads are kind of poor and placements are
paid ads.
betterPropaganda.com
This
is a good indie music review site. They have well-written reviews and
interviews with various artists. There is a free mp3 download for just
about every band that they profile. Oh, and the music they choose is,
IMHO, very good.
75orless.com
New music reviews in 75 words of less. Mostly indie rock but hip hop and electronic are also common.
splendidezine.com
Online music zine for people with a voracious appetite for new music.
ethnotronics.com/Radio1
A
high quality selection of the most musical and creative electronic
artists from around the globe. A fully skipable 192 kbps mp3 stream,
allowing quick access to the music. Updated daily with an rss feed of
the "Artist of the Day".
unsignedbandweb.com
A
music community site featuring artists from all genres and nations.
Hifi and Lofi streams and downloads from a very large number of genres.
SignHereOnline.net
Music resource provides unsigned artists and independent bands with an opportunity to promote original MP3
music and solicit recording contract offers. [Update: Clearly a new
site (basic design and not much material) which offers a subscription
service for unsigned bands - one track is free, extra tracks uploaded
cost money. Best thing about the service currently is the voting
section which gives listeners a chance to say which artists deserve a
record contract. Needs much more material. Red]
Killed By A Crescendo
MP3 blog featuring the newest tracks and reviews in a large variety of genres.
Specialist Music Sites Back to top
remixwars.com
A
site that features a wide variety of electronic (Industrial, EBM,
Darkwave, Synthpop, Electronica, Noise) mp3 downloads. You can also
download loop files to remix. Unfortunately, to download songs, you
must be registered. Use a throw away address.
ZikWeb.org
Weekly updated original mp3s plus online radio. Home of Phoebus and NoSushi.
650-Breaks (Hot Shit !)
Online mixes archives from Amon Tobin, Coldcut, Dj Shadow, Dj Spooky, Diplo, Sixtoo and more...
karadar.com
Karadar
offers a simply superb selection of all things classical. Downloads,
librettos, texts, et al. The only 'problem' is that the mp3 download
process has been made deliberately complex - including a classical
music question gateway - to foil leeching ignoramusii (?). Still
brilliant though!
Free List of Mp3s, Reviews, Search Engine
Half
a million links in the list to date and adding about 10-15 thousand per
day, Some really neat stuff and weird stuff. The best part of the site
is the keyword search and the Review pages. Add your site to have it
scanned as well.[Update:not sure about this site at all, the search
function and overall design are very strange for instance! Ah well. Red]
Agnula Libre Music
A database of Libre Music (works which have been put by their authors under
a license which allows free redistribution and usage). Artists, who want their music
to be accessible to the widest audience possible, without artificially limiting how
and how much their creations spread around, can better publish their music there,
instead of on this Wiki page.
The MIT Free Classical Music Site
Short
but sweet page of free music primarily taken from concerts of the MIT
Chamber Chorus and Concert Choir, but there are other cool classical
music links there too. Definitely worth a look.
micromusic.org
Micromusic.net
is many things. first we are a music label, though we deal with .mp3's
and hard drive space not vinyl! Micromusic.net is also what the users
make it. It is an organic community that can shape their own identity
by uploading and downloading, organising parties, bringing their own
projects to micromusic.net, making bands with other micromusic.net
members, helping with any aspect of the site programming, designing...
whatever.
hippocamp.net
Huge
electronic music Net label based in Manchester UK - some amazing free
mp3 releases including BSR, DNCN, Maroufleur, Batfinks and
Domestication Of The Dog.
hXcmp3.com
Loads
and loads of hardcore, post-hardcore, and metal songs for download.
Most of these tracks are DIY or pre-production recordings, but there is
an equal number of gems for the angst-ridden 16-year-old scenester in
you.
Kahvi Collective
mission: to gather and provide free electronic grooves. area of operation: internet
Feng's Distorted World
Presenting Free and Legal Mp3 Downloads from Underground Electronic Music Artists.
Blentwell
Blentwell
is an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music. A daily
updated link log of hot mixsets and fresh new tracks heard online..
d1rt7
Beats, breaks, mixes, shit...
Helgoland
Avantgarde Pop from Hamburg
Plinko Manor
Free punk rock from the local South Bend, Indiana music scene. More added all the time.
OneManBrand
Free
bizarre brokenbeat mp3s from this stable of underground talent based
near brighton, uk. New and remixed tracks added all the time.
publicdomain4u.com
Like
the Blues and 'olde tyme' stuff? Then you'll like the Public Domain
mp3's coming out of this small site. Needs much more to make it really
sing and dance, but still a nice alternative to all the indie stuff out
there.
AsianClassicalMP3.org
Small
and select collection of Asian classical music tracks taken from
cassette tape recordings. Worth a visit if you're an enthusiast.
Classic Cat
Free
classical music is difficult to find among the many hosting sites.
Classic Cat provides a neat overview - sorted by composer and work.
donnerfarms.org
'Donner Farms are proud to broadcast the finest in old-fashioned music,
the kind that Maw-Maw Donner and Pap Donner loved to play and listen to
on the porch or by the fire.' Streaming old fashioned music broadcast.
ughh.com
Hip Hop. Vinyl singles for sale, free radio streaming, Top 40 and new releases. Couldn't find any free downloads though.
ragga-jungle.com
Surprise! It's a ragga-jungle site. Streaming radio and free registration needed for music downloads.
centurymedia.com
Heavy metal fans only. This is your stop. Downloads of all sorts of stuff. Heavy!
metalblade.com
Another one for heavy metal fans.
remix.overclocked.org
Computer
games are fun. So too apparently is the background music when it's
remixed and offered as mp3 downloads. Lots of downloads!
catholicplanet.com
Christian mp3 downloads (from here, not from up there silly!) Watch out also for the Catholic Jukebox and the reviews.
freekidsmusic.com
Small,
but tastefully targeted (OK it's bright, alright?) children's mp3 music
download and streaming service. Not many tracks, but links back to
artist's sites offers more. Includes charts.
mperia.com
An
online indie music store, designed to help artists sell their tracks
directly to listeners and keep most of their own money. Lots of
features to help artists promote themselves and to help listeners find
good stuff.
NetNewMusic
A
music portal dedicated to contemporary classical and avant garde music;
linking sites with freely available mp3's by several hundred selected
contemporary composers.
Zenguin
Independent
artist collective, many genres. Downloads available at most of the
artist sites. The Radio Room highlights unusual stations and sound
collections.
Guitars 101
Eclectic
guitar focussed site with variable selection of streaming and
downloadable mp3 tracks featuring...er...guitars. The axeman cometh!
Free Music Group
Quick
reference page to several free, legal sites. Featured are the solo
piano, solo guitar, Christmas, children's and Christian music below.
Free Solo Guitar
New, but excellent resource for multiple fingerstyle guitar artists who present full-length songs for free download.
Free Solo Piano
Well-trafficked site features quite a wealth of solo piano music by popular indie artists.
Christian MP Free
New, but growing selection of indie Christian artists. Emphasis on quality material.
Free Kids Music
Very popular source for free music for kids.
Free Childrens Music
As above, a great place to discover top indie music for children.
Feels Like Christmas
Traditional or contemporary, instrumental or vocal. A treasured source of quality legal music to enhance the holiday season.
The Free Music Directory
Developing
directory of sites which offer at least one full-length, high-quality
song download on their site. Free listings to all who qualify.
smart-music
Searches the web for the finest free dance music available.
A collection of independent techno, house, hip-hop, broken beat, downbeat, nu-jazz
and electronica genres.
DJ Kenny Mac
Eastern
Europe from Kyiv (but in English), offering a small number (as yet) of
Ukraine free alternative rock downloads and info. Free submission's for
qualified bands interested in networking East and Central Europe.
Dr. Safa YEPREM's guitar page
Special documents for Art of Flamenco and Guitar, videos, lessons and mp3 files.
MIDI Pianola & Player Piano Rolls
Links
to huge archives of midi-files converted from late 1800s & early
1900s punched paper rolls for automatic player pianos. Get one of the
widely available free midiPlayers
for your PC/Mac and take a trip back in time.. these
collectors/archivars deserve a massive thank you for the effort taken..
just wonderful !!
Out of the Blue Productions
Floor filling Electronic Beats for your ears! A MUST HEAR! Go to music page!
the roots music listening room
wonderful
collectors site including 1000++ mp3s of the oude time music, mainly
from vintage 78rpm recordings now in the public domain,
a true treasure chest !
Zambian Music Site
The best site for all Zambian Music
General Music Sites Back to top
United Bands
Lots
of free downloads from Indie bands around the world, but mostly in
America. Lots of community features, voting, friends, online journal
and more.
Mixposure
Nice selection of over 6000 tracks for streaming and download, along with useful reviews. Definitely worth a look!
My Space
Rapidly
becoming the 'street' music community of choice. Massive amount of
unsigned talent - some very good! - showcased on their own mini-site
pages with lots of cool community features, photos, comments etc etc.
If it's too loud, you're too old!
IntoMusic
This
niche site offers music from independent musicians releasing their own
material - unlike many large portals, it chooses quality over quantity
and has unique english quirkiness with reviews of the artists. It's a
cross between an english music mag and an mp3 site. Nice design and
some nice features.
Common Tunes
Billed
as a 'community directory of freely available music'. Eclectic
collection of Mp3 tracks ranging from Beethoven to the Beastie boys.
Nice design, but since it's in beta I suspect that it's very much an
early work in progress. One to watch though!
largehearted boy
Daily downloads, daily news, bittorrent downloads and much more.
kingblind.com
Music News, Album & Concerts Reviews, Free and Legal mp3's, Music Videos, Art / Entertainment and much more.
usounds.com
mp3 blog which also hosts downloads from labels such as Radio Khartoum and Ninjatune. Reviews and more.
earbuzz.com
Reasonably sized indie music sales portal with a fair amount of full tracks to download. Definitely worth a visit.
somesongs.com
Nice simple song portal. No actual downloads, but lots of direct links to artists tracks hosted elsewhere. Neat!
insound.com
Self
proclaimed indie rock record store with a small record label on the
side. Offers streaming radio, lots of signed bands and a very
respectable collection of free mp3 tracks for download. Nice vibe.
dmusic.com
A
front end portal for more than 16,000 artists and 51,000 tracks. Throw
in some news, forums and a general community feel and you get the
picture. Nice place to visit and worth taking time to browse.
peoplesound.com
Unsigned artist portal, and part of the Vitaminic Group. Some interesting foreign bands.
playvox.com
65,000
'specially formulated' mp3 tracks which can only be played or
downloaded by the site's advert sponsored Play Vox Studio player. In
its favour, the site does offer a fairly decent partnership with
artists (50% revenue split on sales and a share of any potential
company profits).
pastemusic.com
Started
as a online record store but now also a record label, magazine,
internet radio station and mp3 site. Alt-country, Folk rock, Americana
and singer/songwriters are strongly represented but pop, emo and indie
rock are here too.
belgiummp3.be
Belgian mp3 site, featuring over 1000 tracks for download and streaming from 600 artists, all in English.
Musical Family Tree
Features
a lot of indie bands from Mid West USA, in the hope of exposing them to
a larger audience. Message boards, downloads, streaming, it's all
there. (Update : Definitely worth a look, if you like this style)
indieTunes
Music
community for independent music artists offering online auditions,
streaming radio, free downloads and music sales. Offers artists the
highest payback anywhere in the world. [Update: Nice looking site, some
good music, although not a huge selection of free downloads yet. Red.]
Miscellaneous Sites Back to top
Legal Torrents
Site
dedicated to 'Creative Commons-licensed, legally downloadable, freely
distributable creator-approved files' distributed via BitTorrent. Lots of music, but also movies and books too.
Certified Sound MP3 Mastering
Online
Mp3 mastering service for the Independent Artist. We have the
experience to bring out the best in your studio mix. Check out our
quality at our free streaming radio site.
iTunes freebie downloads
Great
- i.e. comprehensive and growing - list of free music downloads
currently available on the iTunes store. Delivered by the good folk on
the MacRumors forums. Good on yer!
Bestmp3links
Web site listing links to web sites with free legal music and mp3 downloads.
Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads
The original July 2003 (updated in Feb 2004) essay about all this legal and free music stuff with lots of links.
The Online Music Business Space
An excellent, up to date and frozen summary of the major info on this page.
The Hype Machine
An
experiment that gathers songs posted on mp3 blogs and presents them in
an easy to consume manner. It lets you easily listen to the new music
that has been posted today by a great variety of bloggers - discover
and fall in love with something new!
Mr Red Penguin
Amusing blog with various free and hard-to-find indie mp3s.
Use Free Music
Visit NEWS/Free track
for good quality free loops & samples with a new track every month.
Site also provides Royalty Free Music for Film, TV, and web based
media. Site has produced music for Dr. Who, Graham Norton & iBuzz.
365 Days Project
The
legendary 365 Days Project, in which an mp3 a day -- of mostly
outsider, novelty, and oddball recordings -- was made available for the
public to download over the course of 2003. It has been archived in its
entirety, complete with images and vast commentary on each selection on
UBUWEB.
Knobtweakers.net Free Mp3 Blog
Free
electronic music downloads, daily. Techno, electronica, house, drum n
bass, IDM, glitch, trance, breakbeat, hardcore, downtempo, minimal,
2-step, garage, even the occasional chip. All legal.
radioqualia
Interesting art entity. They brought you Free Radio Linux, and bring you streaming softwares, manuals, music and more.
Subsystence
Subsystence
is a web magazine, but not in the traditional sense. The Downloads
section on the main page features bi-monthly stores of electronic music
mp3s from a variety of Chicago-based artists.
Close Your Eyes
A
cool list of mp3 blogs, which post links to tracks in various music
categories. Well worth a visit if you're starting off. See also Thom:Blog for another selection.
Mystery and Misery
This
awesome blog links to legal (and free) music of all different genres
from the really obscure to lesser known (for now) indie bands. Each
post comes with a mini bio and review.
MP3Blogs.org
Mp3
blog aggregator, boasting over 45 blogs which feature mp3 tracks to
listen to and download. Also supplies rather useful RSS feeds if that's
yer bag.
remixfight.com
What
it says, a collection of eclectic mp3 remixes available for free
download. You get to vote for them too, so that's fun. The vote and
fight changes regularly, which keeps it fresh.
fivetrees.com
A sort of UK promo, marketing type site, with a 'radio' section which offers free downloads of a small eclectic mix of bands.
parkstudios.net
A
sort of artistically correct community of artists. A creative
collaboration with music. Small number of downloads and streams.
AllofMP3.com
Russian
based members only download site which features a massive collection of
mp3 albums in all of the major genres. This is not yer indie/unsigned
label affair, these are all major name tracks offered under some sort
of strange Russian copyright rule. One for the brave only!
songfight.org
They
post a title, the community writes the song, people download or stream
the mp3 tracks and vote for favourites. Quirky, cool and fun. Quality
is variable, but better than you might expect.
etree.org
Huge
FTP based mailing list for exchanging live concert & show
recordings from willing bands. No mp3's, music is downloaded via the
'Shorten' format then has to be converted to WAV before being burned to
CD. Includes an extensive wiki with information about how to convert
those shorten files and set up the FTP transfers. Slower than
downloading mp3's, but within reason with a broadband connection. Very
cool if you're into jam sessions and other live stuff from artists like
Counting Crows, The Allman Brothers and The Tragically Hip.
endino.com
Weed
is a truly innovative music file sharing service. Complex to explain
but in a nutshell, Weed files are tricked out WMA which can play 3
times then stop unless purchased. But - once bought they can be sold on
ad infinitum. And the clever part is that the artist always gets 50% of
the sale price, but you get between 10 and 20% each sale. It's sort of
MLM without the naff conferences. Downside? Only 17 artists minor label
artists as yet. Might work with major names, but this may be hard
uphill work. ('Update': Heart have just released their new album using Weed, so it may be gaining traction?)
Weed music downloads
Weed music distributor offering large collection of legal music downloads.
freemidi.org
Excellent collection of thousands of free downloadable MIDI files. Movie and TV themes, Queen, REM...just lots.
mutopiaproject.org
Free sheet music for download. Over 300 pieces and growing. A sort of hugely laudable Project Gutenberg for sheet music.
mp3jackpot.com
Every
day the site nominates one track as a Jackpot mp3 winner, and gives a
direct link to the artist's mp3 for download. Sort of a collaborative
recommendation service for finding new music. See also their sister
site, MP34U.com
Playr
Use
these bookmarklets to play web pages of mp3's in your browser or
preferred media player. Generated playlists are added to the database,
which now contains hundreds of links to pages with music
files.['Update': actually this is way cool, check it out! Red]
The Wired CD
The November 2004 issue of Wired magazine included a copy of a CD with 16 songs produced under the Creative Commons License.
If you did not pick up a newsstand copy of the magazine with the CD featuring artists like:
The Beastie Boys, David Byrne (radio), Zap Mama, Gilberto Gil and others...
Rip, mix, burn. Swap till you drop. Copyrighted for the 21st century.
The music cops can't do a thing - it's 100 percent legal, licensed by the bands.
The CCmixter site shows the results of this initiative.
Healing Piano
An
entire "virtual album" of solo piano music from a single artist.
Available to all, but presented especially with the intent of being
freely distributed to those who are grieving or convalescing...
Music Lab
A
research project conducted by scientists from Columbia University to
learn about how people form opinions about music. If you participate
you will have a chance to download free new music for personal use.
After answering a few questions about yourself, you will be presented
with a menu of songs by cool new artists. Your participation might take
up to two hours, depending on how many songs you want to listen to.
Explore it and report here if you found it worthwhile.
Guilt Free P2P
Guilt Free P2P? is an experiment in web based media distribution. Many free/legal music as well as video and software downloads.
Streaming only Sites Back to top
bluebeat.com
Nearly
400,000 tracks of very high-quality, major record-label tracks spanning
the last thousand years, from obscure medieval music to cool jazz to
hip-hop released last week. Works are copyrighted but all costs are
absorbed by bluebeat.com, since joining and listening is free and
without advertisement. Site streams at 160 or 320 kpbs.
polyrad.ca
Streaming
site from the École Polytechnique de Montréal. Music from Jazz to
techno from this student radio, twenty-four seven, advertising free.
The site is in english.
Radio Shirt
Streaming
radio portal with nice selection of stations, reviews and a rather
nifty player/toolbar. Definitely worth checking out if you're an online
radio nut.
Realtime 365
real:time
is a live365 streaming radio station hosted by shadow records/bastard
jazz recording artist saru (a.k.a spooky monkey) featuring mixed sets
and original downtempo, dub, trip hop, drum & bass, ambient,
experimental & nu jazz releases from up-and-coming independent
lables & unsigned artists.
shoutcast.com
Big
daddy of daddies in the streaming music world. Thousands of amateur run
'stations' broadcasting everything from classical to pop. Fabulous free
resource, especially when allied with the free and awesome Station Ripper program. Superb!
Megarock Radio
Megarock
Radio has been rocking the internet since 1998 and serves over a
million monthly listeners and ten thousand members. Offers modem and
broadband digital audio feeds for music listeners and allows requests
to be taken 24/7 with live programming.
Lots of indie,
alternative, electronica and other modern genres streamed via hi and lo
fi radio and streams. Not that easy to navigate, but a good selection
of stuff.
betalounge.com
Real Media music stream showcasing new music. Based in San Francisco. No downloads.
Just Concerts
Reasonable
selection of live concerts and studio sessions in a variety of genres,
streamed in Real Player format. Rather Canadian too.
wholewheatradio.com
Streaming
indie radio. Listeners can influence playlist and artists can send
their mp3's to get played. Run out of Alaska - huh?
digitallyimported.com
Dance, trance and elektronica. Streamed in a variety of formats. Also offers advertising free premium streaming services.
subsource.de
Streaming German electronic 'net label'. Also features a constant streaming radio service.
kmfdmradio.net
Streaming the 'ultra heavy' beats. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
honkingduck.com
Over 700 recordings of 78 rpm records in Real Audio streaming format. Crackly, hissy but oh so magical.
artistlaunch.com
Nicely
styled 'artist showcase' and streaming mp3 radio service which offers
music from around 500 artists. No downloads but features a nice per
track rating system.
accuradio.com
Accu
Radio - Internet radio YOU control. Range of around 12 modern music
genres, nice selection of tracks, streamed at good quality.
kulakswoodshed.com
Kulak's
Woodshed is a 'Labor of Love'. It's also a "A Live Internet Webcast
Acoustic Music, Singer/Songwriter, Folk, Blues, Country, (anything
goes), seats 'bout 40, kinda . . . thang". Very worthy and very
Californian!
electricedge.com
Testing Testing is another webcast of music 'and stuff'. From Gordy
Coale's living room. This, I suspect, is what we mean when we talk
about the Internet democracy. Very offbeat, improvised and different.
Definitely different!
somafm.com
San
Francisco based alternative rock web radio station. Lots of cool music
in a variety of bandwidth friendly formats. Right on, dude!
xbmc-stream.gueux.net
A
french site that collects streams. Download one file, containing 3000
radio station adresses, and drag the ones you are interested in, to
your iTunes radio playlist to listen. ('Update': Avoid, only adverts
there for now! If you know where that file is currently hosted, make an
update here.)
hindisongs.net
Bhangra,
gazals, indi pop - all sorts of Hindi music tracks are here.
Unfortunately it's only Real media streaming, and pretty poor quality
at that. The servers need working on too. But it's a start.
Headtones Web Radio
Several
hours of archived programs streaming lofi and hifi .m3u - ready for
re-play, featuring promising and established artists, exploring
ambient, glitch, spoken word art, breakbeats, post rock,
electo-acoustic and other genres, descriptive links guide to other cool
webcasts and resource sites, tones for the head.
iSOUND
This
portal has thousands of free mp3s each ranked and sorted by genres.
It's a good way to find great new music without having to sort through
unwanted songs. But it uses a silly popup window which streams the same
track over and over again. There are also no direct links to the mp3
files, so downloading is made difficult and often not available.
DanceAge Crap name, ok site.
This site is ok. Contains quite a few artists to listen to, as well as videos etc.
Collaborative Systems Back to top
iRATE Radio
Collaborative
music filter software. Rate your favorite music and receive
recommendations based on your rankings. Uses an open source client
program written in Java, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, to
download new tracks while listening to tracks already received. The
development site is here.
gnomoradio.org
Gnomoradio is a free program which currently runs only on Linux/Unix systems.
It finds and plays mp3's and ogg's that are located on the user's hard drive.
It searches for, downloads and shares songs that are available under a Creative Commons license. And it recommends songs based on a user's listening preferences, almost like a totally personalized radio broadcast.
WebJay
Webjay is a tool that helps you listen to and publish playlists on the web. Mp3 players like WinAmp?, iTunes, RealOne?,
and Windows Media Player can be given a list of songs to play. Most of
the time the songs are on the web, but they can also be on your
computer. Webjay is all about playlists of songs on the web.
Goombah
Free
downloadable software program which looks at your iTunes library and
finds others who have similar tastes. Clever idea really, not sure how
well it works though. PC or Mac versions.
AudioScrobbler
Collaborative
system which builds your taste profile by using a plug-in for your
media player (e.g. Winamp). Plugins send the name of every song you
play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile
with the new song...The system automatically matches you to people with
a similar music taste, and generates personalised recommendations. Free
mp3's and ones for purchase also available at their Downloads Section.
LastFM
Sister vessel to AudioScrobbler
(uses same servers). A streaming radio service which offers music
referrals by checking out your listening habits before pointing you
towards folk with similar tastes.
Record (Net) Labels Back to top
Swedelife Collective
Swedelife
is an indie music collective based in the SF Bay Area. They are
releasing a song a day for free. It's an Mp3 blog with a Podcast as
well.
Access Tonal Communications
Access Tonal Communications is an Electronic music collective ranging in different styles from Experimental to Electro Funk.
TROORG
The netlabel for electro-organic dance music releases high quality mp3s under a creative commons
license. Purpose is to promote danceable electronic music, based on
organic or natural samples, sounds and structures, and to merge
experimental weirdness with complaisant audibility.
ROWOLO
Quirky
interface aside, this German netlabel portal offers a large and varied
selection of labels in various genres. If you can be bothered to
navigate the cryptic links you'll probably find something cool.
CD Baby
Fabulous online record store with 71,000 artists. Taste the 2 minute streams of their huge catalog.
MONSTAAR Records
Indie
label featuring noise, noisecore, darkwave, spoken word and other
"Cruel and Unusual Music". Plenty of free mp3 files plus all songs are
availble for download for 75 cents!
Netlabel Catalogue
The
Netlabel Catalogue is now a (Wiki) list, index, directory of music
labels which offer you free downloads from their pages. Those netlabels
are also often called mp3 label, online label, web label, internet
label or even netaudio label...
12rec.net
A
german CD-R and netlabel, bringing you a wide range of indie music from
postrock over electronica to abstract rap. All the music is free and creative commons licensed.
TMet Recordings
New Zealand's Digital Dance & Electronica Label.
LobeCandy Records
Their entire Indie Catalog Online.
Tune Resource
Nice
Canadian label selling lots of old blues, folk and other eclectic
material for reasonable prices (e.g. $4.99 for 118MB file download of
Blind Lemmon Jefferson tracks). Artists also include Elvis, Ray
Charles, Louis Armstrong and others, along with a fab streaming 40's
jukebox and a few free Mp3 downloads. But not enough folks!!! C'mon
don't be mean, upload some more!
One
One
is a netlabel of the highest regards even though they are still
relatively new. Strict quality control and a slow release schedule
continue to set them apart from the pack. Highest recommendation.
opsound.org
Opsound
is a record label and sound pool using an open source, copyleft model,
an experiment in practical gift economics, a laboratory for new ways of
releasing music.
noisemp3.com
Home
of the Harshnoise music label. Numerous free mp3 downloads of tracks by
some great harsh noise artists. Be aware that when they say 'harsh' and
'noise', they mean just that!
magnatune.com
Classy,
21st century record label/distribution site with an impressively
growing list of artists from many genres. No download links, but lots
of free streaming and radio stations, applying the shareware idea to
music, and if you fish the urls out of the playlists, (open them with a
text editor), and copy/paste them into your browser's location bar, you
can download the 128kbit mp3s directly, which are lisenced Creative
Commons. Listen before you pay, and pay as much as you want too. 50 %
goes to the artists ! Very cool ! ('Update' : And now they can send you
'real' CD's too.)
tokyodawnrecords.com
Beautifully designed site with a high quality output of Rap, Disco, Jazz, Funk, Soul and House. Tracks available under the Creative commons licence, and both Mp3 and Ogg Vorbis files mark out its 21st century cred.
fatwreck.com
The "original" SoCal? pop/punk label founded by Fat Mike from NOFX. Limited downloads.
matadorrecords.com
New
York Indie label. Small but interesting selection of mp3's available
for download from their roster. But wot, no Belle & Sebastian?
krecs.com
US indie label. Fair few artists on the roster, and a small collection of mp3's available for download.
Aloha Misc. Media House
Music and other media for free and for sale, from Victoria, BC, Canada.
corewatch.net
Small 'net' label, featuring downloadable electronic music from a roster of artists. Nicely presented.
mono211.com
Small electronic net label featuring mp3 downloads and stuff.
maetrixsolution.com
a
platform for electronix to create and inovate sounds and music. with
artists from sweetzerland, germany and england... providing
high-quality music and vision to your terminal. diffrent styles of
music flushing together for an excellent output. free media for free
people! the netaudio place for electronic-music lovers
widerstand.org
Small
'xperimental' indie and electronic label with a reasonable selection of
downloaded material available to all, as well as some politi-props to
flesh out the decor.
locarecords.com
Net label promoting a small stable of artists under a creative commons license. Cool, artistically done site. Small number of tracks.
Sounds That Soothe - music to calm & relax
Sounds
That Soothe are a record label producing music that is both relaxing
and inspiring. Listen to excerpts from their albums and download a free full mp3 of 'Highland Sunrise' from the album 'Silver Streams'
spawnerrecords.com
Small label by the looks of it. (Guys, why doncha use an About Us link and make my life easy eh?)
polyvinylrecords.com
Indie label with small selection of stuff for streaming and download.
anticon.com
Free mp3 downloads from the innovative underground rap collective Anticon.
Certified Sound Music
Small selection of free music downloads and streaming from albums in a few genres.
qed.acid42.bluechronicles.net
QED
records offers free singles, EP's, and full-length albums of electronic
and experimental music. These releases include studio-recorded material
as well as live recordings.
comatronic.net
Comatronic is a netlabel focused on distributing quality electronic music under a creative commons license.
subpop.com
Another
indie band site. Limited downloads from bands like the Fruit Bats.
(This makes me look like I know what I'm talking about, but really I
have NO idea who the Fruit Bats are/were/could be. Sorry!)
Neverwhere Records
Neverwhere
Records is an independent record label specializing in dark ambient,
experimental electronic and space music. Download Free mp3s of
Neverwhere Artists.
Steam Powered Studio
Steam
Powered offers mp3 and ogg files from a variety of performers from the
central PA region- blues, folk, jazz, and other. We are supported
entirely by your sponsorship!
Abdicate Cell
Experimental music netlabel.
sonicSQUIRREL.net
userfriendly netlabel portal.
Musical Family Tree
1000s of Free MP3s? by Midwest based Indie Rock bands.
Pathmusick
Netlabel
featuring wide ranges of electronics, deep ambientish to danceable.
Explore & enjoy. [Bare bones file structure site, so don't expect
anything flash in the way of user interface. Red]
Webbed Hand Records
Quote
from site: Webbed Hand Records is an independent netlabel with a focus
on strange works of audio art that defy tidy categories. With an
expanding catalog of unique recordings and a growing roster of
visionary sound artists, we're the label to visit for sound in the
service of enchantment .. includes beautiful artwork ..
Jahtari
This
is one of the most vibrant and unique netlabels there is. From the
site: We are a small record label based in Leipzig / Germany and we
produce a kind of
music here which we call - for the lack of a better term - DIGITAL
LAPTOP REGGAE
(DLR).This means nothing else but that we produce first and above all
REGGAE music
(or DUB) in it's classical sense, which in itself is nothing new, but
since we're
having a background of mostly electronic music we're doing this with
the only tool
that is obvious to use for that purpose - a COMPUTER, and a computer
only. [Update: Fabulous. Weird, but fabulous! Red]
post-digital
A netlabel for free electronic music. Limited number of streamed tracks only though.
AudioTong
Polish
net-label (in English) and concert agenda for experimental electronic
music. A place of meeting for all interested in such artistic
activities.
The Doubtful Palace
Five tons of fill dirt and a bucket of squid. [Should net-labels be quite this wacky? :) Red]
Non-English Sites Back to top
muzie.co.jp
Muzie
is a Japanese amateur and indie artists' web site, similar to mp3.com
of old. Has over 65,000 songs of every genre conceivable. The site is
in Japanese, but is easy to navigate for non-Japanese speakers. Music
is in mp3 with some in RealMedia.
Musicalibre
The
first Spanish "Copyleft" music site in "OGG" compression format. In
this site you find songs and one important strategy for music license -
cryptography and time stamp to warranty your songs. The proposal of
this site is to take the LINUX idea to the music.
Musique-libre.org
A
French libre music portal, a non-profit org. All-days-growing community
of over 40+ labels, 300+ artists, licenced under 16+ different copyleft
or CC licenses. Music archive (also in english) in ogg/mp3 format,
streaming, podcasts, comments...Rss feeds, news, forums, links base...
Latin American music in the Netherlands
A page about musique from South America in Holland
phlow.net
German
language weblog-magazine that specializes in interviews, portraits and
in finding quality free music downloads from around the world. Also you
find the weekly netaudio-charts, a place to get to know new artists by
giving them a listen. Last not least you find even mp3-mix-tapes...
tonspion.de
German
language portal that specializes in finding quality free music
downloads from around the world. Great site features are music
compilations for lazy people and the Top 100 download chart. (The link
opens the English welcome page.)
Starfrosch
Artists Community from Europe.
Also features an Open Netaudio Podcast Community.
mp3.de
A German site, easy to navigate with a big selection of genres, and a search engine.
djouls
The rough guide to music you don't hear on the radio, in French.
Also a record label and French collective T.I.M.E.C., with Electronic, Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz, Jam Bands, Pop, Rock, Reggae and World music.
LeWiki404 Mp3Legal
A
site similar to this one, but in French, with tons of links to legal
download sites. Easy to find artists offering a certain genre, even if
you do not understand French.
Trama Virtual
Brazilian site featuring about 10,000 tracks from local unsigned bands. Good stuff.
MusicExpress
Brazilian site featuring about 1,700 tracks from 274 artists, well organised in genres.
Manolo Almeida
Site
of the singer Manolo Almeida in which you will be able to download more
than 40 songs in mp3 corresponding to his two albums, home records and
preproductions. In addition, also his literary work is available for
downloading.
Durden Records
Band and website (in spanish/english)also from Spain offering free mp3s
by Street Spirit, El Sueño de Marla, Split the Brain and other bands,
all ready to download under cc copyleft license.
Eorann
Eorann, Basque country rock, full mp3 for download.
La Mundial
Band and website (in spanish) from Barcelona, Spain offering not only their music, but also many other copyleft musical works.
Eve Cournoyer
The official website of the popular french canadian singer
Ural Rock
At
the western edge of Siberia, thousands of miles east of Moscow, are the
Ural Mountains, the border between Asia and Europe. Truly the far side
of the world. But there is Rock and Roll there. The site is sort of
funky with the frames, but there is a goldmine of mp3 files. All in
Russian, but interesting to poke through. The menu button "3BYKN" (with
a backward N) will bring up the band listing, so you can sample the
sounds. Some truly amazing and fresh stuff.
Yoosic.de - Digitale Musique Boutique
In
German. You can download a lot of songs for free, like a EP from Queen
Of Japan or the complete Album from Sam $ Valley! Just search for
Price= 0 Euro and you get the whole free mp3 catalog.
Grinned
Swedish bizarre rock.
SYNTHESIA
Great synthesizermusic from germany. The most tracks are for free download!
Manuto
At
the crossroads between, blues, soul and Americana, there's us... With
some French and English lyrics, a French band that's really kicking...
Bands Offering Mp3s Back to top
GODON
Involved
since the early begining in the freedom of music, Godon delivers a
groovy, punchy and inspired energic french rock, with full of sens
lyrics. Listen to mp3's and buy the CD on cdbaby.com or underprod.com.
STYLL
Featuring
the awesome vocals of John Harvan. If you like acoustic rock that
touches your heart and soul? Styll has what you desire. Listen to mp3's
and buy the CD on our web site. Styll's - Still Standing, Still Strong
CD is loaded with great songs.
Digital Moodz
Ambient
electronic soundscapes blended with modern grooves, similar to Enigma
and Delerium. Free mp3 downloads on the music page.
Jennifer Avalon
The
website of a female singer that has some instrumentals too. Download
for free or donate via Paypal for the music you really like.
Recommended.
The Sheets web site
1980's, early 90's pop rock band site
Binärpilot
A norwegian kid who has a site full of crazy electronic music. It's worth a listen or two (hundred).
Bray
Bray, an R&B artist from California, offers his entire catalog for download/streaming here.
LP Project Argo
LP
has been pushing the envelope of forward-thinking electronic dance
music since rave culture was barely beyond its infancy. Since that
time, thousands of excited fans have born witness to the spectacle that
is their live performance. LP represents a unique and refreshing blend
of energetic progressive house, trance, and break beat.
Digitaria
Digitaria´s
first single, Anti, is available for download. Composed in January
2003, it features vocals by Cida Nogueira and was produced by John. The
single also contains a remix by the brazilian Dj Roger Moore and one by the french project U-point. The sleeve was designed by Misprinted Type.
Ear Reverends
The Ear Reverends, experimental rock and stuff, offer all of their releases as mp3 downloads under creative commons by-nc-sa license.
Eddiemuerte
Eddiemuerte makes music with his synthesizers, samplers and grooveboxes. Check back for new mp3 downloads.
Jeff Harrington
Bizarre
electronic and funky classical music by noted Brooklyn composer, Jeff
Harrington. Large scale piano pieces, chamber pieces, experimental
electronic, microtonal and ambient - all mp3's freely available most
also with accompanying PDF scores. "Harrington is the most intriguing
new figure I've discovered on the Web..." Kyle Gann, Village Voice,
July 7, 1999
Maharajah Commission
A Malaysian based indie band offers its songs for download.
Mechanical insects
A group of musicians from Brighton. There are currently three key contributors : Legs Mc, Mr Cooper and Scketch.
The Narcissists
Swedish hip hop group with songs for free download.
Non-Prophets
Please
keep in mind that these files are for PROMOTIONAL use only. Listen to
the songs, watch the videos, stare at Joe's nose, whatever...but
countless hours of work and loads of money have been put into making
the Non-Prophets a reality, so show some love and buy the single.
They Might Be Giants
Free mp3 with the newsletter or a streaming audio program - the clock-radio.
S24
For
your ears, a selection of mp3's to download at your leisure. They will
be updated, changed, turned inside out, and all sorts of things every
so often. Composed/Produced by s24, unless stated otherwise.
Salter Cane
Some dark and menacing alt.country songs to download for free.
Tom Fox
Free
music downloads from UK singer songwriter Tom Fox, an artist with
eclectic soul, pop, rnb, disco, smooth jazz and acid jazz influences.
u-point
Old 2004 Lp avalailable for free download.
Wckr Spgt
Ground-breaking
Indie Legends from Southern California. Entire catalog (1982 - now)
available for download. 1000s of original dada-like punk and rock songs.
The Woodsmen
Free internet music's best kept secret. All original music that defies
description. Download 5 full albums for free in mp3 format from this mighty band.
Oklahoma Dirt Band
Download 4 original Country Gospel songs written by the Oklahoma Dirt Band before they are released to radio.
Bell X-1
Download
Bell X-1's first album for free: instrumental music with atmospheric
atmosphere, hypnotic loops, samples, aerial arpeggios and noisy
guitars.
Explicit Language
A spanish Hardcore Punk band with free music for free people.
Pixul.net - Hip-Hop Drum Tutorial
Not
much, just a single article regarding hip-hop drums. Really simple
stuff, for people who don't know a thing about hip-hop track creating.
Thalia Zedek
The
Official Website of former Come-singer/songwriter Thalia Zedek. Will
feature free mp3's and extended discography (Live Skull, Uzi, Dangerous
Birds, Come)
3politan
Freely
download and distribute 4 indie-rock tunes from this unique band whose
members hail from Boston, Baltimore, and San Francisco.
Bootleggers and Motor Tater
Bootleggers and Motor Tater is the combined project from Kent Siebe and Keith Trimm. All mp3 downloads are free.
Dogmael DAMIEN
Free mp3 Music Albums of Dogmael Damien to download.
The Roscoe Experiment
Post Club Electro, or Dance Music For People Who Can't Dance. Check out 'Stereo-Prequel' release, "There I Am", and download it.
Lanark
Experimental musiko. Free CC licensed music by Lanark, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Skittish
Full
songs from their 2004 release! Rave reviews and licensing with MTV made
this CD a hit. Look for the follow-up in early 2006.
dean18
dean18
has an original sound that comes from many different musical influences
from Elvis Costello to Talking Heads to Moby to the Beatles. Each song
is unique but incorporates different musical textures that explore
different pop styles in new ways. Different without being weird (O.K.
sometimes a little weird).
Ritualistik
Ritualistik
is a unique experimental psy trance artist from Melbourne, Australia.
All songs are downloadable in high quality ogg vorbis format.
TheGame
Hip Hop from Slovenia. Needs more tracks for download.
Drew Blackard
Without A Knife offers up free acoustic downloads and streams of the music of Drew Blackard.
B.E.Mann 'the energy man' supersite
'Official' site of the international reggae entertainer.
Count Robocula
Good songs for good people from good people.
Remergence
The official site for the UK electronica duo.
Free Rock Music Videos
Looking for the "Fight for Freedom" Music Video? Here it is! Also other Free Rock Music Videos and Mp3's
All Traps Set
All Traps Set - Psych, Drums, Avant-Garde
biosphere
Norway's ambient pioneer presents a vast collection of his music comissioned for art-installations etc.
ADHD Sessions
Electronica DJ site, with some free mp3 downloads. Ambient meets minimal progressive house.