Almost everyone has heard of the massive repression against Internet music piracy that has occurred in recent years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a paid service), other programs sharing files now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other organizations are doing their best to track offenders of copyright and put an end to their crime sprees. Consumers on the other hand, argue that their actions hurt anyone, there is no damage to anyone by their not buy an album. In addition, they say, MP3 enable them to enjoy a CD before you buy, which actually help sales.
I am not here to discuss the advantages and disadvantages. Basically it is not worth it, given that neither side of the argument will ever see the opposition’s point of view. What I want to do is take a look at completely free and legal alternative to “steal” music. These talented musicians who are willing to put their creations online to download for free, only for the sake of spreading their creations to the masses.
Free music is surprisingly easy to find, even music by famous bands. Sometimes it must be “streamed” of the Internet, which means that you can not listen to a song while you are online, but with the growing popularity of broadband Internet is not really a issue. Sites such as MP3.com and purevolume.com provide free music from almost any band you can think of, although there are a lot of what must be streamed, not downloaded. A search for “free legal MP3 downloads be a very large number of pages to visit.
For something specific, try visiting the website of the artist or the site of their label. They often provide a sample of a few songs to download for free. This is not quite as simple as access to every song you want, but this is not a bad solution.
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