It's the age of freebies. These days, we can download e-books, stream movies, and listen to music, all for free - and legally! It's just a question of where to find these goodies.
So as far as music is concerned, where can we get them for free? Here are some sites you would want to check out:
1. Grooveshark (grooveshark.com).Grooveshark is one of the largest music streaming services in the world. This site allows you to find and listen to your favourite music, make your own personalized playlist, browse for new songs, and share them on social networking and bookmarking sites with just one click.
You can listen to free unlimited radio on your Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Jailbroken iPhone, or HP Web OS smartphone by simply downloading the Grooveshark app.
It also has features such as the video mode, which lets you watch YouTube videos of your favourite songs; the Power Hour mode, which automatically moves you to a new song every 60 seconds; and the visualizer, which adds a visual element to accompany your music.
2. Spotify (spotify.com). The Spotify free account gives you instant access to millions of tracks for your streaming pleasure. You can play and organize your own MP3s, and you can share them with your friends, as well as get your friends' recommendations, and listen to them instantly with just a click of a Facebook button.
If you want to listen to music offline on your desktop or mobile, though, you'll need to get the paid Premium account.
3. We7 (we7.com).We7 is a free music-streaming service available to users from Ireland and the UK. It has more than 6.8 million tracks from four major record labels and a huge number of independent labels. If you wish to purchase the tracks, you can do so from the in-site store.
4. Last.fm (last.fm).If you like listening to music but are too lazy to search for the music you like, try Last.fm, a music recommendation service. Just sign up, download the Scrobbler software, and let that little tool deliver personalised recommendations based on what songs or artists you listen to most often.
5. Soundclick (soundclick.com).This site has been around since 1997, so it must be good, right? To date, its catalogue holds over 2.5 million tracks that you can listen to through live streaming. Some of the music is available for free and legal download.
6. Audio Archive (archive.org/details/audio).If you're looking for free songs, poetry readings, audio books, old-time radio shows, and even alternative news programs, you can find over 200,000 of those from Audio Archives' MP3 and audio library.
7. ArtistServer (artistserver.com).People looking for non-mainstream artists and their music can find them at ArtistServer. Choose from over 8,000 free and legally downloadable songs from this website. There is a full range of genres to choose from - country, rock, jazz, metal, blues, classical, hip-hop, folk, and many others - all recorded by unsigned artists, who use the site to promote their work.
With many digital music services available the CD duplication industry is reducing and digital music sales now eclipse that of CDs.
