Download Free Songs - Lots Of Them!
I don't know if we got through this discussion here already but since it's something I always use to say that doesn't really matter - for me MP3 and other formats of digital music distribution won't ever manage to kill the audio CD! Why? If you're asking why then there's no point in explaining it to you! Anyway no matter what you may think about digital music I am sure that you tried at least once to download free songs or at least heard of someone doing it.
So far so good but there's only one little problem - until recently when you downloaded free songs you had some serious chances to end up with illegal copies. The best part of it all is that in the last years more and more digital music distribution sites started to offer free downloads to their new users and today I just found out about something I felt compelled to share: the Reverbnation Free Music Giveaway!
With a very suggestive headline ("1000 Songs. New artists. New music. Free to download.") Reverbnation's free music giveaway is a effort in which they are helped by Microsoft so the songs can be downloaded from the Windows Myspace page as well as the special Windows directory at Reverbnation I linked to at the end of the previous paragraph.
Speaking about the music I can only say that I chose "Rock" and moved through all those 17 pages available. The result? I got completely pissed off and played once again a few serious songs from my personal collection. Most tracks available are belonging to the Alternative/Indie sub-genres and seeing that bands like Iced Earth Iron Maiden Metallica or Black Sabbath are not featured is a big no-go for me. Anyway I got the original CDs of all the bands I really like but that doesn't mean a free songs giveaway should only include obscure bands...
... but that's just me so if you can find any of your favorite bands listed on Reverbnation's site or simply need to check some new interesting stuff (please note that I didn't say "obscure" with an evil grin on my face) you should definitely give it a try.
Tracks are available in MP3 and M4A formats most of them at 192 Kbit and since there's nothing mentioned about the period of this promotion I think you should go ahead and download you free songs as soon as possible.
Final warning: the Windows directory page at Reverbnation says "You'll see (but not hear) some ads on your screen in addition to the album's cover art which is how we keep your new tunes from costing you a cent." just as one would expect but I don't think they'll be able to get some ads into my foobar2000 window especially since I don't display album art... ;)