YouTune
YouTune
February 14th, 2008Listen up! Free music without breaking the law.
We all know about iTunes and Amazon. You know those places that make you buy music? And then there’s the much (much) cheaper alternatives disguised under the label “peer-to-peer” such as LimeWire and BitTorrent. But we’re law-abiding types here at BK, so this week we’re recommending these free and totally legal music-related hubs. You can still remain a cheapo, but at least you won’t be causing a writers’ strike.
Social FM
Stream your music collection directly from your computer. It’s not an online service per se as you need to install their free program on your computer to be able to broadcast or listen to other members’ music over the internet. There are other fun gadgets you can do with Social FM though, like putting a player of your music collection on your MySpace profile.
Pros: The ability to listen to your music collection from anywhere so you don’t have to move MP3 files around when you change computers.
Cons: You will have to keep your computer connected to the internet. And with the kind of pathetic connections we enjoy here, this is obviously not very reliable.
Musicovery
Can you feel the music? Maybe the music can feel you. Whether you’re gloomy or happy, upbeat or depressed, just tell this online music player and it will select music to suit your emotions. If you’re a Nokia user, you can get Musicovery on your phone too—and it’s free.
Pros: It gives you a set of recommended tracks so you can choose which one you want (or don’t want) to listen to.
Cons: You can’t specify artists or albums, just your mood. Also you will need a high-speed connection if you don’t want your music to stop half way through a track.
Sonific
If you are a label or an artist who wants to share your art with the world, sign up for a free profile and upload your tunes. For listeners or promoters, you can log on to sonific.com and grab the artists’ playlists and promote them on your website or a blog. They get publicity, you get free music.
Pros: Since it’s partly a networking site, struggling artists can get exposure and make connections at the same time. And you get to hear the sounds of tomorrow before the major labels do.
Cons: The service is available only for labels and artists who own the rights to distribute their own music so you won’t find a Rihanna track unless Def Jam puts it up—unlikely.
Last.FM
An online social networking site (like MySpace or Facebook) that connects people according to their tastes in music. When you listen to a song on your computer, the website will take note of (or “scrobble”) the track name and artist and you can then listen to their online radio based on your scrobbled music collection and find online friends with similar tastes.
Pros: The website has a vast music collection making its recommendations quite accurate.
Cons: Even though you can search for music by artist name, what will be playing will be a compilation of similar bands.
Midomi
“Damn, what’s the name of that song that goes, doo di doo di da?” If this constantly happens to you, sing or hum your tune to Midomi and, oh miracle, watch your song come up. This search engine doesn’t work with keywords but with your voice. The service is free but you need a microphone to upload your voice.
Pros: Just looking for songs is hilarious. Think of it as karaoke with an exam at the end. The results are very complete—track name, artist and which album it is from.
Cons: There aren’t real music tracks here, just a bunch of “fan recordings” (other singing lunatics like you). Only any good if you have a tune stuck in your head.
SellaBand
SellaBand is a service for indie artists in search of fame and fortune. Artists can sign up for an account and upload their music to their website. The fun part lies in the promotion. If you can get members (called “Believers”) to invest in your music by purchasing a “part” (US$10 each) and raise more than US$50,000 (5,000 Parts sold), SellaBand will get you a producer (real ones who worked with big names like Nelly, Tori Amos, Manic Street Preachers and more), an agent and a recording session in a real studio.
Pros: For artists, it’s a chance to create a fan base before you even sell your first CD. For music lovers, it’s a chance to support your favorite band and push them to the top.
Cons: You can get free music, but only the ones no one else has heard of before.
Blog DJs
For straight-to-the-point music reviews and fresh-off-the-mixing-table downloads, no one does it better than bloggers.
Unlike whores, sluts do it for free! Music Slut gives you free music in every blog post, with a little background and a write up on the artist.
www.rcrdlbl.com
Legitimate record labels team up to give fans free MP3s, thus the name RCRDLBL. A great place to dig up unreleased tracks and minute-by-minute music news.
With its fat selection of music from around the world, Fat Planet takes you to unusual destinations, from the Caribbean to Iceland. Yes, free MP3s are provided.
Free music is only just one of PitchFork’s fortes. Their extensive list of reviews and features can educate you on what’s hot and what’s not in the music world.
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