Links to Online Music Sources

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list but a "best of" based solely on my own subjective taste.

Web Sites

  • The Internet Archive - The ultimate source for open source audio, long out-of-print 78s, netlabels, and live music.
  • Oddio Overplay - The granddaddy of all free and legal music link sites. Huge and unbeatable.
  • Weirdomusic - Its Downloads of the Moment has an ever changing array of links to sites with both free and legal music plus long out-of-print albums.
  • Ubuweb - An excellent archive for the musical and literary avant-garde.
  • All About Jazz - The best jazz site on the internet has a daily download and an archive of past downloads.
  • Classic Cat - Want classical music downloads.? This is the place to go.
  • The Piano Society - Another good classical music source that offers only piano works.
  • Fingertips - Somewhat hard to navigate but an informative guide to finding music downloads. It can be very helpful in leading you to downloadable music on sites like Insound and Amazon that seem to enjoy hiding them.
  • Download.Com - Laugh if you must. But Cnet's music site is a download haven for the famous and the obscure alike.
  • Public Domain 4U - A nice collection of blues, jazz, and early pop from old 78s and all in the public domain.
  • The Avant Garde Project - An outstanding archive of out-of-print avant-garde recordings, all in WAV format. Includes compositions by Luciano Berio, John Cage, Morton Subotnick and many others.
  • Digital Archive Streamer - Searches and then streams the results which are taken from several academic archives. The music is mostly traditional and folk oriented.
  • NetNew Music - A site for contemporary, avant garde, and post-classical music and news
  • The Silent Ballet - an excellent webzine of indie rock and post-rock. There's a quarterly online compilation by the same name that is always worth a download.
  • Net Label Review - Exactly what it says it is. You'll find some good net releases that you probably wouldn't discover on your own.
  • GratisVibes - "The way music should be". Sort of a webzine of Creative Common licensed music and artists.
  • Red Ferret - Its Wiki "1 Million Free and Legal Music Tracks" should keep you busy until the next millenium.
  • Phlow - The "Free MP3 Culture Magazine". Good choices and good writing.

Blogs

  • WFMU's Beware of the Blog - The music blog that beats all other music blogs. An endless array of music news, mixes, mp3, and videos.
  • Largehearted Boy - A daily dose of music news and downloads. Where does this guy find the time to do this?
  • Bagheera's Orbit - Bagheera focuses mainly on electronic dance and IDM but occasionally finds some fine pop offerings.
  • 3hive - A well written blog with a real talent in finding gifted musicians and great downloads.
  • Indieish - Their CC:365 project combs the internet and comes up with a Creative Common music track daily.
  • FreeIndie.com - A web album featuring a different group or artist is placed on this blog almost daily. The artists have consented to their music being available. Lots of worthwhile rock and hip-hop.
  • ANABlog - The unofficial blog of the Analog Arts Ensemble regularly posts an odd and ecletic range of musical tracks.
  • New Music Reblog - Jeff Harrington reblogs a variety of posts covering all areas of avant-garde and modern music.
  • Netlabel's Noises - Album picks from many netlabels. Good quality choices.
  • Ektoplasm - Free and legal music, primarily Psytrance.
  • BlocSonic - Home of the excellent monthly audio compilation, NetBloc, featuring the best of internet music.
  • TGR's Free Metal Albums - Just what it says. Metal, metal, and more metal. All free and legal.
  • Catching The Waves - A very well written blog full of MP3 albums links you won't find elsewhere. Definitely some unusual choices here.
  • Musikrebell - The rebel doesn't say much but he knows his music. The tag index on the right makes it easy to find the style of music you are looking for.
  • FrostClick - This site has loads of good albums but also picks out interesting and worthwhile software, graphic and even books. All free and legal.
  • Backpackers Anonymous - "A hip-hop collective aimed at returning Hip-hop to its golden era". Chillin' sounds.

Netlabels

All offering free album downloads.
  • Magnatune - Exceptional netlabel with high quality music ranging from classical to jazz to rock. Download the album for free in 128kbps. You can buy downloads or CDs in higher quality sound. As they are proud to point out, "We are not evil"!
  • WM Recordings - Ecletic netlabel offering electronica, folk pop. and other things.
  • Comfort Stand - Also very ecletic. Electronic, Lounge, and oddball stuff. Although the netlabel closed in early 2006, their albums are still available.
  • Hazard Records - Experimental sounds and avant-garde.
  • Zymogen - Abstract electronic music and IDM.
  • Quiet Lounge - Asian Breakcore.
  • Thinner / Autoplate - Ambient, IDM, and experimental. I Love the animated albums covers!
  • Camomille - Ambient and IDM of a laid-back mellow kind
  • Webbed Hand - Ambient sound sculptures, most in a meditative style.
  • Nishi - Lots of albums! Electronica, mainly ambient, minimalist, and down-tempo.
  • Sutemos - Lithuanian netlabel specializing in ambient / minimalist electronica.
  • Alpinechic - Euro-pop electronica.
  • Ekleipsi - A netlabel specializing in "Dark music".
  • eDogm - free jazz, noise and experimental electronics.
  • Insubordinations - Contemporary free jazz and improvised music.
  • Lost Children - Post-rock, progressive rock. shoe-gaze, experimental.
  • Ouim - A netlable with all kinds of electronic music from experimental to dance.
  • You Are Not Stealing Records - An eclectic mix of rock and electronic. Most of it appears to be from Portugal.
  • Clinical Archives - This insanely prolific net label specializes in experimental music. Quickly becoming the premier place for new sounds.

Music Distributors (Creative Commons Artists)

Web sites assisting independent artists in the promotion and sale of their albums through a Creative Commons license. All albums on these site are freely downloadable and distributable plus the sites allow for the purchase of the better quality downloads or CDs.
  • Jamendo - Lots of albums downloadable from either 2P2 or Bittorrent.

Records Labels offering Free Downloads

Major and independent record companies that are generous with free downloads.
  • Kill Rock Stars - Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative. Artists include Bikini Kill, The Decemberists, and Xui Xui.
  • Artemis Records - Ecletic label with a slant toward classic rock and alt.country. Warren Zevon, Jimmie Vaughn, and Reverend Horton Heat among others.
  • Fat Possum - Blues, Blues Rock, and Garage Rock. R. L. Burnside, Fiery Furnaces, Black Keys, and others.
  • Matador - A who's who of Indie Rock. Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers, Mowgai. and lots more.
  • Alternative Tentacles - Politically minded punk rock and spoken word. Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, Choam Chomsky, Wesley Willis, and others.
  • Go-Kart Records - Punk and garage rock. Lots of MP3s to download but the only band I recognized was The Buzzcocks.
  • Saddle Creek Records - 13 Bright Eyes MP3s. Need I say more?
  • Jade Tree - Small punk/hardcore label that includes Pedro The Lion, My Morning Jacket, and The Promise Ring.
  • Labrador - A high quality label of Swedish pop and rock. A page of downloads, both MP3 and WMA, can be found here.
  • Barsuk Records - Great indie rock. Death Cab For Cutie, They Might Be Giants, John Vanderslice, and more.
  • Elephant 6 - A legendary label of lo-fi indie rock, much of it with a retro-sixties sound. Artists include Apples in Stereo, Elf Power, and Beulah.
  • Epitaph Records - A seminal independent label of punk and alt rock. It's difficult to find the MP3s. They're spread out on the album pages. But once you search, you'll find Nick Cave, Bad Religion, Blackilicious, and DangerDoom. There's just too many to list!
  • Kufala - An ecletic label specializing in live performances. Artists include Soul Coughing, Fred Jacobs Jazz Odyssey, and Soul Collective.
  • Sphere of Hip Hop - many MP3s covering hip hop.
  • Moon Ska - A European label with tons of great ska tracks.
  • Green Linnet - A record company specializing in Celtic music. Offers one free MP3 a week.
  • Blue Note - No downloadable music but the streaming jukebox is too good to pass up. Cassandra Wilson, Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner, and tons more. Jazz heaven!

Artist Pages

Established artists who offer a large amount of non-drm downloads on their site.