Tips to Finding Your Own Free Music

I wanted to do this from the start to let you search reasonably for your favorite bands without cheating. I sort of have a list of what and where to check if I want music from a band and I thought you might appreciate the advise.

1st stop: Band's website

Always a great place to start. Find out more about them, check the media or songs or albums section for possible mp3s or other fun goodies, and check the news sections that will sometimes have links to other websites that might have music.

2nd stop: Band's Record Label Website

Not many people try this but either the band's website or a quick wiki search will pull up all record labels they have worked with. Lots of labels will offer free music from their bands as a promotional tool. One of the general rules usually is the bigger the label, the less likely to find free music. If they are owned by a company like Sony or Warner or something similar, move on.

3rd Stop: Purevolume.com

Probably my favorite site for music discoveries! Tons of bands have profiles through purevolume and a lot offer free music as incentives. The site even has a chart feature for bands offering downloads (signed and unsigned). Word of caution here though because sometimes fans make profiles and upload music for download that is completely illegal. Tips to find the real deal: if labeled "Pro" at the top (if they are professional), labeled "On Tour", has an actual band description or a decent picture, links to the real band site or itunes. These are definitely safer bets but it can still be hard to tell...

4th stop: Band's Myspace or Facebook

Myspace has closed its mp3s for download but that doesn't mean that some artists won't still find ways around that. A lot of bands will offer special promotions or pre-releases to fans through myspace or facebook and occasionally even twitter so consider adding them.

5th stop: Various other music hosting sites

There are tons of other sites out there like Shockhound, Jamendo, Stereogum, Amazon's free mp3 section, LastFM, Soundclick, and others. Some of these sites might require membership. I'll update as I find and remember more...

6th stop: Google search

The reason this is so far down the list is the temptations are too great and the searches usually too broad. Warning!!! Do not open any sites with mp3 in the name or anything involving torrents. These are mostly completely illegal!! Because google has modifiers be sure to put a - in front of any word that you don't want popping up. I would suggest adding it with the words lyrics and torrent.

Enjoy these tips to finding your own music. If you find anything good, tell me.

Josh Woodward

Normally anything I post here is something that I give full endorsement to, but sometimes I'll be linking to stuff that I might not fully appreciate. This artist unfortunately falls under that category...

Josh Woodward is a musician who has at least 9 albums of free music on his website released through the Creative Commons License meaning that it is free to use legally in any project as long as proper attribution is made. It's all very good but I run into problems suggesting it to everyone. He has a very needlessly dark feel for what is mostly acoustic music and a cynicism that permeates the lyrics. Instrumentally he is awesome and the melodies to many of the songs are so infectious that I can't forget them but his downtrodden look on the world leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Great example is a newer single he wrote after Haiti ("Motionless Land") as a tribute to those suffering depicting his feelings of how glad he is that he'll never be in that kind of danger and how he's struggling just as much so he can't support others. Crazy addicting but sickening for me to listen to. He tries to be generous at the end of the video but the song contradicts those sentiments completely.

Even the couple that have a much more light-hearted feel ("Snooter" is a great one) still have a depressing self-righteous view at parts that doesn't sit right with me. Definitely give him a listen as it is very good music but be forewarned that it may not be what you're looking for.

Flogging Molly

Yeah!! Flogging Molly sits comfortably in my top 5 list of all-time favorite bands. Think of them as a Celtic rock group similar in many ways to Dropkick Murphys (minus the heavy punk influence) but still very unique and worth your time. Meaningful and entertaining lyrical content, completely original music and rhythms, and did I mention the fact that it is heavily celtic-influenced (I LOVE CELTIC MUSIC!!) I could ramble on and on...

I am very pleased to offer 2 free songs from their newest live album. The first ("The Story So Far") is available off Amazon here. The second ("Requiem For A Dying Song") was located by a friend here. The site simply asks that you sit though a commercial (that I never had to watch) and it offers the link for your free track. Also really consider buying (yes, buying...) their past albums including "Drunken Lullabies", "Within a Mile of Home", "Swagger", and "Float." ENJOY!!!

UPDATE: Both songs have been removed by the corresponding hosts but I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for more opportunities to share music from this amazing band. Sorry...

Sister Hazel

Another set of tracks that may very well be a limited time offer. Amazon is currently offering 20 free songs from Sister Hazel! Best I can describe them is some kind of folk styled-alternative rock similar to bands like Blues Traveler and maybe even a little like Hootie and the Blowfish. If anything resembling country normally scares you (like it does for me), give them a try. You can find all the tracks in an album here or download them individually from their respective albums (Absolutely, Release, Bam! Volume 1, and Lift.) If you download it as an album, you will also need to install a small Amazon Downloader program that should work on any type of computer. Check out the song below to get some kind of idea what they're like, and enjoy!!

Songs To Wear Pants To

Normally I'd wait a week for another entry, but when a rare opportunity presents itself I'm not going to let it pass unheeded. Songs To Wear Pants To is actually one of my favorite sites to check on a regular basis and I had been planning to share it since I thought of this blog. The site owner Andrew started with a simple idea of writing and performing personalized songs for a small fee. It has quickly blossomed into a large and popular site offering hundreds of songs (most of which are short and free) and range the gambit of joking parodies of badly written ideas, heartfelt love songs, and whatever else is sent in to him. Great musician with a wide range of talents and genres. Dig through the site and enjoy whatever you find.

The reason for the urgency in posting this is that Andrew is holding a special fundraiser in order to raise money for a music video that his band is working on. The song in the video, "Never" is my personal favorite of his entire collection. Check the link above and you'll know why. He's looking for donations to help raise the money and is offering some crazy awesome deals to anyone willing to pledge. I'll let him explain the details...



I'm desperately wanting to pledge the $50 donation and receive 5 cds containing more than 250 songs and a smoothie recipe card. As of today, there are only 18 days left in the fundraiser so chop chop. Check out his stuff and really consider offering some money to help out an amazing musician while receiving some awesome swag on the side.

Coldplay

I thought I'd start out with a big band and Coldplay certainly has that appeal. I would explain what they sound like but I think just about everyone knows... The band is offering an entire free live 9-track album from their website at http://www.coldplay.com/lrlrl/lr.html. Normally I'd be skeptical about live tracks but this is easily one of my favorite live albums in my entire collection. It does a great job mixing newer tracks from "Viva La Vida" with older classics like "Clocks", "Fix You" and even goes into a never before released track from their early days. The recording is absolutely amazing with the audience being just as loud and as passionate as the band in most cases. I totally dare you to listen to "Viva La Vida" with headphones and not appreciate the amazing power of the song and the audience together.

Downloading is really easy. Just open the link above, enter your email and country, and choose whether or not you will allow them to mail you and it will open a separate page with the download link. No verification needed! And as a preview, check out the youtube vid at the bottom. ENJOY!!!

Welcome!

There's a lot of good music out there. A LOT. For some reason a lot of people seem to think that if you want good music, you either have to pay (and keep paying) or break the laws and get it for free illegally. But there is another way! My mission here is to help share some of the better stuff I find and offer as much of it as I can for free. And keep it all completely legal. No limewire or file sharing sites involved. Please note that I firmly believe that all artists should get paid for what they do but if they offer free music, I'm going to share it. I'm also completely open to suggestions to bands or songs that you want plugged with links to free music or videos that others can appreciate. Enjoy!!