Free Music Download Sites

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron

Music is a way to express, to unwind but most of all it is a way to connect with your inner self and enjoy as you lose yourself to the rhythm divine! Music lovers will agree that music is not just a way to pass time or a means of recreation; music can become a daily necessity. Hip-hop, country, rap, jazz, ballads, classical, no matter what your style is, the Internet has the works to offer you, and that too without shelling out big bucks for your daily music dose!

Free Music Downloads

The whole concept of downloading free music or sharing it over the Internet became popular with music sharing over peer-to-peer networks. Napster was the first popular music file sharing service that made way for other decentralized P2P file sharing programs such as Limewire, Kazaa, Morpheus, iMesh and Bearshare.

Copyright Issues

Although most of the music file sharing networks became a rage with the online music lovers who could download their favorite music for free, all the owners of these networks soon faced a lot of copyright infringement problems. The Recording Industry Association of America admonished that this practice was detrimental to the music industry. While a series of lawsuits led to closing down of many of the online music sharing networks, on the other hand, supporters of technology advocated that the new age of downloading and sharing should be accepted as a part of the new communication media that facilitate easy and free transfer of music files over the internet. People who fathomed the extensive reach of the dotcom world realized that it was a great way to reach millions of music lovers and hence embraced it. However many conformist music aficionados detest the idea of sharing music over the Internet till date.

Free Music Download Websites by Artists

While most of the members of the music fraternity are opposed to the online music downloads, there are some like the famous rocker Bryan Adams, who has adopted this development and also has links to free downloads on his official website. Online free music download is a very popular trend and still continues to provide millions of users with free music files that can be easily downloaded. Others in line include Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor who has put up his music for free. In 2005, they also released their full-length album, With Teeth on their MySpace page, even before its official in store release date.

Many other artists allow music downloads on their websites. However, most of the time, it is a short preview of their song or at times the quality of the music sample offered is not very good. Some artists, for example Metallica, play safe and have incorporated services on their official website that allow legal purchase of their music. Often free downloads are offered by the artists as promotional tools to endorse their music over the Internet which easily reaches a large number of audience across the world.

The Downside of Free Music Downloads

One of the most hazardous implications of downloading free music is the spreading of bootleg recordings. A bootleg recording is a musical recording that has not been officially released by an artist or their production companies but is out on the Internet. It can be a demo, or some studio bytes or even recordings of a live performance. Music enthusiasts have coined the term bootleg to differentiate these files from the pirated copies of commercially released material. However these so-called bootleg recordings are still protected by copyright and their distribution is against the law. Many people are also known to sell copyrighted material and peddle illegal prints in the market.

Legal Music Downloads

Legal music downloading has been catching up and striving to sustain itself in the age of free music downloading. The legal music download allows users to download music after they have paid a certain minimum amount of membership charges. Some sites also function on cost per download basis where every download comes at a fixed rate, which can be as less as 99 cents. Legal music downloading is a way to strike a balance between the copyright issues and providing easy and cheap download service for music lovers. Due to minimalist costs and the legal pressures many users find it convenient to use legal downloading sites.

The Final Verdict

Well, as for the staunch believers of copyright laws, take note that sharing of music files or media files for that matter cannot be completely monitored or controlled by anyone. Even if you stop offering downloads, this is the age of social networking and Internet citizens go out of their way to share their copyrighted original versions with their fellow netizens. You can hate it or like it but you have to accept it! Online music downloading and music sharing is inevitable! Well let us just end this argument with a quote from Bryan Adams, the man himself, Kids think it's free and as long as people are getting to hear it and are enjoying it, why try and fight it?