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It's all over the news these days. Download music from the Internet and you could be sued, fined, and/or go to jail. The truth is free music downloads, done correctly, are completely legal. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) aggressively prosecutes copyright violators. And well they should - it's piracy plain and simple. But there are millions of free mp3 downloads legally available. RIAA doesn't want you to know this and wants you to believe any music downloads you don't pay for are illegal. You'll quickly attract RIAA's attention by using file-sharing services like Kazaa and Grokster. The technology is not illegal (yet), but using it to share downloadable music is at best a grey area. And make no mistake, RIAA can and will find you! How do I get Free Downloadable Music without breaking the law? First understand the difference between restricted and unrestricted copyrights. Nearly all songs have an artist or record label copyright. Many copyrights restrict gratis downloads. But many musicians want to share their music at no charge through free downloads. Why, you might ask? Some are unknowns looking for exposure, but many famous musicians know it's in their interest to offer free downloads. It inevitably leads to more CD, concert and merchandise sales. Plus it boosts their image and popularity. Most music download services offer a free trial period when you can download songs at no cost. Cancel before the trial ends and the songs cost nothing. Of course they hope you'll stay and pay the monthly membership fee, which in reality is a cheap way to expand your music collection. Study the membership terms as some sites only allow use of the downloads while you are a member. In addition, a "free music" search will lead to sites - by or for musicians - that offer mp3 downloads for free.
Free Music Monday: 10 Free Tracks (Mashable)
Hey there, music fans! Thanks for joining us for Free Music Monday this week, where we offer you 10 free downloads for your eclectic listening pleasure. If you haven?t been with us before, we?re collating free and legal tracks in honor of the #musicmonday tradition on Twitter. We happily accept your submissions for Free Music Monday as well, and if you?re interested you can find information ...
New Free Music Sites Learn From Others? Mistakes (The Nashua Telegraph)
LOS ANGELES ? Two new companies are giving consumers a way to download songs for free by watching a few ads. The idea has been tried before but this time it appears it might work, because the startups have found advertisers that are willing to pay around $2 to have a moment of your time. That means recording companies can get about as much compensation from the free services as they receive from ...
Greece: 6 Arrested In File-sharing Crackdown (AP Via Yahoo! Finance)
Police say six people have been arrested in a crackdown on a popular Greek Web site that aided free Internet downloads of copyrighted music, movies and video games.
Pandora: In The Middle Of The Music (New York Times)
How will we listen to music on the Internet in the future? Record labels have resisted licensing their full music catalogs to free, ad-supported Web sites that play specific songs on demand.
Daytrotter Launches New Paid Downloads Option For Bands [EXCLUSIVE] (Mashable)
Daytrotter is celebrating its fourth anniversary promoting music discovery of emerging bands with a new business model. Now bands who sign on for one of Daytrotter?s unique daily live sessions have an opportunity to sell high-quality digital recordings for a revenue split using a new in-house payment system that additionally gives artists real-time access to sales figures and statistics. ?We ...
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