Digital Home Thoughts: Free, Legal Music Online

"Almost everyone has heard about the massive crack down on Internet music piracy that has been occurring over the past few years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a pay service), other file sharing programs now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other similar organizations are doing their best to hunt down copyright offenders and put an end to their crime sprees. The consumers on the other hand argue that their actions hurt nobody, that there is no damage done to anyone by their not buying an album. Furthermore, they claim, MP3s allow them to sample a CD before purchasing it, thus actually helping sales."



While there might be places to download your music legally, would you want to listen to it? Sure, you'll find smaller garage bands that will allow you to download music for free online, but at some point you're going to have to pay for the music you really want. This doesn't solve the issue of fair use, copy protection, or DRM. Let's not even get into the fact that "free music" isn't a valid business model. If you just want to fill your PC or DAP with music, check this article out. Just don't expect to find anything "popular".