Free and Legal Music Download Sites - Resources for Legal Music Downloads:
Legal music downloads means transferring of music files from legal music download sites or online music stores to a user's computer. It is often hard to find a legitimate place for legal music downloads as there are many illegal websites in the name of free music downloads. Many of these illegal websites are often peer to peer or file sharing programs. Be very careful when you are selecting your online music program, otherwise you can be in serious trouble from possible RIAA lawsuits for copyright infringements.
If you're wondering how and where to find legal music downloads without violating the copyrights, then you've come to the right place.
Here, we'll check how and where to get the best legal music downloads available online. All these resources are legal to use and you can download your favorite music without breaking any copyright law. Whether you're a college student, work at home mom or a retired person, you will find this website extremely useful. You can use this website as a single place of search for all your online music needs.
RIAA Recommended Legal Music Downloads:
These are the most popular legal music download sites which RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) recommends. These sites are legitimate online music stores and are legal, and so, free from copyright issues. These sites usally sell their music tracks on a per-song basis. iTunes, 7 Digital and Amazone are in this category. Then there are Napster and Rhapsody, but they cost about a dollar per song.
Are you tired of paying too much for music downloads from the popular mainstream online music stores? MOG and Rdio programs offer free legal music downloads.
More Details on RIAA Recommended Legal Music Download Sites
If you are looking for completely free legal music download sites, then you're at the right place! Believe me, here we've the most trusted free legal music download sites which can surely full fill all your music needs. These are the most popular and trusted free legal music download sites available online:
1. Public Domain free legal music downloads
2. Creative Commons and Copyleft free legal music downloads
3. Royalty Free Music - One time fee for commercial use
4. Unsigned Music Bands - Giving away music for promoting themselves
5. P2P File Sharing Programs - Sites run inline with copyright laws
6. Cheap legal music download sites - Small fee
7. Free streaming music sites - Free online music, not downloads
8. Free Internet music radio stations
9. Miscellanious free legal music download sites
Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory right to control accessing, copying and distributing of their works for a specific period of time. In the meantime, there are some exceptions for home users, such as fair use, which allow copyrighted works to be used for noncommercial works.
Here, we'll check how to get free legal music downloads within the limits of copyright licenses.
1. Public Domain Free Legal Music Downloads:
A music file is in public domain if there is no copyright reserved or the copyright is already expired for that particular file. That means, public domain music files are not covered by copyrights and so you can use it free for any purpose, personal or commercial. Below are some free legal music download sites in public domain:
Archive.org
Musopen.org
Gutenberg.org
PublicDomain4u
Classical Archives
Click Here to Know More About Free Public Domain Music
2. Creative Commons and Copyleft Music:
All Public Domain music files are free and legal.
Other than public domain music files, there are music services which use "creative commons" license. Creative Commons license allows you to copy and download copyrighted music files for non commercial use. If you want to distribute these files, you just need to mention the author's name and website address while publishing.
Jamendo and ccmixter come under "creative commons" license.
All music files on Jamendo are free to download and licensed through creative commons license, making it legal to copy and distribute. Also, some of these files allow you to edit them and use commercially depending on the specific right mentioned in the creative commons license. Also, Jamendo allows streaming of all of its music files and albums in full.
Then, we have "Copyleft" legal music downloads. Copyleft type license ensures a music file remains available for free download.
Opsound.org comes under this category.
Creative Commons and Copyleft Free Legal Music Downloads
3. Royalty Free Music:
Royalty free music refers to files licensed for a one time fee, without the need to pay any recurring royalty fees. These files can be used for business promotions, websites and video advertisements.
Below are the popular royalty free music websites:
Ccmixter
Royaltyfreemusic
Neosounds
Sfxsource
Jewelbeat
Click Here to Know More About Royalty Free Music Downloads
4. Unsigned Music Bands:
There are some music bands distributing their woks under free conditions. Usually these are startup bands who need some exposure for their works. You can get free legal music downloads from them, but the downside is that you need to search a lot to get good quality recordings. Below are some bands from which you'll get free legal music downloads:
Nin.com is an American industrial rock band, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio.
Severedfifth.com is a San Francisco Bay Area band featuring metal music. This band is allowing the public to legally download and share music for free.
Myspace
Purevolume
Acidplanet
Soundclick
3hive
Click Here to Know More About Unsigned Music Bands
5. P2P File Sharing Programs:
File sharing is used to access and share digitally stored information such as audio, images, and video files. Peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) is a form of file sharing which allows users to download almost all types of files such as music, movies, TV channels, radio stations, and games using a file sharing software. Normally, P2P file sharing sites are known to be copyright infringers as users can access and share even copyrighted materials. But, there are some genuine P2P legal music download sites also which do not break any copy right law.
I've found 2 genuine P2P programs which are RIAA's recommended sites for legal music downloads. One is Bearshare and the second is iMesh.
These two sites are operating based on the "fair use" provisions under the copyright law. Unlike other P2P sites, these 2 websites will not allow copyrighted files to download to the user PC and so you can use them without fear of any RIAA lawsuit.
Click Here to Know More About Free P2P Music Downloads
6. Cheap Legal Music Downloads:
I've found four legal music download sites which can search all online legal music stores to compare the price and show you the cheapest price. Below are these sites:
Tunechecker
MP3caprice
MP3va
Legalsounds
Click Here to Know More About Cheap Legal Music Downloads
7. Free Streaming Music Sites:
We have many options if you want to listen to online music without downloading the music files. They are called streaming music services. Streaming music sites usually come with their own search engine built in, so you can find whatever music files you want quickly without downloading them.
These are the most popular free streaming music sites:
MOG
Rdio
Grooveshark
Spotify
Myspace
Click Here to Know More About Free Streaming Music
8. Free Internet Radio Sites:
There are some Internet radio music servises which also offer free streaming music. You can listen to online radio music without downloading the music files.
WFMU is a listener supported, independent community radio station headquartered in New Jersey presenting a free radio format. It is the longest running free radio station in the United States.
These are the most popular online radio stations:
Live365
Shoutcast
Last.fm
Pandora
Accuradio
Click Here to Know More About Free Internet Radio Music
9. Miscellanious Legal Music Download Sites:
I've found two more legitimate websites for free legal music downloads. One is MP3 Rocket and the second is Replay Music. Both are using different technologies to be inline with the "fair use" provisions under the copyright law. These two software are already being tested by many music listeners worldwide, and you too can use them for your online music listening.
* MP3 Rocket: Utilizing the practice of "Time Shifting" technology, MP3 Rocket makes media files available to download and view immediately, or at a later time convenient to the user. It does not constitute any copyright infringement when you are downloading music for "time shifting" purpose.
* Replay Music: Replay Music MP3 recorder is an application for recording streaming music from the Internet. Unlike P2P file sharing networks, Replay Music doesn't copy any copyrighted file and so it does not break any copyright law.
More Details on MP3 Rocket and Replay Music
I'll update here more if I come across with any other free legal music downloads from major music companies. You can continue use this website as your single place of search for all your music needs.
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