Any more free music and I'll have to grow more ears.

April 8, 2008 9:35 AM

Music is good. Free is good. So free music must be double good. With over 1000 albums listed from netlabels and other sources, Free Albums Galore (mentioned a while ago) is a well-curated collection of links to some of the best free full-length releases on the 'net. Of course, there are a lot more netlabel resources out there.

Phlow, for instance, does both a regular podcast and "compilation albums") that cover recent releases across a variety of genres. The Dutch podcast Netwaves provides handy links to featured songs and a track list for non-Dutch listeners. Net-Label Review is another rundown site of good netlabel releases, and you can always just check out the netlabels category at archive.org and do some exploring on your own. If you'd like more of a guided tour, SonicSquirrel has moderated playlists and recommends netlabels by marking them with an acorn.

posted by Shepherd (9 comments total)

This site also seems to be unfazed by the RIAA.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:44 AM on April 8 [1 favorite]

The Charlatans? Really? Oh my. Thanks for the hookup.
posted by ardgedee at 9:52 AM on April 8

The thing about netlabels, though, is that they're usually Creative Commons or similar releases, "free" in the broader sense of being (partially) copyright-free.

Seeqpod seems to be a way of getting around the RIAA in a post-Napster copyvio sense, whereas the netlabel scene is all about artists self-releasing music under "labels" for ease of attracting listeners and associating themselves with similar musicians.

Free Albums Galore does dabble a bit in public-domain and deliberately-released-for-free (such as that Charlatans album) sounds as well, but most of the other links go to Creative Commons/copyleft recordings by independent musicians.

As the Free Albums Galore site says, if you enjoy a netlabel release, please buy the album -- not because you're legally obliged to, but because you want to support the creators. Most netlabels offer hard-copy versions of their free-download recordings, and you're directly supporting the artists themselves.
posted by Shepherd at 9:58 AM on April 8

Listening to KCRW online turned me onto rcrdlbl.com. As with most of these sites, there will be a lot of stuff not to your taste but you can find some gems if you dig around. For example this current KCRW darling.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:03 AM on April 8

Excellent!
Thanks, Shep!
posted by Dizzy at 10:18 AM on April 8

This is the wave of the future, methinks. A one-stop shop to locate/search for new music, then the option to buy what you actually like. I wished for this as a kid and will forgo the flying car I was promised for this new music distribution model. Thanks for posting it!
posted by assoctw at 10:36 AM on April 8

This is great, thanks for posting.
posted by nola at 12:07 PM on April 8

Can't remember who posted it a while ago and can't be bothered to search but Serein has some AMAZING tracks.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:48 PM on April 8

BLF: Too bad s/he left, but it was hama7 who contributed a veritable plethora of minimalistic netlabel posts.
posted by papafrita at 3:29 PM on April 9