Chanteur puissant à la voix rocailleuse. And here is bluestab's blog And here, via Babelfish is bluestab's blog in an English of sorts. Then, while, looking for mp3s to match the tabs, I came across the universe of African American history and culture that is AfricanAfrican aka NegroArtist.com, a site so big it has two URLs. [Billy Mays] But, wait--that's not all! [/Billy Mays] [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Oct 23, 2009 - 12 comments

Tom Waits has a new live album coming out. You can get 8 full length tracks--just under 40 minutes--from the forthcoming release for free on his site. Requires you surrender a valid email address, however.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy on Oct 13, 2009 - 42 comments

Home taping didn’t kill music, says Ben Goldacre - but where did all the money go?
posted by Artw on Jun 11, 2009 - 168 comments

Paul Ford is back with six-word reviews of SxSW 2009 music (previously in 2008). Also be sure to check out Paul's (another Paul's) SxSW Artist Catalog (previously) for further SxSW music metadata goodness.
posted by shadytrees on Mar 18, 2009 - 12 comments

Dave of Low Light Mixes spins together all manner of textural musical goodness into solid, themed sonic experiences. Component parts include but are not limited to ambient, jazz, "jazz", noise, field recordings and one hell of a lot of Brian Eno.
posted by colinmarshall on Mar 18, 2009 - 2 comments

If you're interested in the bands playing at SXSW this year, you have more to draw on than the blurbs in the schedule. First, the 2009 collection of mp3s from showcased bands is up - like last year, as unofficial fanmade torrents - offering samples of a thousand bands in five gigabytes. Second, there's Paul's SXSW Artist Catalog, an excellent catalog of artists. It provides links to Last.fm & Youtube for each artist, & many tags to follow sounds you like. (Previously: my 2008 post, & 2007.)
posted by Pronoiac on Feb 22, 2009 - 22 comments

In the 1980s, songwriter, artist and cultural critic Momus recorded a number of albums for the legendary indie label Creation Records, combining influences as diverse as Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop and Balearic acid-house. These have largely languished in Sony Music's vaults over the past few years, occasionally fetching hefty prices on eBay. Now, Momus has taken the step to commit auto-piracy and release his Creation albums online, for free; over December, he will post MP3s of all six albums to his LiveJournal blog, each with freshly written liner notes. The first one, 1987's The Poison Boyfriend, is here. [more inside]
posted by acb on Dec 9, 2008 - 15 comments

While Muxtape is temporarily down, Opentape has come to fill in. [more inside]
posted by Korou on Aug 26, 2008 - 31 comments

"Radiodiffusion Internasionaal is devoted to the evolution of popular music from Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia and the proliferation of Western influences on these non-Western cultures. The focus is primarily the music from the mid 60's to the mid 70's." (Description from the front page of the site.) Slightly differently formatted version of the website here. Nice set of links, too (scroll down to the Words and Pictures section).
posted by cog_nate on Aug 13, 2008 - 8 comments

Looking for a song online? Use Muxfind to search Muxtape (previously) for tracks.
posted by Korou on May 27, 2008 - 30 comments

Have a crush on someone you only know online? Want to make them a mixtape but you don't have their physical address? Not a problem, thanks to Muxtape, an online mixtape manager. Just upload up to 12 tracks, and a custom URL is provided.Via.
posted by jonson on Mar 25, 2008 - 55 comments

One of my favorite albums of recent years is now available for the first time. And, it's free. You Are Not Dead: A Guide to Modern Living by MeFi's own Fake. {embedded Flash player and link to zipped mp3s} {torrent of better quality mp3s} {via mefi projects}
posted by dobbs on Mar 20, 2008 - 38 comments

Each year since 2005, SXSW released a torrent of songs for people to sample their showcased artists. It's a terrific source of new, eclectic music. This year, a fan found out they weren't planning to do this, so he took matters into his own hands: here's the torrent, with "764 different artists... almost 3.5 GB of new music, for free." (previously in 2007)
posted by Pronoiac on Feb 22, 2008 - 30 comments

At the Isle of Wight Festival, Dylan was the only monster on the bill capable of attracting a monster of an audience. In refusing to play the Woodstock Festival and in then letting himself be talked into playing the Isle of Wight, Dylan in effect was telling England's counterculture: ''C'mon. Let's hold our own Woodstock.'' And so, on the Isle of Wight, a dot of land that certainly wasn't the easiest place in the world to get to, Dylan almost single-handedly proved an enticing enough attraction to collect an audience sometimes estimated to be as few as a 125,000 and sometimes as many as 250,000.

My Dylan Papers: Part 2 The Isle of Wight

Another scrap from the late Al Aronowitz, the self-styled Blacklisted Journalist, and former Dylan courtier, recalling the only full concert Dylan gave solo or with the Band between 1967 and 1973 and sung in his Nashville Skyline voice, to boot, no less. And now you can have it all to yourself.... [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Jan 26, 2008 - 10 comments

Wes Anderson mp3s and David Lynch mp3s
posted by vronsky on Aug 9, 2007 - 19 comments

Tom Smith is your average guy who likes comic books, Harlan Ellison short stories and Julie Newmar in a Catwoman suit (who dosen't?). Except the thing is, the guy can sing and write music too. And he releases a free song every week at his iTom page. Like most artists his music can be hit and miss, but there's some great free music to be found there such as Contessa and the awesome Jim Henson tribute A Boy and His Frog. Oh, and he also runs the 'Digital Acoustic' livejournal, where he discusses all manner of things such as comics, politics and of course, music. Sure, he's no cortex, but he's pretty damn good and well worth a listen.
posted by Effigy2000 on Apr 24, 2007 - 6 comments

DayTrotter is a music site I'd never heard of before today. I haven't explored all of their free mp3 offerings yet, but this 4-song set of Bonnie "Prince" Billy tracks is lovely. Three of the tracks are from the Strange Form of Life EP and the fourth, to my knowledge, is previously unreleased. If you want the missing track, emusic (my via) sells it.
posted by dobbs on Apr 8, 2007 - 10 comments

17 Dots is a new blog by employees of emusic. Not much there yet but for MeFites who use the service, this looks like it could prove handy for keeping on top of what's worth checking out.
posted by dobbs on Feb 22, 2007 - 9 comments

Tons of bands playing at this year's SXSW. Not going or going and don't know what to check out? They've put up a torrent of 739 MP3s by 739 artists. The organization also has plans for an upcoming torrent of trailers for scheduled films. {via waxy}
posted by dobbs on Feb 20, 2007 - 39 comments

iConcertCal - The most awesomest iTunes plugin ever--tells you when bands you have MP3s for are playing your town. {via an email from this dude.}
posted by dobbs on Feb 1, 2007 - 59 comments

OH NO! THERE GOES TOKYO! GO GO GODZILLA! (Nearly) every Godzilla soundtrack. (Thanks to my girlfriend for hipping me to this)
posted by klangklangston on Oct 10, 2006 - 28 comments

Motor City Rock 1980-1990 A great archive of Detroit's most overlooked and ignoble musical era. Highlights include Bittersweet Alley, The Trash Brats, Vertical Pillows, The Dick the Bruiser Band, and many more. Great to listen to while you read the relauched (and vaguely sad) Creem.
posted by klangklangston on Aug 4, 2006 - 12 comments

Mish Mash Mush A series of mixes from Providence eclectic label Fort Thunder, home of Ninja Versus Wrestler and Forcefield. As part of an aplty amorphous and chaotic "noise" scene, the mixes contain otherwise unreleased music from bands like Lightning Bolt, Mindflayer, 25 Suave, and a bevy of other bands from labels like Load, Animal Disguise and Bulb. Good music with a dirt-simple interface.
posted by klangklangston on Jun 27, 2006 - 15 comments

A nice mixed bag of live mp3s.
posted by dobbs on May 9, 2006 - 18 comments

Cajun Music MP3s, featuring music from the 1920s to 1970s.
posted by LarryC on May 6, 2006 - 16 comments

Brian Eno and David Byrne released My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981. It's a great album--and now it's available with a Creative Commons License. "This is the first time complete and total access to original tracks with remix and sampling possibilities have been officially offered on line."
posted by dobbs on Mar 30, 2006 - 44 comments

Ukulele Ike. We know his quavering, tentative, high tenor voice from his voice work as Jiminy Cricket, but Cliff Edwards -- aka Ukulele Ike -- was much more than that. Wikipedia offers a brief introduction to the man, his life, his works, and his lonely death. But, to my tastes, the best introduction to this once hugely popular singer is the man's own voice (mp3 links).
posted by Astro Zombie on Feb 24, 2006 - 5 comments

Open up your mind and let everything come through. Psych and Prog get great sharity treatment. (ChrisGoes is also known for his regular appearance on torrent sites with his huge, wonderful collections).
posted by klangklangston on Feb 7, 2006 - 11 comments

He's been compared to Stephen Merritt, Jonathan Richman, Beck, and Calvin Johnston (who he's sampled). Here be Jens Lekman's Department of Forgotten Songs--a small sampling of his charming pop tunes. Not familiar with him? Try Pocketful of Money or Boisa-Bis-O-Boisa for starters. (2nd and 3rd link are mp3s)
posted by Manhasset on Jan 29, 2006 - 27 comments

Get the blues. Today, one of the blues' finest musicians, R.L. Burnside died. Go on, take a look, take a listen.
posted by klangklangston on Sep 1, 2005 - 44 comments

Tim Hardin, black sheep boy. Will Robinson Sheff, of the bands Okkervil River and Shearwater, guest-blogs at Said the Gramophone and writes movingly about his hero, Tim Hardin. With mp3s.
posted by barjo on Aug 30, 2005 - 11 comments

15 Megs of Fame. From the creators of Threadless (and pretty much the same thing but for music instead of T-shirts). {Flash.}
posted by dobbs on Nov 24, 2004 - 9 comments

Matisyahu - Hasidic Reggae.
posted by dobbs on Nov 8, 2004 - 11 comments

Get Your Bootleg On has lotsa bootlegs. This kind, not this kind. Inspired by this.
posted by turbodog on Oct 27, 2004 - 3 comments

So, you want some hot mp3's? Well, this is the place (Russian, but English cookie-set option in top-left). Huge repositories of legal music, yours to download for only $0.01/Mb! If that's not enough, they'll even serve it up to you in any format or bitrate you require (MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMV). Add on to that the fact there's no DRM built into the files downloaded, and the option to pay with Paypal is a nice touch too. So, I ask you, MetaFilter, what is the catch?
posted by metaxa on Jun 10, 2004 - 41 comments

My goal here is to teach you how to create the best MP3s possible
posted by mr.marx on May 14, 2004 - 35 comments

An extensive article on the history of Bhangra. [Bhangra mp3s here]
posted by moonbird on May 14, 2004 - 6 comments

The Netlabel Catalogue The Catalog is a list, index, directory of music labels which offer you free downloads from their pages.
posted by srboisvert on Feb 26, 2004 - 5 comments

Median's Relief! If you like Little Brother, you should like these three free mp3's from Median. He's in the Justus League too and he's got beats from 9th Wonder, hip hop producer of the moment right now.
posted by Slimemonster on Feb 25, 2004 - 1 comment

Chalghi's Online collection of Iraqi music The Best way to understand others cultures is to listen to thier thoughts and baring that, thier music. For whats it's worth, Not sure if I saw this on Boingboing, Fark,Blort or what, But I can't take credit for finding it only sharing in here..
posted by Elim on Feb 16, 2004 - 4 comments

Tune Recycler will take unwanted Pepsi/iTunes promo caps and give them to independent labels.
posted by Mick on Feb 1, 2004 - 18 comments

Apple's iTunes Music Store sold over 1 million songs in its first week of operation, almost instantly making it the largest and most successful online music company in the world. Though we've already discussed at great length how it compares to free downloads here, my question is: how is this going to affect the traditional (legal) distribution channels? With an ever growing library (3,200 songs added today to the 200,000 they started with), incredible convenience ($1, 1 click, and ~1 minute download to get that song you've been dying to hear), and the ease of use we've come to expect from Apple, I think that they're no longer competing with Kazaa and Limewire, they're starting to pose a serious threat to Amazon, Tower, etc.
posted by rorycberger on May 6, 2003 - 60 comments

The Valentine's Day EP. A quick pointer to some free-'n-legal mp3s with which to construct a mini-opera of lovin'. Alejandro Escovedo, Rosalie -- Aching song about distance and longing. Hem, Valentine's Day -- beautiful cover of the Springsteen tune. (Amazon, reg. req'd.) Soltero, Communist Love Song -- "If you're ever less than certain, I will be your Iron Curtain." This is a sentimental, downtempo set, but there's plenty out there for a heartbreak EP (or 50) as well. No doubt someone will post it -- and lots more free mp3s -- inside.
posted by blueshammer on Feb 14, 2003 - 3 comments

Science Groove. If this doesn't brighten up your day then frankly there's no hope for you. [Embedded MP3s] {From B3TA}
posted by Pretty_Generic on Oct 12, 2002 - 8 comments

Electraum is a great collection of amazing electronic and ambient mp3s(try the Cerebellum, Red Lines or Kunstner for good examples), mostly from unknown artists. The mp3s rotate monthly, and there's a mailing list you can join to remind you when the music changes. You've already missed the previous seven installments, but there's plenty more to go around...
posted by 40 Watt on Sep 26, 2002 - 4 comments

I’m probably really late to the boat for Epitonic, but goodness, if you’re looking to sample mp3s, videos, sometimes entire albums, for indie or otherwise unknown bands this here is it. Genres from punk to folk to various electronica-delectica all the way back out to hip hop, jazz and contemporary composers. They’re all here: Styles of Beyond, Solex, Blue Six, Sporto Kantes, Couch (Alle Auf Pause), Gonzales, on and on. They must eat bandwidth like Jim Morrison and mescaline caps.
posted by raaka on Mar 31, 2002 - 11 comments

Top tunes. Get down and boogie with your Mullah.
posted by Wet Wednesday on Sep 30, 2001 - 5 comments

What the Bertelsmann-Napster deal means.
"Hank Barry, chief executive of Napster, has suggested a monthly fee of about $4.95 might be appropriate, but he stressed that fees had not been set." (NYT article; grow up.)
posted by sylloge on Nov 1, 2000 - 11 comments

An interview with the lawyers from Napster and Metellica. Good points, both.
posted by Mick on May 22, 2000 - 6 comments

The warez, mp3-traders, hacker and terrorist industry just got a just got a boost in the arm. the goverment and all the music companies are going to see that the internet is not to be regulated. You cannot stop individuals from sharing files between themselves and everytime you start to ban one program another one more innovative than the last pops up. I am going to stop my little rant here because I don't want to seem like i am anti goverment ...viva la revolution.
posted by neo452 on Apr 10, 2000 - 0 comments