Some great ways to legally get free music

When it comes to music, often the way to fame has more to do with promotion than talent (*cough* *cough* soulja boy *cough*). Promotion is largely based in music videos and radio play but also in free legal downloads.

1) Check out the artist's website. Many artists will offer free promotional downloads on their site. Sometimes these are no strings attached but sometimes you have to give them your e-mail so they can keep promoting to you in the future. If you're worried about a flooded inbox and don't want the latest updates from the artist, you can unsubscribe after you get your free music. I have already had success with artists such as Empire of the Sun and Hot Chip.

2) Check out their myspace. There's often a free promotional track or two on artist's myspace pages but you may have to dig around a little bit. Check the music player, the blog entries, and then the rest of the page.

3) Become a fan on facebook. You never know when they'll post a link for a free download off their upcoming album and facebook makes it easy to keep track of upcoming concerts and events.

4) Go to their youtube videos. Sometimes artists put links for free downloads in the description box for their music videos. Be sure that it's the artist's official channel so you know you're getting it from them and not some bootlegger.

5) iTunes has a whole slew of free stuff every week including at least two tracks and a music video. You never know what you're going to get. Sometimes the songs bomb, sometimes they become the next big hit. I remember one week "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha was on there for free and now it's #1 on the downloads and costs $1.29. The moral of the story: download everything and give it a thorough listen and if you hate it, delete it.

6) last.fm has a page for free mp3 downloads. You have to sign up (it's free!) and the downloads are custom-suggested for you. last.fm is also a great tool for finding out more about artists you already like, discovering new artists, and keeping track of what you're listening to over time. You can use it to show your friends what you like by just linking them to your profile (here's mine). It also has "radio stations" for each artist playing their music and similar music so you can just put on whatever and see what happens.

7) For the music I like, I've gotten some great stuff for free on the Urban Outfitter's LSTN and Music Mondays. It's mostly indie rock and has some cool stuff like Yeasayer and Passion Pit and also some stuff I've never heard before but now like such as Cold Cave and The War on Drugs. The LSTN playlists are over 20 songs each and download off the site and off of iTunes (but the mixes on iTunes aren't downloadable after a couple of months of them being posted so hurry!). The Music Mondays mixes are once a week and five songs and download right off the site.

That's all I've discovered so far in the way of legal free music. If you have any other suggestions, please leave a comment. Obviously, working at my college radio station gives me access to a whole archive of CDs, the most exciting of which are new artists that nobody's heard of. If you are as into music as I am, an internship or job in that field may be your best bet for getting free music.