Free Music (As in speech, not beer)

I have been having a crisis of soul, of late. I love listening to music: new music, good music, simple music. But I can’t stand the thought of giving money to that soul of evil, the RIAA. Nor am I content with fighting the good fight by civil resistance; that is to say, P2P.

So, here is my compliation of pay sites that offer non DRM encumbered music in non-encumbered formats.

If you have any additions to this list, please let me know. qkslvrwolf (that sign you put between name and server) qkslvrwolf.com.

Ok, heres the list:

• Magnatunes – Allows you download your non-DRM music in just about any format you want. Go to their best sellers list to listen to the (entirety) of their best selling albums. Really good music available, although no one you’ve ever heard of. Pricing is flexible: you choose how much you want to pay, the artist gets half of what you choose. Cons: You pretty much have to buy the whole album, although with the flexible pricing, you could just pay a dollar and download a single song. You’d have to be uber-honest, thought. I just shelled out the “average” eight dollars per album, and took the whole thing.
• Bleep.com – Haven’t tried it yet, but its got FLAC.
• Independent Music Online – Haven’t tried it yet.
• Mindawn – Has Ogg and FLAC, haven’t tried it yet.
• Garageband – Ok, this is actually an encumbered site. However, what it does allow that I haven’t yet noticed on the other sites is push people to rate songs. This means that the best songs in the genre’s will rise to the top. Collaborative filtering. I have no problem with popular music, you see…I just want it to be popular because its popular, not because Sony Music or BGM says its popular. Which is basically how it works now.

It should also be mentioned that a number of artists do offer non DRM’d MP3s on the their sites, but to my knowledge there aren’t any yet who also offer them in non-encumbered formats.

Just for fun, artists who offer non-DRM’d music, in any format. If anyone knows a band with non-encumbered purchases or downloads, let me know. Just as a side note, I don’t actually have to like the band to post it up here.

• Sarah Mclachlan
• They Might Be Giants
• Beastie Boys – Just MP3s, and not actually album stuff.
• alanis morissette – Reputed to have stuff, but I couldn’t find it. Her website is incredibly annoying flash.

Addendum, 27 April 2006:  A bunch of canadian artists just came out against everything that the RIAA is for.  Musicians don’t want the DMCA.  Musicians want fans.  Buy from these artists!