by Dan Gayle
Staff Writer

If you’re poor, sometimes you are forced to choose between beer for the weekend, bologna sandwiches for lunch or music for the party. Since beer and bologna are the staples of life, the music has got to take second place.

This, unfortunately, has the side effect of prompting people to illegally download MP3s, albums and even entire discographies via the BitTorrent networks, Usenet and others. But is it really necessary to do it illegally? Fortunately, there are a few resources on the web for downloading music that are entirely free and, just as importantly, legal.

You might not get favorite artist’s newest single, but if you’re a lover of music, there are plenty of options that are worth looking into. Here are just a few:

Archive.org

Live Music Archive
Archive.org has a HUMONGOUS collection of bootlegs, courtesy of etree.org and others. Their “Live Music Archive” includes more than 44,070 items on file, ranging from bootlegs of ...And You Will Know Us by The Trail Of Dead or Ben Gibbard to bands like Harvey Danger, Rusted Root, and Jack Johnson.

I’m not going to lie; you won’t find most artists here. All of these bootlegs have documentation from the bands or their labels giving their approval for the swapping. Most labels discourage this practice, so you’re left with what’s left over.

Most of the recordings are of a decent audio quality, some superb, because the live recording community is typically composed of audiophiles obsessed with getting the best possible recordings under their particular circumstances.

Did I also mention the fact that they have one of the largest Grateful Dead bootleg collections? With over 2,862 live recordings, the Dead Head in you can rest assured that there are some gems in the collection. And as an added bonus, it’s all free and legal. BINGO!

Netlabels
If you’re not familiar with the concept of the net label, Archive.org is a good place to learn. According to the website, net labels “are non-profit, community- built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/ OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres.”

Now, it says a “multitude of genres,” but the majority of the collection is electronic music of one form or another. From breakbeats to mellow ambient, this collection houses a large selection of great music that is readily downloadable. The quality is generally very nice, due to the very nature of the recordings.

There is other indie rock music here as well, but understand that it will take some searching to find it amongst the electronic throngs. Again, it’s all free and all legal.

How about this free, legal bootleg?
Available from Archive.org:
Ben Gibbard
Live at Theater of the Living Arts
Philadelphia, PA
May 9, 2007

NOT FREE (but pretty close to it):

If you have the budget for beer and bologna and still have money left over for music, eMusic.com is a great subscription service that offers a good selection of strings-free downloads for a stunningly low price.

They have three subscription packages available, from 30 songs for $9.99, 50 songs for $14.99, to 75 songs for $19.99. That’s the price of a regular CD per month, give or take, but you get a whole lot more music for your money, without any DRM or hardware constraints of many of the other subscription services. Just like the free selections above, eMusic.com doesn’t have everything.

What it does have, though, is a wide variety of music ranging from jazz to indie to folk, even including a special section for their extensive classical collection. You can buy a lot of classical music for the price.

If your favorite composer has a lot of four-part symphonies, at the base subscription price of $9.99, you could download 7.5 of them for an entire month.

Now that is money well spent.

Last.fm
Last.fm is one of those resources that you may have heard of but never experienced. At first glance, you might think that it is similar to Pandora.com’s Internet Radio, where you can select a favorite band and create a radio feed that streams similar music into your computer.

But you’d be missing the half of it if that’s where you think the gratuities stop. Quite a few bands have used Last.fm as a promotional tool for their albums. Many offer two to three MP3 downloads from their albums that you are free to download. Some bands even offer entire albums free for the taking.

But you are going have to hunt to find the goods. It’s unfortunate, but there is no single directory that will tell you what is and isn’t free. There are no listings of the bands that have made their tracks available, so this is certainly a case where Google is your friend.

The search is worth it though. According to ZDNet. com, Last.fm has made over 100,000 tracks (!) available for free download from thousands of independent record labels.

That’s a lot of free music to hunt down!

As a starting point, if you’re into post-rock bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Sigur Ros, user Meyde has a journal listing many different free

How about these free .mp3s offered at Last.fm?
Lanterna
tracks from the album Highways
Courtesy of Badman Recording Co.