Love a little unquestionably legit, free music? Then head on over to Amazon’s Free MP3 downloads section to choose from among 773 totally free songs. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably assuming it’s a bunch of, um, crap, but there’s actually a lot of really good (and often relatively new) music available here, so take advantage. [Amazon Free MP3s via CNET]
Need a worry-free background track for a multimedia project, or just some new tunes to work into your daily mix? The Free Music Archive, a project of indie freeform station WFMU, has downloads and streams galore.
Inspired by the ideas and ethos behind Creative Commons licensing, the tracks on the FMA are offered for whatever use you want. Use them to soundtrack your latest YouTube epic, remix them and release them, or download and share them with friends. The site also boasts a kind of quality control to the database of songs both live and recoded, selected by WFMU’s audio archivists and curators. The search functionality works pretty well, and can be re-sorted by genre, album, or other criteria.
If you really dig the tunes you’re finding, there are links to the artists’ albums and a tip jar for each. Otherwise, stream, grab, and go at your leisure. Free to use, sign-up required for the social aspects of the site, like mix publishing and sharing.
Open Culture has a comprehensive list of totally free resources for anyone looking to learn a language though audio files. Whether you’re brushing up your Yiddish or delving into Dutch, you’ll find a free feed here.
Organized alphabetically by language, Open Culture’s list of free foreign language lessons includes links to each lesson series’ iTunes site, podcast RSS feed, or basic web site to get you downloading and e-nun-ci-a-ting immediately. It covers a whole lot of languages you might have no idea there were freely-available tutors for, and the variety of lesson types is intriguing. If straight-up repeat-after-me audio lessons get tiresome, many language areas also have humorous amateurs offering some local color, or the language’s mother nation’s news, read extra slowly to help with vocabulary and comprehension.
Know another site that’s packed with free, language-teaching audio? Tell us about it in the comments.
Windows/Linux: Elisa Media Center doesn’t go in for swooshing sound effects or social networking. This open-source media center puts your music, pictures, and videos on your screen, period. See it live in screenshots below.
We’ve given Elisa a shout-out before, in our guide to operating your computer with Wii controllers, because it works surprisingly well. And it’s gotten a shout-out or two before. But we’re overdue for a look at how Elisa simply puts your non-protected videos, music, and pictures onto your computer or TV screen.
Click on the thumbnails below to get a larger look at how Elisa looks on your screen, along with captioned details on Elisa’s features:
Elisa is a free download for Windows and Linux systems. I couldn’t get it working on my Windows 7 beta, or (seemingly) activate the plugins in Ubuntu 8.10, but Windows XP worked just fine out of the box. Drop any tips, favorite plugins, or other Elisa advice in the comments.
MP3 Search is a web music finder with a simple interface. If you’re in need of some quick tunes to listen to, or you’re hunting down pieces of an obscure mix, take a peek.
Similar to previously reviewed Mix Turtle, MP3 Search sports a spartan, grab-it-and-go interface. Unlike Mix Turtle, though, you can download the tracks to your computer. The music you select loads in a small pop-up flash player for preview or quick listen, though you can’t queue up multiple tracks as on Seeqpod.
For more methods to scour the web for musical bounty, make sure to check out our guide to finding free music. If you have a favorite site for streaming music or finding tunes, sound off in the comments below.
Any track bought prior to today from iTunes’ store can upgrade to a 256-kbps, DRM-free version for 30 cents. Once in your library, it’s also a right-click to convert to MP3. [via]
Update: According to Apple’s press release, entire albums can also be upgraded for 30 percent of the album cost (usually $3.00).
