Old New Music One Stop Shops

People (ie my bf and occasionally a friend) are always (sometimes) asking me, "Erika, where do you find all this great music?" Because, let's not lie here you guys, I have impeccable taste in music. And you all do too. It's what separates us from the girls who buy the HSM soundtrack.

Anyway, so I tell people I get it from the internet. I mean, I buy albums too, but they're getting more and more expensive these days, and until I can afford one of those fancy record players that converts records into mp3 files, it's easier to just get things in a format I can already use.

So then they ask me, "Where on the internet?" I am not surprised if bit torrent is failing them in terms of musical selection. Mostly because it sucks. But I have friends who would sell their souls for bit torrent, so I don't say anything to them. I do however tell them about some amazing music sites where the music is not only free, legal, and good, but free, legal, and good. Like how I did that? So did I. And now I think the time is right to share them with you. But if you guys have any awesome sites of your own, feel free to let me know, because I could always use new music. I mean, who couldn't? Except for the Music Nazi, but he's no fun.

1. Music.Download.com: This website was my Ground Zero. Not in the 9/11 way. So, okay, forget that. It was my Square One. I found this site while browsing through Google to find some mp3s of Dead Blonde Girlfriend. And it's, um, amazing. The site is organized by musical genre, country, and even city. So if your friend tells you about this band but all you remember is that they're from Philly, you can still find them. Once I started looking through it, I couldn't stop. I spent hours a day after school on this website, discovering music I never knew existed...bands like The Goldstars, Faux Jean, WinterKids, Rye Coalition, The Natural History, The Trivs, Oxford Collapse, Social Studies, and many more! My music library grew like 200 fold daily. And, as it happens, the regular Download.com has a ton of computer programs you can download for free! It's where I got the audio editing software I used in my internship as well as the program I used when, ahem, I made my own DJ mixes. Ahem.

2. Daytrotter.com: If you are not aware of Daytrotter's existence, you must not like indie music. And that's okay. But almost every indie band has done a session for these guys. Basically, you go to the site, pick a band, and then you get to read a very, VERY well written interview about the band, and then at the end, you get to download tracks from the band's albums, which they re-recorded just for Daytrotter! And fo' free! Gratis!

3. Spinner.com: Spinner is like Blender, or Spin, but with more focus on indie music and less douchebaggery. They update their site with a new free mp3 daily, and on top of that they have a ton of cool things to look at. Just go, now. It's neat. Dope.

4. Label websites: Come on kiddies, label sites are probably the most untapped well of music-y goodness around! And it's super easy too. Here, I'll walk you through it: Pick an indie label. Don't go with anything big because Def Jam, Island, or Sony BMG, whathaveyou, aren't gonna be giving away mp3s for free. But smaller ones, like Matador and Team Love have a ton of music ripe for the picking! Suicide Squeeze used to have a ton of free mp3s too, but I don't know what happened, because they don't anymore. Still, dig around and see what you find. The thrill is in the hunt, right?

Um, now go find yourself some music. Vamanos, vamanos! And then maybe one day we'll meet up and compare collections. Just like Pokemon battling, but with audio files. And yes, I should be working for a music magazine. Soon enough...soon enough.

Deuces,
Erika