Free and legal music

Képzelt Város it's a Hungarian postrock stuff with lots of melodies and violins pianos, etc. quite good, I'm listening to it for a long time now.

edited 2nd Nov '10 12:03:22 PM by JonC83

@Mike K: No problem. :)

I'd also like to mention the free Atmosphere EP Leak At Will and the [adult swim] sampler Ghostly Swim, which is a lot of electronic you haven't heard of *coughcough*

No one's mentioned Jay Tholen yet? 1. awesome chiptunes 2. awesome prog-rock 3. awesome jesus-freak music that a strict atheist would get down on.

Some Susumu Hirasawa music, as found by Penguin 4 Senate.

The poor translation of the license is kind of amusing.

I especially like that the files are described as having "passed the internet".

Newgrounds has an audio portal. With music. Free music. That you can download for free.

Yeah I know, I'm being lazy. There are plenty of good artists on NG, though.

edited 15th Nov '10 4:34:23 AM by RocketScience

I can't believe I didn't mention Locust Toybox already.

Also, nthing The Cast of Cheers, ...And The Earth Swarmed With Them, Sleepy Vikings, and Xera. All great stuff.

edited 15th Nov '10 10:02:06 AM by Zudak

The Appreciation Post have an EP called Work/Sleep up for free download on their bandcamp site. They're a band who are local to me (well, from Boston) and have some pretty catchy tunes. They can sort of be summed up as "Jimmy Eat World IN SPACE with keyboards".

edited 16th Nov '10 4:12:41 PM by MikeK

Celeste

This french post-hardcore/black metal/screamo/High Octane Nightmare Fuel band made all their albums available for free. The last one is one of the best albums of 2010 in my opinion.

The former screamo band of Celeste's singer, Mihai Edrisch did the same thing, by the way.

Edit: I almost forgot As We Draw, another french post-hardcore band (but in a good way, as their main influence is Breach, and Breach rocks).

If someone's interested, I have a few other links in the same vein.

edited 20th Nov '10 11:55:12 PM by DRJkl

Huh, I'm surprised I haven't mentioned Twin Sister, all of their music is on a creative commons license or something, free to download from their site (or buy on disc, depending). You can also download stems of some tracks to remix or what have you.

Oh and for want of a better phrase, it's dream pop.

A Song For Chi is available from the website. It features every artists' Signature Style, so if you're a fan of any of the bands you'll probably like it.

An easy way to get some free music is to check out independent Record Label websites from time to time. I know Sub Pop and Matador have a bunch of free mp3s around their site somewhere.

Also RCRDLBL is a music blog that is actually run by a couple indie record labels, and they have a ton of free, legal mp3s by hundreds of bands over there.

edited 25th Nov '10 7:14:32 PM by DocStrange

The Slip

Magrudergrind! Powerviolence/grindcore. Their new EP, Crusher, is free to download. I highly recommend them to any punk/metal kids here (I know you guys are out there).

http://www.box.net/shared/static/bfr6o1qv5d.zip

Guys! Rebel Soul Sound System by the Dingees (a punk & reggae band from southern California) is available for free. I've been waiting for it to be released since 2006.

Anamanaguchi has some free singles. Good stuff, except for that bloody Das Racist remix.

Akron/Family's Bandcamp page has scads of stuff that you can pay $0.00 for, if one is so inclined...

Mutant Sounds, while really just another music blog, is pretty white-hat when it comes the material it draws from; all of it is out-of-print and extremely rare. There are even a few artists who have actually given the editors unreleased material from their personal archives to post simply because it helps publicise their current activities (e.g. Brad Laner). Be warned, however: These guys like their music weird.

edited 18th Jan '11 8:14:39 PM by JHM

Perhaps those nerdier than me may have heard of Misra Records, which was apparently a small indie company that introduced the world to bands like Destroyer. I think they went under and just announced their relaunch, which may explain why I haven't heard of them. Anyway, to celebrate the launch, they've released a compliation of their hit songs. I'm downloading right now.

If you like indie rock and hip hop, www.aboveboardmusic.com is pretty good. It has a solid list of links to new indie and hip hop. All free and legal. One of the easier sites to use.

Also, pitchfork.com has lots of streams and downloads.

Coma Cinema are a pretty good indie pop type band with a couple of free albums on their site.

Ska band Bomb the Music Industry! gives away all their albums, as does kick ass glitch hop musician Pretty Lights.

Very nice. Simple, but satisfying.

I've heard of Pretty Lights but didn't know you could get his stuff for free. Gonna have to check that out.

she has a bunch of free EP's on his website. It's a varied mishmash of chiptunes, techno, and industrial. I like pioneer, days, and chiptek best.

Google "Zaraza", a good industrial/ doom band who havput all their music up on the internet archive. :D

Tyler Walker makes damn good lounge music.

Anything on Band Camp qualifies, really.