I came across some interesting new Websites and blogs this week that have free mp3 downloads sections you may not find too easily.  Here are some links directly to the pages with the download-able files.

• KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle has top pick MP3 song of the day you can subscribe to as a podcast or just download files directly from their blog.
• If you’re not sure how to use the iPod for free podcasts you can read this tutorial “How to download free music, video and podcast to iPod“.
• If you like Irish music you can get Celtic music artitsts‘ MP3s from Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.
• You can also check out the Christian music downloads section of the Beliefnet.com blog for all the latest music they post in one location.
• Urban Outfitters is also offering free mp3 downloads.  The 21 songs are downloadable in a zip file right from their site.

Happy new year and I hope this helps to fill up your iPod this week!  For those of you in the Northeast USA I will be doing a set with singer songwriter Bovane at 2 Alices in NY on February 21st, 2009 and performing my new song “The World Will Break Apart“.

Image via Wikipedia

Free Top Music Downloads

Stereogums 50 Most Popular MP3s of 2008

The Stereogum blog has put together a compilation of the MP3s that have been downloaded the most from their Website this year (over a millions times!). These are mostly promo tracks that give you the chance to download free MP3 album music from new bands. People really appreciate the excellent music that Stereogum selects for their blog postings and the free MP3’s actually make them buy more CDs!

MP3.com Charts

The top MP3.com music charts are updated daily based on how many downloads and plays a certain song gets within 24 hours. A download is ranked as more important than a play for the list. They show the song’s most recent rank and the highest it has ever been. This is a great way to see what all the users of MP3.com have filtered out as the best by the year end.

Jangle Pop’s Best Downloads of 2008

Jangle Pop has put up a compilation of 19 songs based on what readers thought were the best downloads. You can get all the tracks in a zip file and check out the album art for the project which is pretty cool and lists the MP3s and artists in the collection.  If you need zip file software my free favorite is tugzip.

I wrote an acoustic love song called “It’s You” that I recorded in English playing solo and I decided to mix in an ambient track and remaster it to make the recording sound a bit fuller.

Free Music Download: It’sYouAmbientMix.MP3

Lyrics and Chords

It’s You

| D D7 | G Gm |

Thanks for coming over last night
I loved the movie and your eyes in the candlelight
I heard your song on the radio and I smiled the whole time
Oh Lord, the trouble we can find

Whether the sun shines, or whether it rains
It’s you, you’re a part of me
When I’m not with you I feel you in my veins
It’s you in the very heart of me

I feel a bit silly for drinking and crying
I guess there is still so much sadness underlying my gladness
Thank you for being so sweet to me through it
Just wanted you to know that my spirit is lifted

Whether the sun shines, or whether it rains
It’s you, you’re a part of me
When I’m not with you I feel you in my veins
It’s you in the very heart of me

I feel like I have been away from you for so long
Like love that waits a minute and can’t wait no more
On the shore with no protection opened up to the world
In an ocean so endless, every tear drop
Makes ripples into waves and waves into worlds
Worlds that come and go while I wait for you

I really loved waking up with you today
I only wish we could have had the day to play
It’s just a shame that we couldn’t sleep in together
All tangled up and safe from the snowy weather

Whether the sun shines, or whether it rains
It’s you, you’re a part of me
When I’m not with you I feel you in my veins
It’s you in the very heart of me
It’s you, you’re a part of me
It’s you in the very heart of me, it’s you

In addition to writing standard pop rock songs I like to create loop-based instrumental ambient and techno electronic music sometimes.  This one is called “Copper Mountain”:

My Free Techno Music Download this Week: CopperMountain.MP3

Free Music Download Tutorial

I came on this great tutorial for IPod and iPhone from iLounge that details the ins and outs of how to download MP3s from iTunes, Amazon, Walmart, Napster, eMusic and Rhapsody.  By the way if you don’t already know when you download MP3s you want what is called “DRM-free” because that places no restrictions on your ability to burn to CD, make copies for yourself or whatever else you want to do with the file.

The Latest MP3s Around the Web

I also found this free music download from a band called Funeral Party that I think is really upbeat, fun rock with a bit of a gritty, funky edge to it.  Also, I discovered the Friendly Foes MP3s, an indie alternative band with a fresh sound that I liked too.

If you like Hip-hop, check out the CraveOnline December Free MP3 Roundup.  I dig DJ Babu’s track “Dearly Departed” which has a very unique new style that combines a Latin feel with rap.

If you like to workout and you are always looking for new electronic music to get moving then check out FitMusic.  The music is kind of generic but it’s programmed to be uptempo and easy to listen to so, and I thought I would mention it because you can also subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

Music Download Controversy in Schools

If you or someone you know is in college you have probably heard of the music industry’s new idea for college students to be able to download unlimited music for a monthly fee.  This is sparking a lot of controversy that you can read about here.

Related Free Music Downloads Articles:

• eMusic hits 250 million downloads
• eMusic: 250 Million Songs Downloaded. iTunes: 5 Billion+
• AT&T; offers Napster music
• O2 signs up with Napster
• More Music Sites (Part 3)
• SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 Player: Best buy

Bob Dylan at Lida Festival
Image via Wikipedia

My New Rock Acoustic Free Song Download “The World Will Break Apart”

I was listening to an acoustic version of the song “Glycerin” by Bush and I loved the simple sound of a few chords and cool lyrics just with the acoustic guitar.  So I set out to write something in that style and what came out is a song called “The World Will Break Apart”.  It doesn’t sound like “Glycerin” at all, but I was just learning “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana, so that feel also came out when I was writing.

MP3 Download:  TheWorldWillBreakApart.MP3

The lyrics are inspired by a book by Eckhart Tolle called “The Power of Now“. “The World Will Break Apart” sounds like a negative title, but in fact it refers to letting go of the “false” world constructed by society and our own preconceived idea of ourselves.  In my mind Tolle is really a modern Buddhist teacher and you can learn more about him at FreshCreation.com.

Rock Chord Progression Observations

This song reflects a growing simplicity in my writing style that has occurred over many years.  In fact, I have noticed more and more modern rock songs have fewer and fewer chord progressions:

For instance, Cold Play’s Viva La Vida sounds like an orchestral masterpiece, but when I learned it I was amazed to find that the ENTIRE song is only four chords - C D G and Em.  There is absolutely no variation between the verses, chorus and bridge.

Another very simple modern rock song, that was also a #1 single is “Supernova” by Oasis.  Everything but the bridge is A A/G A/F# E.

This one progression style is how some people wrote in the 60s - for instance “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix and “All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan.   Also of course the most famous song in the world - the blues - is just one progression.  The point is that one set of chord changes is inherently catchy and easy to play.

Also on my Internet music radar this week…

New Free Music Download Tools

Song Beat Player

I’ve been reading here that the latest in finding music and discovering new artists and music online is the SongBeatPlayer.  It lets you listen to and record streaming radio stations, make mixtapes and download free mp3 files.  The big deal about it is how simple it makes searching many music sites all at once.  But you should use it at your own risk for anything other than listening.

Sounds like a great idea, however, I have to agree with songbeat.com and musically.com that it could get you into legal trouble.  The software itself is not a bad thing, it’s just that it enables you to copy music that may not be allowed by the copyright holder.  Indie artists like myself often give people that permission, but record labels do not as a rule.

Yahoo Music Streaming in Search Results

I think Yahoo has come up with the quickest way to stream an artist or band’s music for free.  Just go to Yahoo.com search and type in the name of your favorite act.  You will now get immediate streaming tracks right in your search results!  Read the details and give it a try, it’s really cool.  Yahoo is trying to beat Google lately.

Backstage

Also, keep an eye on the site called Backstage.  They are attempting to make a business out of charging bands to give away free music in order to promote themselves.  In fact if you go to the backstage site they already have some new songs available.  I classify this under “things that make you go hmmm”.

My Instrumental MP3 Download

I just finished the instrumental mix of the music for my acoustic guitar rock song “Wait for the Dawn” that I’ll also be adding vocals to. This is one in a series of MP3 downloads that people can use for background music on YouTube videos, presentations and film soundtracks royalty free.

Download: WaitfortheDawn.MP3

Digital Download of Entire CD Releases on Magnatune

I was reading about the site Magnatune, which is kind of an online record label that offers free low-fi versions of the of their artists’ albums. There are three ways to use the site:

1. You can go right to their home page and start browsing.

First pick a genre you like, and since you probably don’t know any of the bands (yet) then click on a name that sounds cool. For instance I chose the genre “Ambient” then the band “Amoeba” then I clicked on “Play Low-Fi” for their CD Pivot (which is awesome by the way). At the bottom of the album page you will see this and you will want to click on the link for the MP3 file:

[hifi lofi] Play all tracks as an m3u audio stream (or xspf, ogg, mp3 file)

Doing this you can download and listen to the entire CD from any artist on the site completely legally for personal use!

2. Go to the Magnatune Free Song of the Day

3. Go to the Free Relaxation Mix

Downloading from Spinner MP3 of the Day

I also stumbled on the Spinner MP3 of the Day page which has a huge archive of new bands.

Bumblefoot Image via Wikipedia

Rock Pop Love Song Free Mp3

This week’s free mp3 music download is a rock love song I recorded with Steve Wytas at Audio911 called “Our Song”. A bunch of the songs I recorded there went on my CD or in the soundtrack for the NYU student film I was in called “At Last”. But this is the first place to download: OurSong.MP3.

Also in my musical world this week..

New Guns and Roses Love Song Rocks

I was reading this article about the legal problems with Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy and I went to their myspace page to check out the new cd that you can stream and listen to free. I came upon their new love song “This I Love” and man that tune rocks - particularly the guitar playing.

Bumblefoot Interview on WPDH

If you don’t know it already, then I’ll tell you that a dude named “Bumblefoot” is G&R’s new guitar player. He is a trip and I knew about him from a recent interview with Coop & Tobin on WPDH in New York. You can stream their morning show and it’s a riot. You can also check the interview with Bumblefoot on their MP3 download under “Best of Coop & Tobin” and in it you’ll hear how he is actually already has his own anti-hit album you can download from Bumblefoot.com.

The New York Times - Rocks?

I had no idea the New York Times had rock & roll music industry articles. But Peter Holsapple who toured with R.E.M. is actually one of the many writers on the roster. Since we are talking about love songs this week, I thought I’d point out the story of how the song he wrote “Love is for Lovers” was a flop, mainly because he says he can’t sing! I think it is actually a good song and I agree that it should be remade. You can listen to it and see what you think.

Free Evermore Rock MP3 Download

Ok, so now I’m off the love song topic. I don’t know much about the band Evermore except that I have heard the name and their new free download of the song “Between the Lines” is awesome. You can get it directly from their site here. You can read more about it at Idiomag.

Image via Wikipedia

Royalty Free Instrumental Music for Videos and Multimedia

I’ve been uploading the instrumental tracks for tunes I’m working on for people looking for royalty free music to use in presentations, YouTube videos and films.