I stumbled across the following website which is offering 1,000 songs free to download and play on your computer, MP3 player (iPod), or even burn to a cd.
http://www.reverbnation.com/windows
The free downloads are supported by Microsoft Windows of all people. I guess the way to beat piracy is to give things away. I doubt they will adopt this attitude with their Operating System or Office software anytime soon.
The songs are in genres including Alternative, Electronica/Dance, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin, Pop and Rock. Strangely there is no Classical category but there are a number of instrumentals among the Jazz and Latin categories.
Most of the artists you will have never heard of but there are a couple of Australian bands in there like The Church and a cool Jazz/Fusion band from Sydney call Urban Gypsies. You can play the songs on the website by just clicking the Play button next to the song. If you hear something you like you can download in either M4A or MP3 format. If you don’t know which format to choose go with MP3.
So have an explore and listen to something new today
