I'm going to let you in on a little secret. It's a powerful secret -- one that might stop Lars Ulrich from buying Matisse paintings, one that might mean Bono has to downgrade from Armani sunglasses to Dolce and Gabbana.
I have access to free music.
OK, ok. More accurately, I'm in the beta for a new music service Free All Music (http://www.freeallmusic.com).
Free All Music provides just that: five free MP3 downloads per week. The downloads are licensed and legal and DRM-free. The catch: you have to watch a short advertisement before accessing the "click to download" button.
Currently, the service has a limited selection of music. The catalog seems to be heavily Top 40 and only includes bands from Universal, EMI and a few independent labels. (So yes, you can download U2 for free, but no, you cannot get Metallica. Oh darn, huh.) If all you're looking for are free MP3 and you don't mind sitting through brief ads to get them, then Free All Music will probably appeal to you. But despite my love of stickin' it to the record industry, I'm not particularly interested in Free All Music's service. Having to watch ads just feels like I've traded one corporate master for another. And what's missing from the site is, in large part, what I love most about online music sites: the social aspect, the sharing.
Free All Music has no user ratings or reviews for songs. (Now granted, it's beta. Perhaps this feature will come.) Other than the Top 100 list on the main page, songs cannot be sorted and displayed by their popularity (by the number of user downloads). The music then feels disconnected from listeners, from fans. For me at least, this makes it hard to even think about what five songs I'd want to download. Typically I follow the recommendations of my friends-with-good-taste when checking out new bands, and the music available on Free All Music benefits from no such insight.
(So I say, if you're looking for folks-with-good-taste who also happen to be folks-with-free-music, consider reading Pitchfork or You Ain't No Picasso instead.)