Living a simpler life doesn’t necessarily mean giving up all the things you love. With a little effort, many of the things you enjoy can be had very cheaply or even free. Here are five ways I’ve found to get music cheap or free:
iTunes – There’s always a free download or two available via the iTunes store. Selections mapping to my personal taste are rare, however, so I don’t use this resource very often. It may be just what someone else is looking for, however.
Starbucks – Every week Starbucks offers free downloads from iTunes. Look for a credit card sized card in a small display on the counter featuring the current week’s selection. On it you’ll find a code to use on iTunes to download the selection for free. The genre varies so you may have to keep checking to find something you’ll like. Last Christmas I got the London Symphony Orchestra version of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah free this way.
Amazon MP3 – There are always some free downloads available from Amazon. Sometimes even whole albums. They also have some great deals on downloadable music – not completely free but close. You have to add the Amazon MP3 Downloader to your computer to download music from Amazon but once you do, the items you choose are downloaded directly to iTunes for you.
BBC Music Magazine – This may seem odd for a list devoted to cheap or free music since a subscription is $60 per year. However, for that price you receive 13 issues of the magazine, each of which contains a full classical music CD – just a little over four bucks per CD. For classical music lovers, this is one of the best ways to build a library in my opinion.
InstantEncore.com – This is also for classical music lovers. Some selections can be downloaded for free from the site but you can listen on-line as well or through a several iPhone applications. Various orchestras and artists have free applications through InstantEncore that allow you to tune in to their performances via your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you register with the site you can also save certain artists, orchestras or composers as favorites and receive an e-mail when new performances are available. To find out which artists have applications to download, do a search in the iTunes store for “InstantEncore”. You can also purchase music through this site but the prices are no better than iTunes so I’ve never used that feature.
Do you know of a source for free or cheap music? I’d love to hear about it!
