Free Music Archive launches
Wednesday is tax day, so I thought you might be able to use some free music. I don't mean questionably legal file trades or streams or random MP3s delivered via Seeqpod or some other search engine--I'm talking about the Free Music Archive, which launched in beta over the weekend.
Often, sites with tons of free music have a low-quality bar--either they cater to beginning bands, or they're used to promote leftovers and outtakes that artists couldn't otherwise sell. But at first glance, FMA appears to be different.
It's curated by serious music fans, including New Jersey's WFMU, the undisputed national leader in unusual music, as well as Seattle's frequently awesome KEXP, and includes lots of live-in-studio performances on these and other stations.
There are artists you might actually have heard of, like Robyn Hitchcock, Daniel Johnston, and Vivian Girls. And, keeping with WFMU's heritage, the "Experimental" category isn't just an afterthought but a rather major part of the site, with a whopping 1,340 downloads. All songs are licensed for a wide array of uses, including sampling and remixes.
Can't get enough? Want new downloads as soon as they become available? Try subscribing to the site's Twitter feed.
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Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff. 
