Download Free Music From Your Library

Do you have a library card?

li·brary kard noun \ˈlī-ˌbrer-ē kard, -ˌbre-rē kard; British usually & US sometimes : identification that permits someone to temporarily take home literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) that are kept in a building and are for use but not for sale

I have a library card with the New York Public Library system. On my first perusal of the library system's web site one year ago this week, I found a link that lead me to Free Music!

Freegalmusic.com allows anyone with a current library card to download three songs a week for free. These songs are 256 kbps, in the MP3 format and contain no DRM encoding. In my recent searches I have seen some music that is currently out-of-print but still downloadable from the library system - which must have some ragged old compact disc in a dusty branch somewhere. What a treat!

Freegal also allows logged in users to stream three hours of music a day. FREE!

To find out if you can download and stream using Freegal Music, you'll have to search the web site of your local library to see if they partner with Freegal. You can connect to the web site from the New York Public Library site using this link and check out the music selection ... but cannot log in (or download) without a valid library card. Recently I've downloaded:

• Carrie Underwood
• Mark Ronson
• Hozier
• Michael Jackson
• Bob Dylan
• Kaye Ballard
• Barbra Streisand
• Foo Fighters
• Beyonce
• Elvis Presley
• Pink Floyd
• Miley Cyrus
• Daft Punk
• Pitbull
• Miles Davis
• Meghan Trainor

There's also an app for it! The Freegal App allows you to search and browse the Freegal Music collection of your library, and to download, store and play your Freegal MP3 files on your smartphone. OverDrive is another service. It is a virtual check out/return catalog of digital books and music. Good for Kindle/eBook/audiobook users. Not sure how the return actually works but I have no doubt that it does.

This information was originally published when I saw this sign, splashed with a picture of Leona Lewis, that I found in the Rose Garden branch of the San Jose Public Library when I lived on the left coast.

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