So a Guy Walks into a Best Buy...

I was taking a study break when I came across a YouTube video. I thought it was cool so I decided to share:

Above: Skillz, a hip-hop artist from Virginia, supports The Roots by purchasing multiple copies of their latest album, Rising Down.

I hear and read a lot about the music industry’s recession: Record labels find it difficult to cope with the shift from CDs to downloading. Musicians lose millions at the click of a button because of Internet piracy. Even the most popular artists have trouble making money and seek other sources of revenue.

Unfortunately I can’t afford one copy of anything right now, but unemployment turned out to be a good thing. I found plenty of places to get free (and legal) music online:

Ruckus (description from the site)-"Ruckus.com is the leader in the digital media space offering college students a unlimited free downloads from a music library of over 2.5 Million tracks and over 4,000 movies and TV programs. Ruckus music downloads are 100% legal, virus free and available to anyone who has a valid school (.edu) email address."
http://www.ruckus.com/ruckus/home.do

MTVU Discover & Download- MTV's version of what college students listen to. Discover. Download. For free.
http://www.mtvu.com/music/discover_and_download/

Adult Swim- Adult Swim is a block of programming that airs on Cartoon Network from 11pm to 6am. It teams up with record labels to provide free music mixes. There are a couple available for download now (Ghostly Swim and Definitive Swim). Sometimes the mixes they offer have a limited number of downloads though.
http://www.adultswim.com/williams/music/index.html

Okayplayer-a community (not a label) for like-minded music artists and fans. Occasionally there have been posts on the news blog with links to artists giving out songs (sometimes entire albums) for free. Mostly it’s hip-hop/rap, but in my experience, following one link can often lead to another with music of a different genre.
http://www.okayplayer.com/

Plus:

• iTunes offers a new free download every Tuesday. You can download the iTunes program for free here.

• If you frequently drink Pepsi or any Coca Cola Product, save the tops and you can trade the codes under the cap for mp3 downloads. Get Pepsi Stuff here and Coke Rewards here.

• Your favorite artist may have a MySpace page with free songs available. You need a MySpace account in order to download though. If you loathe the idea of having an account, find a friend with one.

It takes time to look for music this way, but finding artists that I never would've heard of otherwise makes the search worthwhile.

Okay, back to the books.