Free Music Downloads - Safe and Legal If You Follow the Rules
Music download stories are all over the news these days. And it's no wonder.
In one year, from 2004 to 2005, downloading jumped from half a million tracks a
year to the same number per week! Including
free music downloads, music fans now
get more than 500,000 songs from the Internet every day - many loaded directly
into MP3 players
or other digital audio devices.
RIAA's Scare Tactics
The Recording Industry Association of America wants us to believe any song we download without payment is illegal. They aggressively seek out and prosecute copyright violators, making sure the cases get plenty of press. You'll rarely see anything in these reports about the legality of free downloadable
music. Obviously RIAA doesn't want you to know.
What's particularly misleading is they make it sound like you're stealing from the artists. Critics maintain major record labels have ripped off musicians for years. Recording artists receive on average less than a dime a song - in many cases less than a nickel. Musicians make a lot more from tours and concerts than from record sales.
Copyright Basics
In fairness to RIAA, piracy is illegal and a problem. Copyright laws exist to
protect authors, musicians and other artists. They are entitled to, and should
be compensated for their work. But when it comes to music piracy the biggest
losers are record labels, distributors and retailers - not the artists!
Under U.S. copyright law anyone who records a song, paints a picture or creates other media automatically owns a copyright to,
and has control of that material. The author often affixes a notice (e.g., ©2006). Stronger protection comes from registering with state and/or federal copyright offices.
All or part of the rights can be sold or licensed with or without compensation. For example, I can grant the right to reprint this article or I could sell it, transferring all rights to someone else.
Obvious and Not-So-Obvious Music Piracy
There are millions of songs you can legally download for free, but which ones? Let's start with what is not legal. The biggest culprit is file-sharing, AKA P2P (peer-to-peer). Services like Kazaa and Grokster enable members to swap music files. Simply log on, find other member songs, and download them. Sounds harmless, right? Not so fast...
When you buy music, you get certain rights to the songs including making copies or transferring them to other media for your personal use. You do not have the right to copy the song and give it to me. If you do, you've violated copyright laws and can be prosecuted. And by receiving it, I've broken the law too.
The courts have upheld this, most P2P networks have been shut down. But there are
still hundreds of sites offering free downloads. Some legal, some not. A general rule is any site offering unlimited, unrestricted downloads is questionable. Remember, virtually all songs - even "Happy Birthday to You" - are copyrighted with distribution restrictions.
Let's Take a Look at Legal Free Downloads
Some musicians host their own sites where you can download selected songs for free. Why? Two reasons. First to promote their work and enhance their image. Second, artists know that free samples inevitably result in more CD, concert, and licensed merchandise sales.
Music genre sites like jazz, classical, rap and others promote their particular music style much like individual artists' sites. They invite musicians to upload songs for free distribution. Some are relative unknowns looking for exposure, but many are popular and successful. Often these sites allow you to download a designated number of free tracks, after which there is a charge.
Some fee-based services offer free trial memberships during which you can download songs at no charge. If you don't wish to pay the membership fee, simply cancel at the end of the free trial period. Some services encode downloads so they will only play while the membership is active. You can spot these if the site mentions synchronizing. Apple's iTunes is one example.
Managing Music File Formats
Music is downloaded in one of several Codec formats. What is a codec? In telecommunications it's the coding/decoding chips used to translate digital and analog signals. For music downloads codec refers to a compressor/decompressor algorithm. Music files are compressed for storage, then decompressed during playback. MP3, WMA and AAC are the most common codecs.
Why are codecs necessary? A raw (uncompressed) audio file for an average song is more than 35 megabytes. It would take a long time to download and quickly fill a computer or MP3 player's memory. Plus, most portable music players couldn't even read it. Using MP3 the same song is about 3.5MB.
How do codecs work? The average person is able to hear sounds from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. Codecs compress the raw audio by discarding sounds inaudible to the human ear. This is known as "destructive" or "lossy" compression because the discarded data is lost.
Because each codec discards slightly different sounds, converting from one lossy format to another degrades sound quality. So when downloading music, it's important to get the right format. Some people will tell you to burn the tracks on a CD, then rip them in another format. But remember, the discarded sounds were permanently lost, so this method is not really effective.
Lastly, pay attention to bitrates. Bitrate is the number of times per second sound is sampled for the digital conversion, expressed as kbps. Higher bitrates produce sharper, clearer sound but use more memory. Lower bitrates use less memory but sound muffled. Typical bitrates range from 64 kbps to 320 kbps. MP3 at 128 kbps delivers good quality sound, while WMA can go as low as 64 kbps.
Working With Digital Rights Management
DRM is used while encoding a music file to restrict copies. It usually allows you to make three to five copies. Any subsequent copies will not play. Many download services attach DRM to their downloads, which can cause several problems. If you plan to load the music into a portable MP3 player, make sure the player will support DRM protected files - many won't.
Removing DRM from music files is sometimes possible, but it's a complicated process not for the technically challenged. If you insist on trying, you'll need to buy specialized software and do some research on exactly how. In any case, there are no guaranties on results.
One last note on DRM... If you're using software to rip music from CDs for MP3 or WMA files, make sure DRM is turned off. You don't want to create problems down the road.
The Future of Music Downloads
Despite the recording industry's grumblings about waning CD sales and piracy, downloading
music is here to stay. From 1999 to 2004 shipments of CDs and other pre-recorded music declined nearly 20%. However, in 2004 alone, downloads accounted for 20% of all music purchases.
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