How To Download Free Music To Itunes

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Editor'due south notation: This story has been updated in its entirety. Y'all'll find all-new information nigh how to find free music online here.

I get it: You desire some costless tunes, merely you don't want to be sued past the RIAA or past copyright trolls. Fair enough. Unfortunately, totally free music is rare these days—er, totally complimentary and legal music, that is. Simply yous can discover some complimentary music, and you tin grab information technology directly from the music thespian you're probably already using: iTunes.

Yes, iTunes may be clunky, slow, and abrasive, but it isn't entirely bad—especially once you know how to dig upwardly complimentary, legal music straight from the iTunes Music Store.

Gratuitous On iTunes

Guess what? iTunes has a whole folio defended to free downloads. To access Costless On iTunes, first open up iTunes and click the iTunes Store item on the left-hand sidebar. Once you lot're in the iTunes Shop homepage, look for a Quick Links heading on the right side. Underneath that heading will be a Gratis On iTunes link. Click the link, and voilà! This page features all sorts of free content, including music, flick clips, Idiot box shows, apps, and even "new and notable" podcasts.

To download a free detail, just click the fiddling gray Free push button. Yous will demand an iTunes account to download annihilation from the iTunes Store.

No-toll items in the Gratis On iTunes section are usually available for around a week, so keep checking the page for updates. Yous can besides follow the Complimentary iTunes Downloads blog, which updates every time a new item appears.

Music Podcasts

If you don't mind listening to some chatter between songs, check out music-oriented podcasts bachelor for free on iTunes. Podcasts are like prerecorded radio shows in that they normally include tunes and commentary. (Some don't accept whatsoever commentary—AOLMedia'southward MP3 of the Day Podcast, for instance, offers one total, costless song in each episode.)

To browse podcasts, become to the iTunes Store and click the Podcasts link (on the top bar). Here you'll see everything from news and sports podcasts to science and tech podcasts, and all of them are free. To find music-oriented podcasts, go to the column on the right that says 'Podcast Quick Links' and click the drop-down menu. Choose Music, and you'll meet hundreds of music podcasts.

To subscribe to a podcast, merely click the Subscribe push button adjacent to the championship. Once you do so, the electric current episode of the podcast will download, and future episodes volition download automatically as they become bachelor. You tin can also download past episodes by clicking the Free push button side by side to an individual episode on the podcast's homepage.

Hither are some podcasts to check out, depending on your musical tastes.

Rock/Pop: Glory Playlist, IndieFeed: Indie Popular Music, Old Time Stone n Roll, Rock of Ages, Absolute Radio: Classic Rock

Indie/Alternative: They Might Be Giants, IndieFeed: Culling/Modern Rock Music, Indie Spotlight, NPR: All Songs Considered

Rap/Hip-Hop: Alternative Hip-Hop Lounge, Mixtape Show Hip-Hop, Hierocast, Dope Joints! Hip Hop Mixshow

Electronica: Tiësto's Club Life by Tiësto, The John Digweed Podcast by John Digweed, Release Yourself by Roger Sanchez, Corsten's Inaugural by Ferry Corsten, A Country of Trance Official Podcast past Armin van Buuren

Next page: Starbucks "Pick of the Week" and iTunes Radio

Starbucks 'Pick of the Calendar week'

Taking reward of this freebie is almost every bit easy as opening the Free On iTunes page. Every Tuesday, Starbucks offers a gratis iTunes download, likewise known as the Starbucks "Option of the Week." To selection upwardly the "pick," all yous need to do is head down to your local Starbucks and grab one of the small, round-cornered cards (located near the sugar, creamer, and straws). Starbucks usually has both this week's and last week'south picks on display.

Of course, yous'll accept to remember the Starbucks audience: Y'all won't find any hip-hop or Height 40 tunes here. Instead, about of the picks feature contained artists, acoustic guitars, and smooth jazz—standard coffee-shop fare. A recent pick was Daniel Isaiah's "High Twilight."

The front of each card has the proper noun of the song and creative person, as well as a photo of the artist. On the back is a download lawmaking. To download your song, open iTunes and redeem the code by going to iTunes Store, Quick Links, Redeem.

You tin can too download the "Pick of the Week" by accessing the Starbucks Digital Network from inside a Starbucks store. To do this, you lot'll have to have your computer in and connect to the Starbucks shop'south Wi-Fi. One time you're continued, become to the Amusement department of the page and download the "Pick of the Week" from the Starbucks site.

Starbucks recently expanded its "Pick of the Calendar week" selection to include free downloads of paid iOS apps.

iTunes Radio

Although Apple no longer promotes the Cyberspace radio feature in iTunes, it'south still around—and worth checking out, especially if you don't need to take your music with you. iTunes radio is like to other free radio stations: You can listen to music, for complimentary, for as long as you like, just an advertisement will interrupt every and then often.

To access iTunes radio, open up iTunes and look at the column on the left. Below all of the usual options under the Library subheading, click on the Radio link; you'll encounter a huge list of genres (everything from 'Adult Contemporary' to 'Eclectic' to 'seventy's Retro'). Click on the arrow side by side to a category to open a list of hundreds of streaming Internet radio stations. Finally, just double-click on a station to connect to the stream.

You can also add your ain Cyberspace radio streams to iTunes. To exercise and then, go to Advanced, Open up Stream… and enter the URL of your desired stream in the Open Audio Stream box.

Free Music Tin can Be Legal, Likewise

These options are pretty much the legal limit when it comes to obtaining gratuitous music on iTunes. As you tin see, iTunes doesn't have a huge selection of items to pick upwardly for free, simply at least it however has a selection. Podcasts volition unremarkably give y'all the well-nigh diverseness, and if you're listening to a capable host (say, one of the DJs, such as David Guetta or John Digweed), it'southward well-nigh as expert as having the song files—and it doesn't betrayal you to legal gamble.

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Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles. She has a love/detest human relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing engineering as "sexy."