I've consulted a few music download websites for free music downloading purposes. However, when I got to the respective websites I was always asked to register and provide payment details. Are there any music downloading sites that are really for free out there?

Yes, there are free mp3-downloading sites on the Internet, but they are all illegal. As such I can unfortunately not be of any assistance in this.

However, you do have other options...

The obvious route is the legal downloads — the music companies extend a license to these websites, who are then allowed to make the mp3's available for download at a fee.

To my knowledge, the only website that is licensed to offer legal downloads in South Africa is Musica's digital store — at R10 a song it really is worth it exploring downloading legal songs.

Then there's streaming audio and in this case I can recommend two options:

  • If you would like to explore new music without having to pay for them, a website that legally offers this option is Pandora — it's a very good website that allows you to legally listen to 10 tracks at a time through streaming audio and adjusts their playlist according to the feedback that you give. After a while, however, they will prompt you for a subscription fee to continue making use of the service.

  • The Internet is imbued with radio stations, to which you can log in and listen via streaming audio. InternetPlayer is a nice application that comes with a comprehensive list of Internet radio stations to choose from, spanning all music genres. The advantage of this is that it's free and you can listen as much as you want. The downside is that you can't pick the songs you want to listen to. Still, it's a nice way of discovering new music.

Just remember that streaming audio does contribute to your ADSL cap, so use it sparingly when you're getting close to the end of the month and your cap is in danger of being busted!