We're looking for legit sources of music files for a business project.
 The sites are most likely to distribute single tracks to help bands
get heard/found and get their CD's bought. (Sources with illegal
music, and P2P services, aren't of interest.) The service we're
looking at is aimed at furthering these goals--get music heard.

Sites of interest should present a collection of music and/or artists
above @2000.  (We're not aiming at single-band sites just yet.)

Along with Title and URL, things we'd like to know:
*  How many tracks and/or artists
*  Does the site also sell music?
*  What are the criteria for listing (editor picks? musician pays? 
anybody can post anything?  etc.)
*  What language(s) is the site in?
*  What audio format(s) are available? 
*  Does the site provide downloads?  Streams?  Both? Other?
*  Is the site a for-profit business?  If so, what seems to be the
revenue model (ads, music sales, other)
*  Does it look like a commercial undertaking?

Any other observations will be helpful.  Follow-on questions are
likely, we're looking for a working relationship with good
researchers.

Dear drmatthewdunn,


I found a number of sites that legally offer free music for streaming
or download. Although in most cases I was unable to determine exactly
how many artists or tracks are available, I excluded sites with fewer
than 2000 tracks.

Every site below is in English. I did not find any sites in the foreign
languages that I can read.


-----------------------------------------------------------

Epitonic
http://www.epitonic.com/

- at least 1000 artists, most with several free tracks
- does not sell music directly, but links to Amazon and Insound
- artists are selected by site editors
- format: mp3, wma
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from ads and referral fees (Amazon, Insound)

-----------------------------------------------------------

IUMA
http://www.iuma.com/

- hundreds of artists, most with ten or more free tracks
- does not sell music
- artists are selected by IUMA
- format: mp3, real
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site owned by Vitaminic (see below)
- revenue from advertising
- mostly American content

-----------------------------------------------------------

Vitaminic
http://www.vitaminic.com/main

- tens of thousands of free tracks
- sells some tracks
- any artist can register
- format: mp3, real
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising and track sales (50% of purchase price)
- mostly European content

-----------------------------------------------------------

GarageBand
http://www.garageband.com/

- tens of thousands of free tracks
- sells CDs through partnership with CDBaby.com
- artists pay $6.99 per hosted track
- format: mp3
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from ads and artist services (hosting, promotion, CD sales)

-----------------------------------------------------------

betterPropaganda
http://www.betterpropaganda.com/top_downloads.asp

- thousands of free tracks
- does not sell music directly, but links to Amazon and Insound
- artists must apply for consideration
- format: mp3
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from ads and affiliate payments (mostly Amazon)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Peoplesound
http://www.peoplesound.com/FAQ/downloads.cfm

- thousands of free tracks
- does not sell music, but hosts 30-second clips for signed artists
- unsigned artists must apply to have tracks hosted
- format: mp3, wma
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising

-----------------------------------------------------------

MySpace
http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music

- hundreds of thousands of free tracks
- does not sell music yet, but launching a record label on November 15th
- any artist can register
- format: mp3, wma, real
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising and artist promotion
- recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation

-----------------------------------------------------------

Download.com
http://music.download.com/

- 21,808 artists, most with several tracks
- does not sell music
- any artist can register
- format: mp3
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising
- part of the CNET content portal

-----------------------------------------------------------

mp3.com
http://www.mp3.com/

- tens of thousands of free tracks
- does not sell music directly, but links to online music stores
- record labels pay to list artists
- format: mp3
- streams only
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising, artist promotion, music-store partnerships
- owned by CNET

-----------------------------------------------------------

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/468646/103-8257266-7362234

- thousands of free tracks
- also sells music by download and snail mail
- tracks selected by Amazon editors from artists who sell through Amazon
- format: mp3
- downloads only (30-second clips are streamed)
- for-profit site
- revenue from music sales

-----------------------------------------------------------

Magnatune
http://magnatune.com/

- 418 free albums, each with about ten tracks
- also sells music
- artists apply to Magnatune for consideration
- format: mp3
- streams only
- for-profit record label
- revenue from album sales
- every album is available in two ways: free to stream, pay to download

-----------------------------------------------------------

mp34u
http://www.mp34u.com/index.php

- 2364 free tracks (yes, I counted)
- does not sell music
- site editors select music
- format: mp3
- downloads only
- does not appear to be a for-profit site (yet)
- no apparent source of revenue
- promotes muzic.com ("coming soon"); perhaps this will be revenue source

-----------------------------------------------------------

BETA Records
http://www.betarecords.com/

- at least 1000 artists, most with several free tracks
- does not sell music
- any artist can register
- format: mp3
- streams only
- for-profit site
- revenue from artist promotion and a few ads

-----------------------------------------------------------

SoundClick
http://www.soundclick.com/

- tens of thousands of free tracks
- does not sell music 
- any artist can register
- format: mp3
- downloads and streams
- for-profit site
- revenue from advertising and artist promotion

-----------------------------------------------------------


It has been a pleasure to address this question on your behalf.

Regards,

leapinglizard

thanks.  Appreciate the consistent answer framework.  I suspect there
are more sources that don't think of themselves as 'music sources'
(e.g. Creative Commons repositories, OurMedia, others) but these help
us a lot.