The strangest thing happened to me recently. I searched on the words “totally free mp3 downloads” and, naturally, I got about ten trillion hits. I took one of the first ones that came up, Bearshare, and checked it out.
It seemed good enough. There are over 20 million mp3 downloads. Searches can be made for an artist or song – any artist or song – and up pops the artist you want with a list of their songs or albums. If you want a song, various versions of that song by the artist, and other artists, also come up.
Of course, free mp3 downloads run the risk of having adware or spyware infiltrate the download. After doing a bit of research, Bearshare comes up as one of sites with the fewest complaints.
What I have found on Bearshare is probably the widest array of songs by artists of any genre. I typed in “Death Cab for Cutie” and got rarities from the band (Cutie’s version of “Wonderful World” done at a show in Phoenix was a blast!), as well as popular and otherwise rare songs from other artists. The Decemberist’s version of Death Cab’s “Marching Bands of Manhattan” is worth the service alone.
There are drawbacks to free mp3 downloads, of course. Most of their downloadable songs aren’t free. They are available through their Premium service, available with a subscription. What that subscription buys you is access to every song they carry right at your fingertips. You have to ask yourself if spending $1.29 per song is worth it.