Community Corner

You Can Download Songs For Free (No Joke)

The Pierce County Library System launched a music download program that allows anyone with a library card to get songs for free. Only catch is there's a three-song-per-week limit, but they are yours to keep.

The is giving away songs, and it has nothing to do with illegal downloading or file-sharing.

It's quite the opposite, actually. On Monday, the libraries introduced Freegal Music, a downloadable song service that libraries buy and offer to their users at no charge. Through the library's website, anyone with a library card can download from more than 500,000 titles from Sony Music.

Users don't need any special software or licensing rights to obtain the songs, and there are no limits as to how long users can keep them, unlike the library's other downloadable offerings such as audio and e-books.

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The only catch is users can download only three songs per week, a number that heavy downloaders might find laughable. Still, library officials expect the service to take off in terms of popularity, particularly with the prevalence of Mp3 players, iPods, iPhones and the like. 

“Downloading audio and e-books has been off the charts at our library system,” said Neel Parikh, executive director, for Pierce County Library. “We are confident that people will take quickly to downloading music, too.”

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It also comes after both users and the companies they download from have run into trouble with the law. (See Napster, Limewire)

Similar to iTunes (but free), Freegal's selection covers 100 music genres and 50 record labels, everything from pop to country to R&B to rock to jazz to oldies. New music is added daily.

If you don't have a library card, visit the to get one.

Happy downloading.


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