Reviewing the Library's New Free mp3 Download Program
Courtesy of Heartland Microsites
Dust off your library cards! For users like myself who rarely ever use their public library cards, Seattle Public Library is providing some incentive to do so. Earlier this week, the library announced that it now offers free mp3 downloads courtesy of Freegal, an online database of Sony music songs. The digital music files are DRM-free, never expire, and work on all mp3-compatible devices.
All you need to access this treasure cove of free and legal music is a Seattle Public Library card. Sounds too good to be true, so this Seattlest correspondent had to try it out.
After the tedious task of locating my library card, which I've had for three years but never used thanks to the convenience of Amazon.com, I logged onto the Freegal website with ease. With an easy-to-use interface, the Freegal Music website holds over 500,000 songs from artists as classic as Bruce Springsteen and as modern as the Glee cast. The site allows you to sample the song, and then download to your desktop at the simple click of a button.
The catch? Users can only download three mp3s per week. Unfortunately Freegal also lacks any indie or local music.
Given the ease of obtaining whole digital albums at a dollar or less per track, or streaming music for free on sites like Blip.fm and Pandora, this restriction makes Freegal sound much less appealing. To fully satiate customers with a service like Freegal, such a silly restriction will have to be lifted.
The purpose of offering music downloads via the web is to both help libraries avoid the costs associated with managing CD collections, and to recognize the way music is listened to today. SPL already offers a solid selection of e-books. It's an idea that will be interesting to track as we watch libraries attempt to modernize and remain relevant in our constantly evolving digital society.
To try Freegal for yourself, go to www.spl.org and click on "Library Collection," then "Digital Books & Media" and scroll down the page to find the "Freegal Music Collection."
