etree.org is for you if you are into lossless audio. (Of course, if you are, you probably already know about it!

From their site: The etree.org music community was created in the summer of 1998 for the online trading of live CD-R's. We do not trade CD-R's via regular mail. Instead, we trade by downloading losslessly compressed audio files, extracting these files, and then burning them onto a CD-R.

The etree.org community uses an independent network of file (FTP) servers that host and distribute Shorten (SHN) audio files. Shorten is our file format of choice because it uses a lossless compression scheme, and is available for a variety of operating systems. This means the digital audio files distributed via etree.org are identical to the original DAT source, and can be played on any computer. There is absolutely NO sound quality loss, or any loss of information for that matter! Every downloaded copy is an identical clone of the original DAT source." Read on...

Have a good one!

A new site was released just recently and is in its nascent stages. Nonetheless, the site - freethesounds.org - has great potential. It povides an environment for musicians to share their samples, loops, sounds, snippets, compositions and more.

freethesounds.org allows users to choose amongst a variety of different Creative Commons licenses to protect and distribute their music.

The site is running the Drupal software, a binafide GPL software that powers such sites as spreadfirefox.com and of course the drupal.org website, among many others.

Check out freethesounds.org and sing up to share your music creations! Once a lot of people are using the site, there will be plenty of free music for listeners themselves, too! Yay!

Creative Commons is at it again! This time it is with sampling licenses, a sweet little idea that will help people worldwide share their samples in a legal, mutually beneficial way. This is not limited to music, as you can read below.

From the site: "The Sampling licenses let you invite other people to use a part of your work and make it new. For example:

* To take a sample from your song and include it in their own.
* To use a clip from your film.
* To take a piece of your photograph and put it into a collage.

Think of it as a way to reward people for transforming your work into something it wasn't before."

Go for it!

I found Opsound through the Creative Commons website. They are steadily growing... very good news for freedom!

From their site: "Opsound is a record label and sound pool using an open source, copyleft model, an experiment in practical gift economics, a laboratory for new ways of releasing music. Visit the Opsound Open Pool for free copyleft music downloads. Musicians and sound artists are invited to add their work to the pool."

The sounds in the Opsound pool are licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike license.

I have already heard some really cool tracks on this site, and I have only had a litttle time to listen. Have fun!

I thought I would start this topic off with something for people interested in sharing their music for free with the masses (the general public :). There are many benefits to doing so, including exposure and feedback.

The Creative Commons Music Sharing License offers musicians worldwide a great way to legally and safely license their creations for the listening pleasure of the general public.

You may also search the Creative Commons audio search engine to find free music to listen to!

NOTE: This music license does not allow for the sale or modification of the original music. I will be posting info about this kind of license soon. For the time being, check out the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, which allows for the commercial use and modification as long as modifications are released under the same license.