Alternative, country, rap, hip-hop R & B, jazz, pop, rock, dance music…I listen to it all. My favourite genre of music has always been Top 40 pop, but as time goes on, all those popular hits eventually become oldies, one-hit wonders, or tunes covered by new artists. It’s much easier to satisfy my musical cravings these days, especially with the invention of the MP3 file format and online streaming (which I will dedicate an entire post to at some point). It also used to be a lot more expensive, since I would have to buy the entire cassette tape CD even if I only wanted one song.
Most online digital music retailers offer a free track of the week, and I’m going to share with you my favourite sites to find free legal music downloads in Canada:
iTunes Canada
Every Tuesday, iTunes Canada releases two free tracks to promote a new album. One song is in English, the other in French. Some weeks there will even be a free music video. Over the Christmas holidays they will gift music, movies, books, apps, or TV shows. Unfortunately, for Canadians, we do not have access to the U.S. iTunes store where there are more freebies and better offerings.
Requirements: You must have the iTunes software installed on your PC/Macintosh computer or an iPhone/iPod Touch and an iTunes account in order to download any media.
File format: *.mp4
Favourite downloads this year: Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team” and the official music video for Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe”.
NoiseTrade
This website delivers legal downloads of up and coming artists or formerly famous people attempting a comeback. Pay what you can by “tipping” the artist $1-$25 through PayPal. The suggested tip is $6 but no one will force you to pay if you don’t like what you hear. Facebook, Twitter and email promotion of the artist is encouraged.
Requirements: You have to input your email address and zip/postal code in order to receive the download link by email.
File format: *.mp3 files contained within a *.zip file
Favourite downloads this year: Graham Colton’s “Live at Eddie’s Attic”, and samplers from Aimee Mann, Trent Dabbs and Daniel Bedingfield.
Prior to 2008, Bonfire.ca, was a digital download site that sold Windows Media (*.wma) files. Then Puretracks bought the company and Bonfire users could log on to Puretracks with the same registration information. The Puretracks catalogue is extensive and similar to iTunes, but is much easier to use.
Requirements: You will have to register in order to buy music or download the free track of the week. No additional software is needed. MP3 files can be played on any platform and on any portable device.
File format: *.mp3 files
Favourite downloads this year: “Elephant King”, an acoustic Trace Bundy song. I usually delete these songs because I only listen to them once and the default file naming convention that Puretracks uses (“ftotw_yyyymmdd.mp3”) always leaves me wondering what the track is.
Trending Records
Notification of free, legal music downloads of up and coming artists through the Trending Records blog is categorized under the Free Download category.
Requirements: Various. These songs may be offered through SoundCloud, “Liking” a Facebook fan page or artist email subscription.
Favourite downloads this year: “Hanging On” by Ellie Goulding featuring Tinie Tempah
During the summer, I discovered that music retailer HMV offered a free track of the week. I remember quickly downloading the song, because I had no idea which day they would make a new song available. Well, as it turns out, there was no need to hurry. Three months later, the free track is still “Decisions” by Borgore, and I didn’t even enjoy it in the first place! I have been checking the website every so often, wondering when they are finally going to switch to another song.
If you know of any other free music downloads for Canadians, please add them to the Comments section and I will update this post.
So iTunes is the monopoly for legally downloaded music in Canada currently… which is annoying.
According to your out-of-date list above (Puretracks = no longer operating / HMV = very limited selection / others = even more limited or niche selection), there really is no legitimate way to purchase mp3s (note that I said mp3s; not playable-on-Apple-products-only AACs or streaming services).
So I guess that means that as a Canadian without the opportunity to legally purchase and download mp3 songs and albums from American sites that I can play on any device that I own, I’m back to special-ordering CDs (because I don’t listen to Katie Perry, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Nickelback, Pitbull, Wiz Khalifa, Coldplay or any variation/derivative thereof), or downloading illegally.
Way to go, music industry.
I agree with your comments. The artist doesn’t make a lot of money from iTunes, but Apple makes a killing. I drool over the cheap mp3’s being sold through amazon.com and I wonder why they can’t do the same on amazon.ca. It’s frustrating!
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Yeah the artist doesn’t make much money from iTunes, but Apple makes a killing
Yeah the artist doesn’t make much money from iTunes, but Apple makes a killing..Great post