How to Broaden your Musical Horizons with Free Downloads

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Free downloads from music sites can open up new musical vistas

Take a look at your “most often played” list on your MP3 player. Chances are it will testify to the elemental truths behind your favorite music types. But music types can come in many genres. For example, my iPod reminds me that I have been listening to lots of Wagner (opera), Nine Inch Nails (industrial rock / electronic), and The Twilight Sad (rock). All three of these artists express themselves though the mediums of different musical genres, but they all have some common ground: the music is dark and beautifully bleak. This made me think: What other genres exist that express the same sentiments?  When you download music for free you are putting yourself in the best situation possible to discover artists who are new to you. But the best part is that free downloads make it extremely easy for people to experience music from genres that would typically turn them off, but who are also pleasantly surprised by those gem tracks they unearth. This article will give some tips on how to conduct research within a free music download site, and will reveal one music-lover’s journey to finding some new loves.

How to Broaden your Musical Horizons with Free Downloads
Broaden your musical horizons with free downloads.

Before I open the door to my personal journey in music, I wish to stress the importance of finding a GOOD free  downloads site. The average sites have around 1 million tracks in their media libraries. Though this seems acceptable enough, there are some sites with over 10 million tracks. The bigger your playground, the more room you have to play, learn, and have fun. Also, make sure that the tracks are indeed free with no hidden costs. Although some sites may not charge a fee per-track download, they will slap their users with a monthly membership fee. Do your research before anything else.

I Stand Corrected

I must admit I was a bit of a music bigot before I really took the time to explore music in depth through free downloads sites. I never liked Country. Just the twang of the guitars made me think of uneducated people making moonshine while their trailer doors rust off the hinges. Then a friend of mine set me straight and gave me a list of tracks to check out. I went to a free music download site and put them in my queue. Later that night I played them, and was blown away.

Clearly, I had been ignorant and judgmental. Artists such as Johnny Cash, Woven Hand, and Rob Coffinshaker exude the same dark, beautiful reflections of an artist’s personal experience that I so loved in the tracks loaded on my iPod play list. Than I discovered that Johnny Cash actually did a cover of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails, and I find myself sitting on the fence in trying to decide if I like the Cash cover more than the original! In surfing through the free music download site, I discovered genres unknown to me such as Gothic Country, Dark Acoustic, and Cow Punk. I then went to the Internet search engines, and did a variety of searches to see what other artists came up under these genres, and quickly returned to the free downloads site. One hour later I had 48 songs lined up in my download queue, and I was a little less ignorant to the world of music.

Spread the Word

Once you have experienced first hand how downloading free music exists beyond the definition as a source for entertainment but also one that educates and broadens one’s horizons, spread the word. In a surprising article by Tech Dirt, the author states that among all adults, radio remains the number one most popular tool for discovering new music. The article continues to state that the most popular source for teens is YouTube, followed by radio, iTunes and CDs. I find this to be incredible! YouTube may be great, but in order to discover new music on it you have to already know what you are looking for. As for radio, you have no control over what you hear, and iTunes and CDs cost money. Be sure to educate others on the user-friendly and ease of free music download sites, as they are hands down the BEST sources for discovering new music.

Search, Listen and Grow

Although Country music is still my least favorite genre, I have discovered some Country music (including a few tracks by the legendary Willie Nelson) that I like a great deal.

There are also a lot of fun and interesting things to learn about the psychology of music and the evolution of the online music industry, which will increase your listening pleasure.

Thanks to the spacious digital playground of music via free downloads, I was able to discover my own close-mindedness, and cure it with a dose of something new and exciting that continues to perk my further curiosity, and inspire me to discover new music every week.

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