How to Download Free Music to Itunes on Mac Updated

How to Download Free Music to Itunes on Mac

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Editor'due south note: This story has been updated in its entirety. You'll discover all-new information about how to detect free music online here.

I go it: You lot want some free tunes, simply you don't desire to be sued by the RIAA or by copyright trolls. Fair enough. Unfortunately, totally complimentary music is rare these days—er, totally free and legal music, that is. But you tin can find some costless music, and you can catch it directly from the music player you lot're probably already using: iTunes.

Yep, iTunes may be clunky, slow, and annoying, but it isn't entirely bad—especially once you know how to dig upward gratuitous, legal music direct from the iTunes Music Store.

Free On iTunes

Approximate what? iTunes has a whole folio dedicated to free downloads. To access Free On iTunes, first open up iTunes and click the iTunes Store item on the left-manus sidebar. Once y'all're in the iTunes Store homepage, expect for a Quick Links heading on the right side. Underneath that heading will be a Costless On iTunes link. Click the link, and voilà! This folio features all sorts of free content, including music, flick clips, Tv shows, apps, and fifty-fifty "new and notable" podcasts.

To download a gratuitous particular, simply click the little gray Free button. Y'all will need an iTunes account to download anything from the iTunes Store.

No-price items in the Free On iTunes department are unremarkably bachelor for around a week, so keep checking the page for updates. Yous can besides follow the Complimentary iTunes Downloads blog, which updates every time a new item appears.

Music Podcasts

If you don't mind listening to some churr between songs, check out music-oriented podcasts available for free on iTunes. Podcasts are like prerecorded radio shows in that they unremarkably include tunes and commentary. (Some don't have whatever commentary—AOLMedia'southward MP3 of the 24-hour interval Podcast, for example, offers one total, costless song in each episode.)

To browse podcasts, go to the iTunes Store and click the Podcasts link (on the pinnacle bar). Here you lot'll come across everything from news and sports podcasts to science and tech podcasts, and all of them are free. To discover music-oriented podcasts, go to the column on the right that says 'Podcast Quick Links' and click the drop-downwardly bill of fare. Choose Music, and you'll see hundreds of music podcasts.

To subscribe to a podcast, just click the Subscribe button adjacent to the title. Once y'all do and then, the current episode of the podcast will download, and future episodes volition download automatically as they become bachelor. You lot tin can likewise download past episodes by clicking the Gratis push button next to an individual episode on the podcast's homepage.

Here are some podcasts to check out, depending on your musical tastes.

Indie/Alternative: They Might Exist Giants, IndieFeed: Alternative/Modern Rock Music, Indie Spotlight, NPR: All Songs Considered

Rap/Hip-Hop: Alternative Hip-Hop Lounge, Mixtape Show Hip-Hop, Hierocast, Dope Joints! Hip Hop Mixshow

Electronica: Tiësto'south Order Life by Tiësto, The John Digweed Podcast by John Digweed, Release Yourself by Roger Sanchez, Corsten's Countdown by Ferry Corsten, A State of Trance Official Podcast by Armin van Buuren

Next page: Starbucks "Selection of the Calendar week" and iTunes Radio

Starbucks 'Pick of the Week'

Taking advantage of this freebie is nearly as easy as opening the Free On iTunes page. Every Tuesday, Starbucks offers a gratuitous iTunes download, also known as the Starbucks "Pick of the Week." To selection up the "pick," all you need to do is head down to your local Starbucks and take hold of one of the small, round-cornered cards (located most the sugar, creamer, and straws). Starbucks usually has both this week'southward and terminal week's picks on display.

Of grade, y'all'll have to remember the Starbucks audience: Y'all won't find whatsoever hip-hop or Acme 40 tunes hither. Instead, well-nigh of the picks feature independent artists, acoustic guitars, and shine jazz—standard coffee-shop fare. A contempo pick was Daniel Isaiah'southward "High Twilight."

The forepart of each card has the name of the song and creative person, likewise every bit a photo of the artist. On the dorsum is a download code. To download your song, open iTunes and redeem the lawmaking by going to iTunes Shop, Quick Links, Redeem.

You can also download the "Pick of the Calendar week" by accessing the Starbucks Digital Network from inside a Starbucks shop. To exercise this, you'll have to have your calculator in and connect to the Starbucks store'southward Wi-Fi. Once you lot're connected, go to the Entertainment section of the page and download the "Option of the Week" from the Starbucks site.

Starbucks recently expanded its "Pick of the Week" selection to include free downloads of paid iOS apps.

iTunes Radio

Although Apple tree no longer promotes the Internet radio characteristic in iTunes, information technology's still around—and worth checking out, especially if you don't need to take your music with y'all. iTunes radio is like to other free radio stations: You tin can heed to music, for costless, for as long as you similar, but an advertisement will interrupt every so often.

To admission iTunes radio, open iTunes and look at the column on the left. Beneath all of the usual options under the Library subheading, click on the Radio link; y'all'll run into a huge list of genres (everything from 'Adult Contemporary' to 'Eclectic' to '70's Retro'). Click on the arrow next to a category to open a list of hundreds of streaming Internet radio stations. Finally, just double-click on a station to connect to the stream.

You can also add your own Cyberspace radio streams to iTunes. To do so, get to Advanced, Open up Stream… and enter the URL of your desired stream in the Open up Audio Stream box.

Gratuitous Music Can Be Legal, As well

These options are pretty much the legal limit when it comes to obtaining free music on iTunes. As y'all can run into, iTunes doesn't have a huge selection of items to pick up for costless, just at least it still has a pick. Podcasts will unremarkably requite you the virtually variety, and if you're listening to a capable host (say, i of the DJs, such as David Guetta or John Digweed), information technology's almost equally adept as having the song files—and it doesn't expose you to legal hazard.

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Sarah is a freelance author and editor based in Los Angeles. She has a honey/hate human relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology equally "sexy."