Where do you find music? Part 3: Download Sites

As a compulsive music collector, people are often curious about how I discover new music and where all the cd's/bootlegs/mp3s and DVDs come from. So as a service to my friends and readers, here is a little peak inside my demented world of music procurement.

Part 1: Internet Radio
Part 2: RIYL Sites

Part 3: Download Sites
You've discovered some cool new bands on places like Radio Paradise and Pandora, but now you want to investigate further, or better yet, get some tunes. Well you could of course go to iTunes or Amazon or even your local record store, if you have one. But there are lot of other options out there you might not know about. Here are some of the places I go when I want to hear more of a band.

Live Music Archive
Part of the Internet Archive, the Live Music Archive is an out growth of the Jamband Taper Scene. These days it is home to live recordings of 100's of bands ranging from jammy to indie to twangy to techy. All theses are band sanctioned recordings, that are distributed free of charge. Most recordings can be downloaded in MP3 and lossless formats.

Songza
Ok so this isn't technically a download site, but is still a pretty cool way to hear more of an artist that might interest you. It is a very simple site that allows you to type in the name of an artist and then it will create a playlist of songs by that artist. You can stream the songs, but not download them. Great way to decide if you are interested in buyin the album.

eMusic
This is a subscription service that allows you to download a certain number of tracks each month, depending on how much you wan to spend (from 10/month for $5.99 to 300/month for $74.99) . You are not gong to find very many major artists here, but the indie, underground and jazz is very well represented. I've been a member for a long time, and over the years have download Miles Davis, Arcade Fire, Dead Kennedys, LCD Sound System, Cat Power, Creedance Clearwater Revival, moe., Belle + Sebastian, Bill Evans, the list goes on and on. Tons of great music at lower prices than iTunes or Amazon.