Official Ares Free Download

Epitonic wins points for having the hippest design of any website around. There is radio, streaming audio and a bunch of tracks available for download. It’s all very cool. Lots of cool bands, most of whom we’ve never heard of. A good site for exploring.

Artistopia is an artist portal that seeks to bring together artists, musicians, songwriters and industry people to do business. You pay an annual membership fee. There’s lots of music to listen to.

Music Download is touted as the premier source for free music. With more than 75,000 MP3s available, there’s probably some truth to that statement. The range of genres is comprehensive, including everything from Rock & Pop through to New Age. There are sections for podcasts and spoken word. As well as music videos, it’s possible to listen to streaming audio of top artists. All of the genres feature a comprehensive list of sub-genres. There are lots of MP3s for free download.

MP3.com is a top resource, chock full of streaming audio, free listens, interviews, reviews, photos and more. The website covers all the major genres and is easy to navigate. There aren’t too many free downloads available, as most of the website is oriented around free plays. But still, it’s slick, to the point and a great place to check out the latest music.

Stage.FM is free to sign up for. Although this isn’t the biggest portal, there is music and video from a number of bands through a range of genres. The focus is on indie and rock music in its various forms. You can find some great unknown music here and there is even the option to search for bands in your home town. Stage.FM gives bands a way to “distribute music without big labels”. Categories come in the form of a tag cloud.

Soundclick is a very cool music portal that claims to offer more than one million music tracks. You can sign up as a listener or an artist to download or upload MP3s. There are a range of categories of music, with everything from dance music to hip hop covered. Niche music fans will be pleased to see various genres represented, including drum n bass, reggae and even Spanish rock music. Tracks are all free to download.

12 Rec is a very cool website here from a record label. Not a whole lot of stuff there though. Can stream all the music here and listen for free. All Creative Commons stuff. Indie, electronica, rap, whatever. It’s all here.

Access Tonal Communications looks very Matrixy. Free downloads, videos, streaming radio, live sets. The focus is on electronic music. Some very experimental stuff here. Worth a look for beat heads.

Swede Life is a friendly neighborhood music blog. Nothing to do with Sweden or Swedes. Based out of the Bay Area. It’s all about indie music with MP3s and podcasts. Some decent stuff to download and you can buy stuff through Amazon.

Everyone seems to have Last FM these days. Build you music profile with the plug-in for your media player. Everything gets scrobbled and your profile is constantly updated. Find recommendations, get free MP3s, buy songs, read reviews, bios – the list goes on. Very cool.