If you've been following the MP3 phenomenom, your reaction to date has probably been a yawn. There are several sites that specialize in free MP3 files, but most of the stuff is junk; although there are a few diamonds in the rough. This month we'll take a look at some sites that offer free downloads of complete songs in near-CD quality, just like MP3. And these are songs you would be willing to pay for.
MJuice.ComAt first glance, you'll probably dismiss MJuice.Com out of hand, because you won't see Country Music as one of their genres. But if you look in their featured artist section, you'll find two songs from Jessica Andrews' latest album, Heart Shaped World. You'll have to download the MJuice player, which is no big deal and is available at the site. Then you can download and play You Go First and The Riverside. If you download both, the player will play both sequentially.
Barnes & NobleIf you go to the "Music" tab at Barnes & Noble, you'll find a link to "Free Downloads." Follow this link and you can download several songs by three of today's top artists in Liquid Audio format. Again, you'll need to download and install this special player; more about Liquid Audio later. Here you download two songs from Brooks & Dunn's latest album, Tight Rope: I Love You More and Hurt Train. Things don't get better than this!
But you can also download the title song from Alison Krauss' new album, Forget About It. If you like Martna McBride, This Uncivil War is available from her new album, Emotion.
Liquid AudioThe Liquid Audio downloads can be a little tricky. When you click on the download link for a song, a window will pop-up asking you whether you want to open the file or save it to disk. You should open the file into the player, which will actually download the song to your hard drive. Trying to "save it" directly will only get you a header file which won't do anything.
You can also use the new RealJukebox player to playback Liquid Audio as well as MP3 and a2b music files. However I've found that it still requires the Liquid Audio player to actually download the file. The RealJukebox is handy however to be able to play a mixed variety of different song types without switching from one player to the next. When importing existing downloads into the RealJukebox, the player will get the necessary plug-ins for each music type it encounters.
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