Format Showcases
(go here for examples of what the various formats can
do)
CDNow (good site for
Liquid Music freebies, along with a tremendous selection
of CDs for mail-order purchasing; now through Amazon)
www.cdnow.com/
Liquid Audio (good
selection, long download times, but a great way to hear
digitized music)
www.liquidaudio.com/
MP3.com (probably the
best overall MP3 site, with plenty of downloadable MP3
players/rippers and a huge variety of music)
www.mp3.com/
RealGuide (exemplary
showcase of RealMedia's multiplicity of streaming media
formats)
realguide.real.com/
WindowsMedia.com (lots
of links, previews, and free .WMF downloads, along with
a list of broadcasters who support the .WMF format)
windowsmedia.com/mediaguide/home
MP3 Download Sites
(where to go for the Net's current hot format; in many
cases the listed file sharing clients offer other
downloadable files as well, and are often hotbeds for
viruses and spyware of all kinds. In fact, as I've found
out more and more about spyware/adware/etc., I've found
that virtually every file-sharing system I've ever heard
of is infested with one or more of these little
critters. Use any of them at your own risk. These sites
come and go fairly frequently, so this list is by no
means complete)
Before downloading
anything, you should read the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's "How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For
File-Sharing (And Other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated
Like a Criminal)" at www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php.
As always, if you end up breaking the law by using any
of these sites, don't blame me.
2Look4 (searches the
Net for MP3 files)
www.2look4.com/
Artist Direct (lots of
legal free downloads as well as info)
www.artistdirect.com/
BearShare
(file-sharing utility that uses Gnutella)
www.bearshare.com/
BitTorrent
(file-sharing utility that lets you download files from
multiple sources simultaneously, thereby avoiding most
of the problems associated with overloading servers and
such)
www.bittorrent.com/
Blubster (lots of
files, but lots of ad- and spyware)
www.blubster.com/
BurnItFirst (Liquid
Audio's less-than-comprehensive online music catalog)
www.burnitfirst.com/
Emule (lots of
music, game, and other files for the download, but watch
out for the porn and the viruses)
www.emule.de/
EMusic.com (songs by
artists you actually know, but they charge you per song
download; very complete listings; listen via streaming
audio before purchasing)
www.emusic.com/
Epitonic (lots of
electronica and indie MP3 files, plenty of opinion)
www.epitonic.com/
Filetopia (tons of
audio, video, documents, and graphics files; not an easy
program to master, and the rules for sharing are strict)
www.filetopia.com/
The Free World's
Information and Software Repository (DMCA protest site;
also a good place for non-U.S. users to download useful
files)
www.thefreeworld.net/
Full Audio Music (lots
of nonburnable downloads, a few downloads that allow
themselves to be burned to CDs, and access to lots of
online radio)
www.fullaudio.com/
Gnutella (the
granddaddy of file sharers; now a full-fledged
community. Decentralized and relatively reliable, though
your firewalls and antivirus scanners need to be on high
alert; a tremendous amount of shared files of all kinds)
www.gnutella.com/
Gracenote (info on
over 80,000 albums, with plenty of audio files and
artist/release info)
www.gracenote.com/
KaZaA
(file-sharing utility with plenty of MP3s available, but
beware of
foistware and other nasties.
Probably the worst of the scumware purveyors; NOT
recommended.
www.kazaa.com/
Launch (good site for
downloadable tunes and videos, including some exclusives
from well-known acts)
launch.yahoo.com/
LimeWire (file-sharing
utility that uses Gnutella)
www.limewire.com/
List of Free MP3 sites
mp3.about.com/cs/freemp3sites/index.htm
Listen (search engine
for MP3s and other formats, with lots of music available
from established artists)
www.listen.com/
Madster (formerly
Aimster, unreliable file-sharing utility similar to the
defunct Napster)
www.madster.com/
MP3.com (lots of good
content, well organized, free downloads, lots of help
for MP3 newbies)
www.mp3.com/
Morpheus (popular P2P
file-sharing utility, now using Gnutella instead of
KaZaA; not as anonymous as it claims)
www.morpheus-os.com/
MusicBlitz (large
catalog mostly focused on modern music; site still a
little rough around the edges)
www.musicblitz.com/
MusicBrainz (community
music metadatabase that attempts to create a
comprehensive music encyclopedia)
www.musicbrainz.org/
MusicNet
(corporate-owned online music source, operated by BMG,
EMI, and Warner respectively)
www.musicnet.com/
Napster (it's back as
a legitimate pay-per-download service)
www.napster.com/
PressPlay
(corporate-owned online music site, operated by Sony and
Universal, lots of variety)
www.pressplay.com/
RealOne Rhapsody (lots
of burnable tracks and online radio)
www.real.com/rhapsody/
Sam the Record Man's
Recommendation Wizard (go here for recommendations and
snippets for almost every kind of music imaginable)
samscd.moodlogic.com/
Sonicnet
(MTV-affiliated download site)
www.sonicnet.com/
Vroosh (MP3 and more
metasite)
www.vroosh.com/
Vitaminic (easily
navigable and friendly to both users and musicians)
www.vitaminic.com/
WinMX (good source of
MP3's; no spyware as far as I know)
www.winmx.com/
Throwing the baby out
with the bathwater: Senator Orrin Hatch supports
proposed technology that enables file swappers to risk
having their PCs destroyed if they download copyrighted
material. Thankfully, this proposal doesn't seem to be
making the cut.
Webcasting Hubs
(sources for the vast amount of Internet broadcasting)
2netFX (streaming HDTV
for broadband users)
www.2netfx.com/
Broadcast.com (the
best place to find Internet broadcast sites for both
radio and TV; now a Yahoo! affiliate)
www.broadcast.com/
Digital Club Network
(streaming broadcasts of live shows around the country)
www.dcn.com/
House of Blues (site
for the concert venue that offers plenty of live
broadcasts and downloadable content)
www.hob.com
iBeam (mostly
business--oriented multimedia content, but still plenty
of variety)
www.ibeam.com/
MovieFlix (use your
broadband connection to watch streaming films and TV
episodes)
movieflix.com/
Streaming Soundtracks
(if you like to listen to movie and TV music, try this)
www.streamingsoundtracks.com/
Internet Radio
(be aware, there are literally thousands and thousands
of Internet radio sites out there. The following is just
a smidgen of what you can tune in to.)
Air America
(liberal politics)
www.airamericaradio.com/
All Songs Considered
(NPR site, with lots of archived music)
www.npr.org/programs/asc/
AllDanzRadio
(low-quality broadcasting with a passable variety of
selections)
www.alldanzradio.com/
Andante Music (good
source of streaming classical music, though it'll cost
you)
www.andante.com/
Aural Moon (a personal
favorite, great source of old and new progressive rock)
www.auralmoon.com/
BroadcastAmerica
(offers streaming feeds of dozens of American radio
stations)
www.broadcastamerica.com/
BRS Web-Radio (plenty
of info on streaming broadcasts with lots of links)
www.radio-directory.fm/it_list.cfm
Echo (lots of great
music and configuration options)
www.echo.com/
GiveMeTalk (Internet
talk radio, offering all the software you need to go
online with your own opinions)
www.givemetalk.com/
Hard Radio (all hard
rock and heavy metal, all the time, with lots of
supplemental info)
www.hardradio.com/
Latin American Radio
Stations (large RealAudio site with lots of links to
radio stations from Central and South America)
www.latinworld.com/radio/
LaunchCast (very
configurable multimedia supersite, with Internet radio
just one of its options)
launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/
Live Radio (extensive
list of radio broadcasters, organized by region)
www.live-radio.net/
Live365 (large number
of offbeat radio stations carried, as well as providing
you the tools to assemble your own Webcasting station)
www.live365.com/
Prog Radio
(progressive rock network, old and new music features)
www.progradio.net/
Public Radio Fan (NPR
and public radio hub)
www.publicradiofan.com/
Radio Show Links (tons
of radio links, by genre, channel, or geography)
www.radioshowlinks.com/
Radio-Locator (good
place to hunt down Internet stations)
www.radio-locator.com/
RadioMoi (a better
version of Imagine Radio, except that its choice to use
the MP3 format makes for inferior sound quality)
www.radiomoi.com:8080/rm/
RadioTower (links to
over 1300 online radio stations from 80 countries)
www.radiotower.com/
Radio@Netscape Plus
(formerly Spinner.com; AOL-based site with an excellent
variety of programming and an excellent player)
www.spinner.com/
vTuner (database of
online radio broadcasters)
www.vtuner.com/
VirtualTuner
(directory of over 100,000 radio broadcasts)
www.virtualtuner.com/
Yahoo Broadcast (owns
exclusive rights to thousands of global radio and TV
stations)
broadcast.yahoo.com/
Yiddish Radio Project
(site that compiles and provides Yiddish broadcasts from
the '30s, '40s, and '50s)
yiddishradioproject.org/
Audio Hubs
(compendiums
of Internet audio offerings, including music, talk
channels, books on tape, news, and streaming video)
AMG All Music Guide
(terrific source of information)
www.allmusic.com/
C-SPAN (online
broadcast of their TV segments and C-SPAN Radio 90)
www.c-span.org/
CNN Audioselect
(variety of CNN-based news feeds)
www.cnn.com/audioselect/
Listen.com (lots of
different genres and spoken-word content)
www.listen.com/
Live Radio (links to
over 2000 radio stations worldwide)
www.live-radio.net/
MuBu (select your
favorite genre, listen to a few sound clips and rate
them, and MuBu recommends new artists for your listening
pleasure)
www.mubu.com/
National Public Radio
(online version of the public network)
www.npr.org/
Radio Locator (find a
radio station you like anywhere in the world)
www.radio-locator.com/
Singingfish
(international site for audio and video files)
www.singingfish.com/
SonicNet (more focus
on music, news, and video)
www.sonicnet.com/
World Radio Network
(NPR-based online radio featuring radio broadcasts from
around the world)
www.wpn.org/
Video Hubs
A good site to find out about Internet video and film
sources is at
worldfilm.about.com/movies/worldfilm/msub-online.htm.
AdventureTV
(documentaries and travelogues)
www.adventuretv.com/
America Memory (huge
source of American historical and cultural info)
memory.loc.gov/
Atom Films.com (home
of Atom Films, which produces short films and releases
many of them online)
www.atomfilms.com/
Atomic Cartoons (zany
cartoons and interactive games from Canada)
www.atomiccartoons.com/
Bloomberg Television
(online home of the Bloomberg TV techie network)
www.bloomberg.com/tv/
Cinema Now (rent
streaming movies)
www.cinemanow.com/
CNN Sports Illustrated
Video Plus (sports videos)
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/videoplus/
Commercial Archive
(archive of old TV commercials, compatible with
RealPlayer or QuickTime)
www.commercial-archive.com/
Eveo (more sports,
music, and travel offerings than the competition)
www.eveo.com/
fasTV.com (currently
the closest thing to the 21st century digital newspaper)
www.fastv.com/
Feed Room (constant
source of free news clips)
www.feedroom.com/
iFilm (similar to Atom
Films, though most of the material on this site isn't
self-produced as with Atom)
www.ifilm.com/
International Channel
Networks (international TV listings)
www.internationalchannel.com/
Launch (good site for
downloadable tunes and music videos, including concerts
and some exclusives from well-known acts)
www.launch.com/
Like Television
(streams episodes of old TV shows as well as lots of old
movies; requires RealPlayer and is optimized for
broadband connections)
www.liketelevision.com/
Movie Clicks
(mega-site for movies' Web sites)
www.movieclicks.com/
MovieFlix (good source
of high-tech video)
www.movieflix.com/
Movielink (tons of
movies for rent)
www.movielink.com/
Movies.net (another
movie mega-site)
www.movies.net/
MSN Movie Guide (free
streaming video from MSNBC, along with movie trailers
and games)
windowsmedia.com/mediaguide/home
QuickTime (lots of
choices here)
www.apple.com/quicktime/
Pocketmovies
(downloadable MPEG movies and clips for your Pocket PC
and Palm)
www.pocketmovies.net/
PocketRocketFX (join
for free and access movie trailers, music videos, and
more for your Pocket PC and Palm)
www.pocketrocketfx.com/
PPC Vidz (more goodies
for your handheld)
www.ppcvidz.com/
Rolling Stone Webcasts
(music specials aired by the music mag)
www.rollingstone.com/
SightSound (a
pay-to-view site focusing on films and TV episodes
already released to the mass market)
www.sightsound.com/
Singingfish
(international site for audio and video files)
www.singingfish.com/
Sputnik7 (features a
lot of Japanese anime and alternative music videos among
its content)
www.sputnik7.com/
The Sync (offers a
combination of edgier short films and old classics)
www.thesync.com/
TV Show: Show and
Series (huge fan site for all things TV from all over
the globe)
www.tvshow.com/tv/shows/
VastVideo
www.vastvideo.com/
VideoSeeker's
Hi-Bandwidth Theater (high-tech presentation of mediocre
content)
http://www.videoseeker.com/hibandwidththeater.html
Multimedia Search Sites
Scour (huge search
site)
www.scour.com/
Streaming Media World
www.streamingmediaworld.com/
Do-It-Yourself Broadcasting
Note: Live365 and RadioSpy both provide extensive info
about the legal ramifications of broadcasting
copyrighted material over the Net; prospective DIYers
would do well to check this info out)
Live365.com (sign up
here and get 100MB free server space for your streaming
audio, plus support for 100 MP3 streams free, and listen
to the works of other subscribers)
www.live365.com
RadioSpy (focuses more
on creating your own radio programming for yourself than
broadcasting your concoctions over the Net, though
that's an option here)
www.radiospy.com
ShoutCast (free
hosting of your own broadcasting site, as well as
allowing you to listen to hundreds of other independent
broadcasters)
www.shoutcast.com
