mp3 posts

For the second time, Amazon is getting into the holiday spirit by giving away one free MP3 every day until Christmas.

The freebie starts today! Download today's song, a version of "Joy to the World" by the Casting Crowns.

Future freebies include Tori Amos' "Snow Angel" and Lady Gaga's "Christmas Tree."

Right now J.D. McDonald's "Boogaloo Santa Claus" is also free. If you scroll down below his track you will find other free downloads, like "Silent Night" by House of Heros and "Sampler Clause" by various artists.

College kids are opting to scale back their wardrobes and save their pennies for new gadgets, according to a study in today's WWD.

Students will have spent a projected $13 billion on electronics by the end of this year -- more than twice what they'll likely have spent on clothing and accessories: $5.77 billion.

Barnes and Noble is offering free MP3 downloads of nine audiobooks. The audiobooks are short stories by authors that include The Babysitter's Code by Laura Lippman, Great Day: An Unabridged Story from Armegeddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut, and Merrano of the Dry Country by Louis L'Amour. Tom Sawyer is also available for the free download. The audiobooks can be listened to on any device that plays MP3s.

The free downloads are only available at bn.com or its mirror sites. The offer ends at 2:59 a.m. Eastern Time on May 16.

This deal should be music to everyone's ears. Rhapsody is giving away one MP3 a day for an entire year for a total value of $365! So far Rhapsody has offered tunes from Old Crow Medicine Show and the Black Eyed Peas, but if those acts don't strike your musical addictions don't worry.

According to Rhapsody, "No matter what your musical preference -- hip hop, classic rock, techno, etc. -- you'll appreciate free tunes from Rhapsody that range from Estelle and Kanye West to U2 and Green Day."

You don't need to be a Rhapsody user or subscriber to benefit from this offer since all of the downloads are DRM free mp3s that will work on any mp3 player including your iPod or iPhone. The freebies come one at a time and are only available for 24 hours so you'll need to make sure you visit the "Rhapsody Free Music Download" page each day if you want to take full advantage of the offer.

If you're looking for more free music check out WalletPop's guide to free music.

Looking to add some songs to your iPod at no cost? Amazon.com is offering $10 off SONY BMG music downloads with the coupon code 9F8BJLTG. Click here to browse Amazon's MP3 selection.

There is no minimum order and with most songs available at 99 cents a pop, you should be able to get an album's worth for free.

If you're looking to bolster your classic/soft/jazz-rock collection, Amazon is offering Steely's Dan's Aja album on MP3 for 99 cents. From Wikipedia:

Aja (pronounced the same as "Asia") is an album by the rock band Steely Dan. The album was named after the Korean wife of the group's co-founder Donald Fagen's friend's brother.[citation needed] Originally released in 1977, it became the group's best-selling album. Topping at #3 on the U.S. charts and #5 in the United Kingdom, it was the band's first platinum album, eventually going platinum twice. In July 1978, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 2003, the album was ranked number 145 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

If you were a fan of Weezer in the mid-90s, there's a good chance that you already have the Pinkerton album. But if you've just become a fan of the band in more recent years, you should definitely download this classic for just $1.99 on Amazon.com.

Unfortunately the album doesn't include my favorite Weezer song of all time, but you can watch the great music video of it right here:

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

Wal-Mart might not seem like the best place to find out about hot new music. Actually, if you're of the indie-rock school of thought, it's probably by far the worst place to discover new artists.

But if you're more commercially-minded, Wal-Mart has a new site that will be updated every week, offering a new song. According to Wal-Mart:

Build your playlists without breaking the bank. With a new free song every week, you'll have plenty of opportunity to explore the latest bands, reconnect with some old favorites and expand your collection - without investing a cent.

The first song is "Libertad" by an outfit calling itself "pacifika." Check out their MySpace here. Kind of a cool sound actually.

Today Amazon announced an agreement with Warner Music Group to distribute music through the Amazon.com digital music store. The key feature to these downloads will be the absence of digital rights management (DRM), meaning that customers who download these songs will not be restricted in their use. They will be able to play them with any music player or computer, unlike Apple Inc's limited format.

Now, more than 2.9 million titles will be available at Amazon, including those by many well-known artists. Warner Music is added to the line-up, which already included Universal Music Group, EMI Music Group, and thousands of independent labels.

Songs on Amazon cost $0.89 to $0.99, with full albums priced at $5.99 to $9.99. These prices are somewhat comparable to Apple's iTunes, whose individual songs sell for $0.99, with album prices varying.

While some consumers and analysts feel that DRM is necessary to protect the financial interests of the artists and record companies, others think that the lack of DRM will actually benefit them more in the long run. By making the music more accessible and transferable, some people think that consumers will be more likely to buy more music. (I agree!)

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.