Every year since 2005 the awesome guys at the SXSW festival have put thousands of free songs up on their site for you to download for free, and completely legally too.
They used to create a torrent themselves for all the music but for the last couple of years they’ve left it up to generous members of the public to donate their time and effort to do so. Since all of the artists featured in the torrent have agreed to let SXSW give them away for free, it’s all completely legal and above board. This is about the only time you’ll be allowed to download 3.35GBs of music without fear of the RIAA catching you and sending you to an Armenian prison camp.
For people who can’t attend this is an excellent way to hear some of the bands on offer, and it’s an even better way to discover a shit-ton of new music at the same time. I’ll host some of the music myself but definitely check it out and see if there’s much you like, and chances are there will be.
[UPDATE 00:16 - 03/07/10] As Ben (the guy who does all the hard work of putting these torrents together) has pointed out below, the second half of the torrent is now up on the site. It’s an extra 392 songs at 2.08Gbs, so if this isn’t enough music to keep your ears busy for a week or two, well then there’s not much anyone can do for you. Not only that, but he also uploaded the torrent for 2005 too. Someone buy the guy a beer, or six.
Also check out the one for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 is coming soon.
(via TorrentFreak)
