(Legal) .mp3 download sites

[Walter Newton]

In the recent topics regarding the ethics/legality of copying CDs, a number of posters mentioned that so many websites have free, legal .mp3 downloads of a wide variety of quality music nowadays that copying (or even buying) CDs is almost unnecessary. Can anyone share their favorite websites for downloading mando-oriented music (besides the mandolin cafe, of course!)?

[mandofiddle]

Here's my favorite site.

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree.php

All the the music there is from live shows, and all the bands have given permission to have their shows distributed here for free. Most of the files are either in SHN or FLAC format, though I think some are in mp3. SHN and FLAC are essentially lossless compression. This means that while the file size is larger htan mp3s, the sound quality is exactly what the WAV file is.

[LilCreekster]

Not MP3, but TONS of SHN and a few other formats (with pages that show you how to decode them... these are files with very little or no loss) #www.bluegrassbox.com

You need to have an FTP applictaion installed. #Sounds a bit complicated to get going, but it's not that bad, and really worth it.

You pretty much need high speed net though, big files.