The Penny Jar

How to Score a Ton of Free Music Without Requiring an Eyepatch

Jan 21, 2010 News
Posted by Josh Carroll

Disclaimer: The Penny Jar is an eMusic affiliate and receives a small commission every time somebody clicks a link like the one below and signs up for an account (at least until they discover this article and give us the boot). If you do not wish to support us, by all means, type the URL yourself, enjoy the free music, and live a long and miserable life alone with your guilt and shame.

As a songwriter / performer who hopes to someday make a living doing what I love, I struggle with sharing this. It is not my intention to bite the hand that feeds (even if this particular hand is feeding artists some of the lowest royalty rates in the industry). But as an optimistic realist who’s pretty sure the days of getting rich selling copies of recorded music are coming to a screeching halt, I don’t really care. What I do care about is music. And since I am simultaneously financially challenged and morally opposed to stealing another artist’s work, I’m always on the hunt for any legal means to acquire a large library of meaningful music without breaking the bank.

I first tried eMusic in late 2008. A couple months later feeding my family beat out feeding my iPod and I quit. And that led to the discovery of a fun little loophole game that has helped me to finally own some classics alongside some brilliant music from bands I had never heard before.

And yes, I realize that writing this may backfire. Come what may, here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for a free trial with eMusic. You’ll get 25 or more free songs (depending on the promotion they happen to be running at the moment; currently 35).
2. Cancel before your 7 days are up and owe nothing, or you can go ahead and pay for a month or two (as I did) and then cancel. Do NOT simply put your account on hold. Their propaganda will tell you that canceling will cause you to lose your saved-for-later list and the ability to re-download tracks you’ve purchased. As far as I can tell (and I’ve canceled several times now) that’s simply not true.
3. Wait. This is the hard part.
4. Renew your account. In a couple of months you’ll receive an e-mail begging you to come back to eMusic. In exchange for returning to the fold, you’ll get 75 free downloads. Follow the link and sign up. Yes, you’ll have to pay something, but you’ll get 75 free songs on top of whatever your plan includes. Tip: Most albums on eMusic that have more than 12 tracks still only cost you 12 download credits, so you can get even more bang for your buck by downloading full albums. I’m on the $15-ish plan that gets me 35 songs (there are cheaper options), so for $15 and some change I get 110 songs (or more) which comes out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 14¢ / song.
5. Go back to step 2 and repeat ad infinitum.

You’d think they’d eventually stop sending the same offer, but they haven’t yet. I’ve probably re-upped 6 or 7 times now. Many of my favorite albums by artists like Switchfoot, Eels, Spoon, Johnny Cash, Sufjan Stephens, Dave Matthews Band, The Swell Season, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Iver, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sigur Ros, etc. were acquired this way. And since they just added over 10,000 new albums affiliated with Warner Music Group, chances are pretty good that you’ll find something you already want.

So give it a shot. While you’re at it, pick up our album (and give it a good rating if you’re feeling extra-nice). Then report back here in a couple months and let us know how it works!

–Josh