Jamendo - Your Portal to Legitimately Free Music

April 7 2011, 7:41 PM  by The Head

Jamendo is a web site that provides access to a massive library of free music that you can stream or download for personal use. It covers all genres of music, from all areas of the world. It is 100% free, and requires no membership whatsoever (though you can join the site if you desire).

Now, let me get a few caveats out of the way:

1. These are all "independent" artists. This is not a portal to illegal downloads or a way to get music from mainstream artists. These are all bands providing their music to the site for a variety of reasons. Don't go looking for the latest Justin Bieber, Nickleback or Rebecca Black songs.
2. The quality of the recordings ranges from garage band to professional grade, as well as everything in between. There is a plethora of high quality recordings, but you will likely encounter some jarringly bad ones as well.
3. By the same token, the quality of the artists themselves range incredibly. I've found quite a few artists that dominate my current playlists. However, there are also some that should probably be told by their friends that they have the musical ability of a deaf radish.

The site itself is as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. If you want, you can search by genre, keyword or tag, and then simply stream some selections and download what you like. This is an incredibly simple process that you will give you non-DRM files in either an .MP3 or .OGG file format, depending on your preference. If that's all you want out of the site, then that works fine. You can look through and discover some fun music. However, there are deeper levels you can go as well. There is a recommendation system that can help you find music similar to what you are listening to, "Radios" that will play a selection of music based on a chosen genre, user playlists that contain whatever music people like, user and artist blogs, and various other social components available. It is entirely up to you what you get out of Jamendo.

Navigating through the site is a generally simple affair, but can be a daunting task if you don't actually know what you are looking for. The search function works well, but is still slightly limited and not quite as granular as I would like. It's often easier simply to navigate through the variety of artists and play around until you get a better feeling for what you are looking for. There is admittedly a fair amount of trial and error when it comes to looking for music, but you quickly pick up on what you will and won't like. For example, I tend to look for nicer cover art (judging books by their cover, I know... I know...) as well as albums that have at least 6+ songs. Regardless, the sheer amount of artists and music available can be a little overwhelming at first, but patience will be rewarded.

Like I mentioned, all genres of music are available, and from all parts of the world. In fact, you are likely to find genres that you never knew existed. This is actually part of the fun. Jamendo gives you the opportunity to sample from these genres and learn a bit more about them. Some genres seem to be more represented than others (for example, I seem to notice a lot of electronica and metal, while fewer options like jazz or country) but all genres are available, including some odd fusions of music that don't appear in the mainstream. And you can find people playing that genre from all over the world. If you want to listen to Punk music from France, Jamendo has you covered. Metal from Germany? Yup. Celtic music from Finland? Oddly enough, yes. It seems that most songs are in English, though other languages are available as well, as are many tracks that are purely instrumental.

Right now, I'd say that about 75% of my current playlist is made up of music I downloaded from Jamendo. I have found several GBs of music that I think are exceptional, and listen to them routinely. The site has done a lot to open my eyes to other types of music, which is always a fun thing. While I don't think it will ever completely take over my library, it's great to see that there are free options available for music lovers who are willing to invest a little time and expand their horizons. The service isn't perfect, but is very, very good. I think that additional search functionality would make it better, but I love how social the site can be, but optionally so. I think the next logical step for them is dedicated applications for home computers, and especially mobile devices. I believe that there is some integration available with some music players such as Songbird and Banshee, but I'd like to see this taken to the next level, as I truly believe that this is a stellar service.

I'll leave with a few of my current favorites from Jamendo. I've taken a liking to haunting female vocals, as well as some fun electronic/metal/celtic music fusions, and these are some artists that I think kick ass:

Hungry Lucy - Vicious yet melodious vocals with a hard electronic backing. Not my usual style of music, but I'm loving it. "To Kill a King" is my current favorite song.

Fenrir - A crazy fusion of Celtic and metal with an "operatic" female singer. It's so strange yet compelling at the same time.

Diablo Swing Orchestra - A mix of swing music, metal and classical style singing. High energy and a lot of fun.