Free Music at the Library

This week’s column was submitted by Claire Greene of the .

From Apple's iTunes to Amazon's instant downloads, internet tycoons left and right are wedging their feet into the door-jam of downloadable music. With a single content-search nearly any recording from Bing Crosby classics to Ke$ha's electronic pop to cult favorites like Steve Goodman can be called instantly to your computer screen, and for about ninety-nine cents you can own any of them instantly and transfer them to your digital music player of choice without ever changing out of your jammies.
Earlier:
The Des Plaines Library has provided patrons with an extensive selection of music for many years with an extremely well-developed and rounded collection of contemporary and classic music of all sorts on CD. Recently, however, we too have made a foray into instant downloads--as many will already know the Library has offered a great selection of e-books and audiobooks through our virtual branch MyMediaMall for a while now. A More recent addition to our bountiful list of services and products, however, is Freegal—a clever portmanteau combining the words free and legal which essentially describe the premise of the service. Through the Freegal platform Des Plaines patrons will be able to access the whole catalog of Sony Records and will be entitled to three free downloads a week for keepsies. That's right--no torrent work-around, no fear for the consequences of violating intellectual property laws. Just free, legal music for keepsies in your jammies.

For specialized help with accessing Freegal you can stop by the Readers’ Services Desk on the third floor of the library any time or give us a call at (847) 376-2840. On Valentine’s Day you can fall in love with Freegal all over again as we welcome a Freegal sales rep who will be answering questions on the third floor.

To access Freegal from home simply head to our homepage at dppl.org and hover over the "Read/Watch/Listen" tab. From there select “eDPPL,” which is the topmost link on the list. This link will carry you to a page which is dedicated to all of our e-media services which include downloadable e-book, e-audiobook, and film loans. Feel free to explore the wide array of e-offerings, and when you’re through scroll to “Downloadable Music” heading (The middle link at the top of the page will bring you straight there). Upon clicking on the “Freegal” link which is prominently displayed under this heading, you will be redirected to a page which will prompt you to enter your library card number—every Des Plaines account is entitled to three free downloads weekly. After entering your library card number you will be directed to the Freegal platform where you can browse popular music or search for something that interests you. I personally used my three downloads for the week already on a Train song and two songs by Julieta Venegas. In past weeks I have downloaded songs by Celia Cruz and Adele—I’ve found that there is an especially good selection of Latin music. There are plenty of artists who will appeal to any music lover. Just remember, the catalog includes only albums and artists which were produced by Sony Records, so the selection isn't quite as extensive as platforms like iTunes. Still, though...Free...Legal...Jammies...Need I say more?

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