In my search for DRM-free songs (with lossless compression too!), I recently came across Nugs.net, an online distribution website for concert downloads of some pretty prominent recording artists. For almost the cost of a Ticket Master transaction fee, you can download a DRM-free album of the specific concert you wanted to attend. Not too bad if you ask me. Artists include Dave Mathew, Metallica, Phish, and more. It is overall a fairly decent selection of artists. Some concerts are available for free as mp3 at 128 kbs. Other concerts cost $9.99 for mp3 files and $12.99 for FLAC files.
This site seems like a good way to support artists without sacrificing audio quality or subjecting your self to digital rights management. Nugs.net links to several sites that offer music from festivals at their venues, including Lollapalooza. According to the site:
The NUGS.NETWORK powers the download services for several premium music download channels, including LIVEPHISH.COM, LIVEMETALLICA.COM, LIVEWIDESPREADPANIC.COM, and LIVEDOWNLOADS.COM. Hundreds of artists distribute their music through the NUGS.NETWORK. This web site, nugs.net, is the directory of all the music delivered through the NUGS.NETWORK. This site is maintained by nugs.net enterprises, LLC, a privately held company focused on media distribution for the music industry.
Take a look if you trying to find DRM-free music. The downloads are not as refined as studio albums, but that is part of their charm.
Thu, Nov 2, 2006
DRM-free media