This is going to have to be part of a series kind of post. A good while back I scribbled a post March being Boycott the RIAA Month. In it, I mentioned a few places to seek DRM free and legal music. I still get asked where I find material very often so I thought I might mention a few of my resources in a series of posts. Since I first wrote that post about boycotting the RIAA for the month of March, I have received many suggestions regarding this topic of finding alternative music. I have also done more digging on the topic. In short I have now a decent list to share with you.

I also do not want my readers to even consider the fact that I wait for March to roll around and boycott the RIAA. The last time I gave teh RIAA a dollar of mine was in 1992. I will not do that. I am a customer and not a litigation target.

Today I focused on how I seek music for podcasting specifically. This may or may not help you. I suspect that it will be useful though.

First, let me re post the four I mentioned in that previous post:

• Podsafe Audio - This is my personal favorite. I don’t think it is any better or worse than any of the others I mention below but it it usually my first stop.
• Garage Band - I think most of us have heard of this site.
• Podsafe Music Network - LOTS of music here. A very popular source for legal downloads.
• Sound Click - Not a bad site but I would think more of it if it just ditched the pop-ups. UPDATE - Looks like they ditched the pop-up!

I am also going to mention that several readers left comments suggesting emusic. If you are a "Pick of the Day" daily listener, it is a service that you may like. It is a subscription service. But they do have offer a music toolbar which will give you a daily freebie. They advertise that there are no strings attached. I have only heard good things about emusic but do not personally use it. If you have any insight regarding them, please leave a comment.

Regarding my needs for podcasting first. Forgive my wordiness as I explain.

I need to constantly find new music. I can’t just keep podcasting the same artist and same songs. Who would listen to that? I try to seek out new artist every week. Every once in a while I go a on a genre hunt. I usually go through review between 250 MB to 1 gig of mp3s per week. Then I have to listen to it all.

With the volume factor, I can not pay for each track. Fortunately, many artist comprehend the value of free promotion and allow podcasters to obtain many free tracks. Many of these same artists do the same for the fans.

I desire, mostly, podsafe Creative Commons Attribution material. Podsafe Audio, Garage Band, and Podsafe Music Network make it very easy for me to find podsafe material because they all have search engines and, to the best of my knowledge, it is all podsafe.

I do not want to spend the whole day seeking out music. I do use, other than the three sites just mentioned, search engines. Here are few key ones:

• I do not want material encumbered by DRM. The three sites above satisfy that requirement. There is another resource for the DRM free end of it. DRM Free.org, is a search engine which will create list of DRM free media based on your query. It can be much to sort through but if you are looking for a particular genre, it might be a nice place to start and encounter material new for you. The search results also tell you the source and if it is free or membership is required.
• Odeo - This is the first media search engine I ever recall hearing of. I honestly use it rarely for what I want but it merits a mention. This search engine is a nice way for you to find podcasts and artists.
• Another one that I do use often is Creative Commons Search. The Source, license and more information are nicely displayed.. If you are a Firefox user, you can use the Creative Commons Search from your search bar. In my opion it saves a mouse click or two over Google.

With what I have shared up to this point, you should be able to do as about as well as I do finding music. But there is one more very important search resource I must mention. I beg of you all to use RIAA Radar. This site allows you to know who is getting your money. Try and do bussiness with those who don’t view you as a potential litigation target. Cast your economic vote to search results that are free of the warning label.

Well, I am done giving away secrets for the day. I promise I will do at least a few more post on this topic.