So you have an iPod wrapped up as a holiday gift. That broke the budget enough that the idea of finding free music that's legal to download looks pretty appealing, doesn't it? Here's how.

Start with the iTunes Store. You can download free music and videos every week from iTunes. At the iTunes Store main page, there's always a section at the very end of the page listing free music for the week. These may change on Tuesdays, when new music is released, so it's good to check it weekly.

There's a blog that tracks all the free iTunes store giveaways. You can subscribe to their RSS feed. Click to subscribe to the feed for Free ITunes Store Downloads. This blog tracks music and video freebies.

iT's Free Downloads also tracks free iTunes downloads, including offerings from some of the internaltional iTunes Stores. Nice, right? Everything on my holiday playlist is world music so I'm all over this one.

The next place to check is amazon.com. If you don't have iTunes and an iPod, you can still get free mp3 downloads at Amazon. Start at the Amazon MP3 Download Page. In the menu, you'll see an option for Free Songs and Special Deals. Another page at Amazon free songs is a good place to start looking for music you like. You can also look for particular artists in the MP3 downloads section and see the full listing of their MP3s, including the free ones. Here's an example showing music by Ani Difranco.

Beyond the big names like iTunes and Amazon, there are dozens of smaller sites that will help you fill your iPod with free material. The iLounge has sections with free music. This site also has some links to other sources of legal and free music, including Garage Band with indie music, Reloda, a search aggregator that will eventually lead you to music, and 3hive where you find a collection of free MP3s gleaned from record label and artists web sites.

Storynory gives away free stories for kids. Free music meant for kids is available from Free Kids Music.

Free downloads of classical music can be found at mFiles.

Don't forget your public library as a source of free music. The music from the library can't legally be copied into your iTunes, but you can enjoy the free music while you have the CD checked out.

This is the last in a series of articles about the iPod for this holiday season. Links to the previous articles are listed below. Enjoy your music!

Related Articles
- Confessions of a Middle Aged Dancing Queen, or How Itunes Enriches My Life" from Color Me Pink
- Kid friendly playlist from Chicky Ckicky Baby
- Daniel Renstrom CD Giveaway from BooMama

Other Articles in the iPod Series
- Using Multiple iPods with One Computer
- Accessorize your iPod (or iPhone)
- Planning Ahead for Christmas: Which iPod is Right for You?
- Understanding iTunes and iPod
- Take Your iPod Along for the Ride

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
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