<em>Wired</em> Thinks You Should “Steal” All Your Music

By now most sentient beings know how to get free music online, legally or illegally, for better or worse. But for those not down with the program by 2007, Wired has put together a guide to all the ways people can “Cheat The Music Industry,” even if the magazine has a fuzzy definition of what constitutes ripping off those evil money men at the record labels.

Despite the continual legal pursuit of music file-sharing “criminals” by the “RIAA,” the ability to find great music and create a significant music library at virtually no cost is still quite feasible. So we’ll start by dividing this into categories and giving a few examples of what we know. But it’s up to you to fill in the blanks.

After which they proceed to list 11 streaming audio/free download sites, followed by a handful of BitTorrent sites, one of which is now offline. So you’re not really “cheating” the music industry when the bulk of the services are “legal and somewhat free”–i.e. someone at the label is making money–but “Cheat The Music Industry” is a snappier title than “Some Well-Known Free Music Sites And Some Quasi-Legal/Illegal Alternatives.” Since Wired seems to be asking readers to add their own torrent trackers and other suggestions, one way to read “it’s up to you to fill in the blanks” might be “please contribute to our Wiki so we can avoid looking like we’re the ones encouraging outright theft.” Still, their initial suggestions might be helpful to any readers who’ve, say, recently arrived penniless from another galaxy and need to quickly fill up that iPod they’ve bought to better blend in with humanity.

Cheat The Music Industry: Never Pay For Music [Wired via the Daily Swarm]