Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5787153/check-itunes-free-section-to-discover-new-music
Whitson Gordon — We've featured a number of blogs in the past that round up iTunes' latest free offerings, but you may not know that iTunes now has an entire section dedicated to free music and video.
If you're bored with the music and video in your library but are a little short on cash, iTunes makes it a lot easier these days to find good stuff for free. Just scroll down to the bottom of the iTunes Store homepage and you'll see a section containing all of iTunes' free stuff, whether it's music, TV shows, apps, or podcasts. Just hit "See All" next to the "Free on iTunes" section to see a larger list. It's updated pretty regularly, so it's a good way to discover new stuff without spending any money.
It's a quick tip that many of you may know about already, but if you (like me) don't "browse" the iTunes store a lot, you might have missed this. Some of their free stuff is actually pretty good—I've even found a few of my favorite bands through their free offerings. I usually like to keep a playlist of all the free stuff I've collected, too, so it's easy to clean out the clutter after I've listened to it all and decided what I do and don't like.
Music these days is anything but cheap. However, it is a hugely popular industry, and most people are currently buying their music digitally rather than physically. In fact, just this week Mercury Records have decided to scrap physical sales in favour of an entirely digital business. What this means is that you will now be unable to purchase physical vinyl or CD’s by artists signed under Mercury Records unless it is a charity single or the company are sure that they are going to be making a huge profit. The most popular digital music store at the moment is iTunes.
With users all over the world, this is a multimillion dollar industry. As you can see from the image below, the iTunes store is fairly easy to navigate. You can reach the store with a click on iTunes store in the sidebar after starting up the Apple iTunes software.
Usually the most popular downloads are shown on the home page of the iTunes store. As you can see from this image the film ‘The Tourist’ with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp is on display, as well as some of the top singles this week. However, these are not cheap. Obviously, one or two downloads a week isn’t going to break the bank, but for those who like to discover new music, this isn’t really an option. This is why free downloads on iTunes are great.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits that come with downloading free music from iTunes. Firstly, there is the ability to discover new music that you probably would not have been able to find otherwise. There are several artists available on iTunes with free tracks. The good thing about this is that you can continuously add new music to your iTunes library and possibly discover an artist that you love and would like to hear more of. When you are buying music from iTunes you are only going to be buying songs by artists that you have actually heard of whereas free music offers a much wider range of different styles of music that you would not otherwise listen to.
Of course, there are downsides to downloading free music on iTunes, but these negatives are far outweighed by the positives. The only real negative is that you are not going to be able to get well known songs by really popular artists for free. Occasionally, there will be popular songs available for free download such as live versions, but this is not a regular occurrence. So, you may be wondering how you can download free music from iTunes. The good news is that this really couldn’t be simpler. First, you are going to want to scroll down to the bottom of the home page, as shown below.
Here you will see a section labelled as ‘Free On iTunes’. Please note that this section may not be available in all localized iTunes stores.Once you see this section you should click on the ‘See All’ tab, and you will be presented with the page shown below.
The great thing about this section is that not only can you download free music, but you can also download TV episodes, movies, music videos, and apps all for free. As you can see from the image shown above, this is a really easy page to navigate. All you have to do is click on the song that you want to download and then it will start downloading automatically. Once the download is complete you will find it in your library on iTunes. It really is as simple as that. So, there you go, a quick guide on getting free stuff from iTunes!
The iTunes store is regularly replacing the free music, tv shows and other media with new free media. It pays to check the section regularly.
You do need an Apple iTunes account that is associated with a real person in the iTunes store’s country to download free music, tv shows and other media.
It is theoretically possible to create a fake account to download the free music and stuff from iTunes. It is not that complicated to setup but legally questionable.
