The internet allows for a huge increase in connection and community as well as media – more specifically, music. With such a demand, a wave of new file sharing was born that is now called called BitTorrent. This allows users to share files easily by storing separate files, not on one person’s computer, but multiple computers with certain pieces of files on them to allow downloading from multiple locations and thus speeding up downloading. (More information on BitTorrent here.)Unfortunately today, BitTorrent has become the mainstream way for sharing copyrighted content. There are a few sites though (like LegalTorrents), that do offer torrents that are free and legal.
Today we will be looking, more specifically, at some of the sites that offer live concert recordings available for download. In order to download these files to your computer you will need a torrent client, like utorrent (Windows) or Transmission (Mac, Linux). Here they are, in no particular order:
Etree
Etree is a site dedicated to providing numerous free and open-source related material and media with torrents being one of the best sections of the site. More specifically located at bt.etree.org, Etree hosts an incredible amount of free, legal, concert recordings available for download and distribution. With a fairly large amount of leechers and seeders, Etree continually has a growing archive of torrents and live concert recordings from artists like Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.Etree is definitely one of the best resources for accessing the best free, legal concert recordings on the web.
Sugarmegs
Sugarmegs is one of the most famous archives of free, legal, concert recordings ever created. While currently hosting over 19,000 live concert recordings and approximately 4,000 bands, you will surely find what you are looking for. Bands range from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top. Concerts can be streamed through their website, or on your computer with a .asx file. They also offer full concerts in WMA format. Sugarmegs is definitely has one of the largest archives of free, legal torrents on the web.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive (conveniently placed at archive.org) is one of the most incredible websites that has ever existed. The main intention of the site is to archive all available media and information available to mankind (e.g. books, movies, websites, etc.) and, yes, that does mean audio. With an archive of over 54,000 live concert recordings, you are sure to find just about any genre and any type of music that is currently available to mankind.
COTapers
COTapers, while hosting a much smaller series of torrents then Etree, Sugarmegs, or The Internet Archive, has quite a large archive or torrents that are, of course free. COTapers, actually, does not host all of its BitTorrents, but only the most recent recordings. Still, the collection is more then enough to listen to for quite a while.Do you know of any other cool sites to download free music from? Tell us in the comments!
Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-places-to-get-free-legal-concert-recordings/
