Free music and video on the Web
Sites like Amazon.com and Hulu.com offer free music and shows.
You can save some money on music by finding free, legal versions of music on the Web. While this may seem like a scam, two of the biggest music sites offer just that. Both Amazon.com and Apple iTunes have free music available.
Amazon.com
To find the free music on Amazon.com, use the website http://mp3.amazon.com, which will take you to their download store.
Click on the left side where it says “Free Songs and Special Deals.” Amazon.com currently shows a list to the top 25 free songs, and a link to over 500 more free songs.
One hint when viewing lists of music that includes both free and paid music; sort the music by price, and the free songs will appear first in the list. The music you download is yours to keep.
Amazon also offers a larger number of free videos on demand by going to http://vod.amazon.com.
Clicking on the “Free Videos” on the left side of the screen (this is in the “Deals & Freebies” section). The majority of video is streamed, so it is not yours to keep.
iTunes
Apple’s iTunes store also has some free music, as well as some video content. On the iTune Store home page, scroll down to the “Free on iTunes” portion, and click on “Show All”.
iTunes usually offers at least 2 free songs per week (starting on Tuesdays each week). You can download the video content, and it is yours to keep.
As mentioned, iTunes also offers other free content including a few videos, some behind the scene content, some children’s content, some selected scenes from popular movies, as well as some pilot episodes of TV shows, although the content is often a bit limited.
Hulu.com
Another website that offers free TV shows and other video content on demand is Hulu.com. Again, since this is streamed video, you cannot keep it.
ABC, CBS and NBC
And don’t forget to check out the individual networks (abc.com, cbs.com, nbc.com). Many of your favorite shows can be viewed over the Internet for free within a few weeks of airing. Don’t wait too long though, the network sometimes remove them after some period of time.
So save your money and make use of the music and video that is legally available on the Web.
Kim Komando had a cool site of the day on Saturday, November 14th that suggested http://www.clicker.com. Basically, this is a website that you type in the name of a TV show, and it finds out where on the web the episodes available are. Just click on one, and you get linked to the LEGAL sites on the web where the episode is available. Pretty cool!