How to Download Free Live Music Legally!

Check out the taper-friendly bands and recordings available at:

Basically there are two ways to get files — either download from a server (live music archive, gdlive.com) or share them peer-to-peer via BitTorrents (Sharing The Groove, furthurmore). Servers give you faster downloads for instant gratification; BitTorrents are slower but provide a wider, ever-changing selection.

You’ll need to pay attention to the ground rules and download a few free tools, but there’s a whole new universe of free music out there. One of the ground rules is that you must not covert the files to MP3. The reason for this is that MP3 compression is a “lossy” algorithm, so quality suffers. For the good of all, we should not “dilute the trading pool” with inferior recordings. Instead, most files are traded as SHN or FLAC files. These are “lossless” compressions that can be restored to their original quality and played on home stereo equipment.

What You’ll Need

Download the following free software:

Most music is distributed as SHN files, so you’ll need the mkwACT SHN tools; if you download any FLAC files, you’ll also need the FLAC tool. Lots of SHNs are available for download from servers such as live music archive and gdlive.com. You can download from these sites through your browser, but an FTP client such as SmartFTP will manage your downloads so that you don’t have to manually restart if a download is interrupted.

Using WinAmp5 with ShnAmp2 plug-in, you can play SHN files directly from your computer without converting to WAV files, saving time and drive space. WinAmp is an excellent alternative to Windows Media Player. My TV is connect to my computer so I can watch the trippy visualizations on TV!

BitTorrents provide a way to share files peer-to-peer, rather than hosting files on a central server. You’ll need to download the BT software before you can start getting these files. Be patient and you’ll get some interesting music you won’t see elsewhere.

Sharing The Groove, etree, and furthurmore are a few places to get BT files. On Sharing The Groove choose “Audio Bit Torrent Downloads” to see what shows are currently being shared.

Netiquette says that you should keep your window open long enough that others upload more from you than the total download.

Putting It All Together

To listen to your new music, you’ll need to either burn the downloaded files onto CDs or connect your computer directly to your home stereo. By connecting your computer to your stereo you can preview the recordings and decide which ones you want to burn after you’ve heard them.

My Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card has a digital output that I plug into my digital-to-analog converter (DAC). You probably don’t have either a digital output or a outboard DAC, so you can just plug the output that goes into your computer speakers into the AUX input of your home amplifier.

Instead of listening from your computer, you can burn CDs that you can play on your home or car stereo. Use the mkwACT SHN tools or FLAC tool to convert the files you downloaded into WAV files before you burn them onto CDs.

At 2 to 4 CDs per concert, you can go through a lot of discs. Although most shows are interesting historically, with so many excellent recordings out there, who has room to store multiple CDs filled with less-than-the best recordings and/or performances?

Now what I do is save the everything I download in SHN format onto a DVD-R. I can fit 4 to 6 entire concerts on a DVD. Then I can play the SHN files through WinAmp right off the DVD! If I really like a show, then I’ll burn CDs for the car or my CD changer.

Got suggestions?
Send me your favorite music resources and I’ll add them to this page!