The Bottom Line
If you are looking to expand your musical horizons, then Jamendo's library of over 7,000 albums will keep you busy for a long time. You can choose to listen to the music via streaming audio or download as many albums or individual tracks as you like. Jamendo is an excellent choice for free and legal digital music.
Pros
- Excellent choice of music genres.
- Unlimited free downloads.
- Choice of Web and Bit Torrent downloading.
Cons
- Website difficult to navigate - could be more intuitive.
Description
- Service type: Unlimited, Free and Legal
- Music library: 7,000+ albums
- Available music formats: MP3, OGG
- Music Delivery: HTTP, Bit Torrent, streaming audio
Guide Review - The Free and Legal Jamendo Music Service
Introduction
Jamendo is an online music community where artists and listeners can network. The advantage for artists is that they are provided with a global platform to promote their music. Under the Creative Commons license, users are free to listen to, download, and share (with some limitations) the music that has been uploaded.
Services: After registration and email validation you can gain access to additional services, which are:
- Playlist generation.
- Review and comment on albums.
- Personal star rating system for albums.
- Forums.
Website: The Jamendo website is quite difficult at times to navigate, although visually it is good. The design doesn't make it very intuitive and to access certain options, such as changing preferences, you have to drill-down into sub-menus.
Music: The music available from Jamendo's library covers many (if not all) music genres and so there's something for everyone. The quality of the music, considering it isn't mainstream is very impressive.
Music Delivery and Formats: The music is provided as MP3 if you are downloading it via a HTTP link or OGG if you are using a P2P file sharing network, such as Bit Torrent. You can also use streaming audio that is served at 96kbps.
