Free music, anyone?

This weekend I signed up for a free trial and 50 free downloads at emusic.com. Click here for the link that gives you 50 free songs (if you go to the main site first, it only lets you have 25). It's all indie music, so you won't find the current hits here, but there's lots of good music. It's all in MP3 format, so these work on any music player.

At the moment, I'm totally in love with string arrangements of pop and rock tunes by The Vitamin String Quartet. If nothing else, check out their versions of In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, Boston by Augustana and All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan. Audio beauty, just as the original songs are, but in a different way. ITunes sells these too, btw, but at 99 cents a pop -- and I think it's double that if you have a UK iTunes account.

You do have to give a credit card to sign up, but can quit at any time within the two-week trial period without being charged. This is a U.S. site and I used my U.S. credit card to back the free trial, but as I was turned on to the site from a coupon in Time Out London (which I ditched for better offer), you should be able to sign up whether using a U.S. or UK address and card. I have yet to see how easy or hard it is to cancel; let's hope I don't regret my love of freebies! I don't anticipate any problems though, as I checked user reviews on the Web, and no one complained of problems quitting.

FYI, if you sign up, the site does keep a running tally of how many downloads you have left, and pay attention to that -- if you go over, it automatically signs you up for a paid account (the lowest being $9.99 a month for 30 songs). Happy listening!