Legally loading up your iPod or MP3 player

In the old days we carted cassettes around with us from country to country. Then it was CD Walkman type players, which were better, but still a bit of a pain. Now that you can carry hours and hours of tunes in digital form, there's more room in the day pack and less to carry around.

But loading up your music collection still takes some planning and effort, especially if you plan to be gone for months, a year, or more. You can burn from your collection, you can borrow from others, or download things from dubious sites that my well infect your computer with more than you bargained for.

There's a middle ground way though to get lots of new and interesting music and still be legal. First of all, there's an unheralded section of Amazon that offers free music downloads. Not much gets added on a regular basis, but there are plenty of gems posted.

For both the short term and the long term, it's hard to beat the value of eMusic. You get freebies for signing up at the link below, plus it's only $9.95 a month for 30 downloads. It's mostly indie stuff, so you're not going to find the latest boy band or radio fodder, but an impressive collection that keeps on growing. Best of all, you're not locked into Apple's system--tracks work on any MP3 player, not just the iPod, and with no usage restrictions.

25 FREE Downloads. eMusic for your iPod® or any MP3 player