I had to find some music yesterday morning to play before and after the speeches at the rally in Canberra yesterday against the Government’s mandatory Internet filtering proposal which I was an organiser of … and I didn’t want to get into the whole paying APRA/AMCOS royalties thing or illegally play licensed music in a public place – so I needed to find some free music.

Quick search around, a few suggestions – and I found Jamendo.

Jamendo is a place where artists can upload music and consumers can download music for free – so we’re talking about unsigned bands and musicians who want to get discovered.

I looked through the popular (most downloaded) albums and had a listen to an album from a group called Tryad, an electro pop ambient genre group who claim to be one of the world’s first virtual bands – ie of no fixed geographic location but collaborating, performing, producing and recording online over the Internet. I liked the nice low-key yet dynamic sound of their music and ended up downloading the album and playing it at the rally.

I suggest you check it out – there’s some quality stuff on here! If you like a band on there, blog about it, promote and help get them signed and start getting paid!

Also you can assemble playlists, post on the forums there and even donate to bands you like.

- Nathanael Boehm