Like Napster Used to Be, Only Legal!

You know how you get a song stuck in your head all day long, something like Shining Star by Earth, Wind, and Fire (if you are under 40, substitute Rolling in the Deep by Adele) and it invades your every thought? Or you remember snippets from a song and you want to hear more of it? You can listen to about 45 seconds of it on iTunes for free (of course, the 45 seconds that is played has no recollection in your memory) or you can pay $.99 or more just to find out it wasn’t the song after all.

Or you could download it from the Burlingame Library. For free. And keep it.

The library offers a really cool and free downloadable music service called Freegal.  True, not a very lyrical name – it stands for free and legal – but you might as well call it “Shut the front door, I can get free music downloads at my library?” Yup, you can.

Freegal gives you access to the Sony Music Entertainment catalog, offering hundreds of thousands of songs, in over 100 genres, and more than 50 record labels. You don’t need special software but you do need a Burlingame library card, which is super easy to get with ID.

You can download 3 free songs a week and they are yours to keep. They download as an MP3 which you can play, transfer, or burn to a CD. Free. Legal.

Soon you’ll be doing your power walk to Aerosmith’s Walk This Way, blissing out to Schola Cantorum’s Gregorian chants, or walking the line with Johnny Cash.

www.burlingame.org/library

Reference Desk:  650-558-7444, ext. 2