Novi Library to Offer Free Music Downloads

Beginning Friday, free music downloads will be available to cardholders in good standing. Users will be able to choose from hundreds of thousands of songs from the Sony Music Entertainment catalog, which includes more than 100 genres of music and more than 50 record labels.

Library users may access Freegal — operated by Library Ideas LLC of Fairfax, VA — through a link on theNovi Public Library website using their library card number and PIN. Each cardholder may download up to three songs per week at no cost and keep them in their permanent music collection.

No download manager is required; songs are delivered as MP3 files that are compatible with iPods and other MP3 devices, and the songs can be loaded into iTunes. Freegal works with PCs and Macs.

Everyone with a library card has the opportunity to download the maximum three songs per week. A single user who takes advantage of Freegal every week for a year can add 156 songs to his or her personal music collection at no cost. 

"Freegal is a subscription service that we decided to go with because we feel our patrons in Novi will use it and enjoy the benefits it offers," said Mary Robinson, staff librarian in charge of the launch. "We’re very excited about it.” 

Robinson said the library will continue to maintain its CD collection and to purchase new music.

Library staff members have had an opportunity to try the Freegal service for the past two weeks and said they found it to be simple and easy to use.

The library staff will gladly offer assistance, but here are a few quick tips to help you use Freegal:

• There is no "rollover" from week to week – if a user doesn't download the maximum three songs in any given week, the counter resets.
• Song clips allow users to preview 30 seconds of a tune, so they can make the best decision on what they want to download. To listen to a song clip, click on the arrow to the left of the track.
• A download usage counter in the upper right corner of the Freegal site displays the user's weekly allotment status. For instance, "1/3" means that the user has used one of the three downloads allowed for that week.
• Anytime the "Download Now" link is clicked (even if it is later canceled), the download will count toward the weekly allotment — so be sure you really want a song before you click on it.
• Browsing for songs is easy. Artists are listed from A to Z at the bottom of the Web page, and there is also a genre list in the menu bar. Remember, some bands' names start with "The," so if you're having trouble finding a band, look under "T."