CNET R.I.P.

March 9, 2005

The lights are going out over at CNET music; my source for free legal music downloads for well over two years now. In the past I've tried to offer some thoughts about the tracks I suggested you download, but today I operate under a heightened sense of urgency, and present you just a linked list. For when CNET goes dark on Wednesday, March 11th they will send all of their site traffic to last.fm. From what little investigation I've been able to do, last.fm has little desire to provide free downloads— they are interested in running a social networking site centered around music. Yet another social networking site, just what the world needs. 

So get cracking people. You should know that any other tracks available by the musicians below are worth having as well; so don't just stop with my favorite, download them all.

The Best of CNET (R.I.P.)*

• Handsome Furs, What We Had
  
• Santogold, L.E.S. Artistes (XXXChange remix)
  
• The Helio Sequence, Keep Your Eyes Ahead
  
• Neko Case, Star Witness
  
• Billy Cote and Uniit Carruyo, I Don't Want To Fight Tonight
  
• Fleet Foxes, Winter Hymnal
  
• Calexico, Black Heart
  
• Robyn, Sensual Seduction (Snoop Remix)
  
• Grand Ole Party, Look Out Young Son
  
• Lykke Li, Dance, Dance, Dance
  
• The Decemberists, The Soldiering Life
  
• Peter Bjorn and John, Let's Call It Off
  
• The Hong Kong, Tongue Tied
• Jolie Ruelle, Forget
• Devendra Banhart, Be Kind
  
• Angels of Light, Song For My Father
  
• Brother Ali, Original King
  
• Antony and the Johnsons, Cripple and the Starfish
  
• Iron and Wine, Lions Mane
  
• CSS, Alala
  
• The Whitest Boy Alive, Burning
• Ferraby Lionheart, Tickets to Crickets
  
• Santogold & Diplo, Starstruck (Diplo Remix)
  
• TV On The Radio, Dry Drunk Emperor
  
• Voltaire, When You're Evil
  
• The Submarines, You Me and The Bourgeoisie
  
• Emiliana Torrini, Me And Armini (edit)
• Tilly and the Wall, The Freest Man (CSS Remix)
  
• Wolf Parade, Shine A Light

*You may discover at some point that CNET often suffers from glitches when certain pages load. Patience and persistence are the keys with this particular problem— hit the back button and try reloading the page a few times. Occasionally, it helps to load the page by clicking on the image or the "See all free tracks" button rather than by clicking on the musician/group name.