Just a quick tip… Go to Archive.org and check out their selection of free music downloads. They have live concerts as well as independent musician recordings. Here’s their music archive page: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree.php If you have trouble working the downloads, they also provide a useful How-To section with easy to follow steps. I snagged two concerts, one with David Gray & one with Dispatch. They also have put together a nice collection of other resources that are interesting to check out & might even be of help if you’re involved in a research project…enjoy!
P.S. If you’re concerned about their legitimacy I clipped this from their about us page:
The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet, a new medium with major historical significance, and other “born-digital” materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.
[UPDATE 02.24.06]
After re-reading this post & downloading a very highly recommended Jack Johnson concert, I feel that this post warrants some more detailed info on the whole downloading process. You may have noticed that many songs are only available in a format called .shn (Shorten – a lossless format). This won’t play on most portable media players and you’ll need a specific application to even play it on your pc. No worries though, converting the the .shn files into english (.mp3) is a snap:
- Download this program, mKw Audio Compression Tool (if for some reason you can’t download, let me know and I’ll host it here).
- Read the install instructions first; it’s fairly simple, but I managed to mess it up on my first go-round.
- It’s a very lite program and you will simply have to drag and drop the files you wish to convert. Two steps complete the process…first you’ll convert the files to .wav format, then by dragging again you’ll convert to .mp3, and that’s it!
This likely sounds more difficult than it actually is, but the benefits are truly great & it’s well worth the effort. Good luck!