"This is the first I'd heard of Freegal -- as I said, I'm not its market. But it seems to me that this service needs to be considered as more than just a line item to be crossed out -- especially if there is no plan for anything to replace it."

Freegal is a legal mp3 downloading service which Auckland Libraries has been paying to subscribe to. It contains songs from the Sony catalogue from which members of the library are able to download up to three DRM-free mp3s a week.

Freegal has had its champions and detractors since its launch as a library service, with Sarah Houghton's Librarian In Black blog an interesting read for its objections and the array of views in its comments section.

What do you think? Should libraries provide some sort of legal music download service? What would you hope to see crop up in Freegal's place one day? How do you get your music? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

We've had a very busy week preparing for NZ Music Month 2012, which, I'm sure you'll know is throughout May. This year we're celebrating regionally, with music events in libraries from Wellsford up north to Waiuku down south. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and doing ukulele classes all over the place. There are also a lot more exciting things happening which I'm not allowed to announce just yet...

Also this week I've been enjoying the new Bruce Springsteen album, Wrecking Ball. While it's not quite as amazing as other recents like Magic or The Rising, there's still a whole lot of beauty and attitude in it. And it features some of the last recorded saxophone of the late great Clarence Clemons. Download some of the tracks from Freegal Music.

The Boss just spent the some time in Texas for South By Southwest(SXSW) which is a music/film/media conference extravaganza held for a week each year in Austin. David Dallas got over there after Pasifika. I hope he saw Bruce play. Here's an interview with DJBooth:

Music 101 on Radio NZ National have done a great feature on SXSW today, as well as other great happenings about the place. Check it out here.

I've just had a fantastic week beginning with Mayer Hawthorne last Thursday night at the Powerstation, followed by Bon Iver on Monday at the Wellington Town Hall, amidst days of amazing food & coffee in the capital. All things I highly recommend.

Good to be back in muggy old Auckland though. Wish I was going to Roots Manuva tonight. Here's one of my favourite music videos:

But if you're saving your coins and you have an Auckland University Student ID card, you can check out The Naked & Famous, Ruby Frost & Artisan Guns, tonight for free!

On another note, here are two online music resources I have been using a lot lately:

http://grooveshark.com: Grooveshark is the world's largest on-demand music streaming and discovery service. Over 30 million users flock to Grooveshark to listen to their favorite music, create playlists, discover new tunes, and share it all with friends via Facebook, Twitter, social news sites, and more.

Give it a go - if you're looking for a song, I have found it a lot more efficient than Youtube.

And of course: Freegal Music. A brilliantly simple new eresource from Auckland Libraries, giving you access to New Zealand's Sony Music Digital Catalogue, where you can download 3 mp3s a week for free, for keeps.

I recently discovered Dimmer's first album I Believe You Are A Star is out of print: you cannot get it anywhere on disc, but it is all available for free on Freegal. See what other discoveries you make, and let me know!

As I'm sure you will know, following the death of Whitney Houston, the price of her music was raised on iTunes: a move which was criticised as exploiting the tragedy.

Interestingly enough, I found that Houston's songs remained available for free download through Freegal, our new music eresource, which provides access to the Sony Music digital catalogue.

Follow this link with your library card and password to see Whitney Houston's music on Freegal.

Big news everybody: Freegal Music is here.

This is a new eresource at Auckland Libraries, which basically allows all you lucky library cardholders to legally browse, listen to and download music from Sony Music's digital catalogue.

That's a catalogue of at least 500,000 songs.

You can download 3 mp3s a week, for free, for keeps. No extra software needed, no threat of the FBI, and no connections to Mr. Kim Dotcom.

Sony Music is one of the largest music labels in the world, and a lot of smaller record labels/companys are under its umbrella. That means there's a healthy amount of quality local music on Freegal. For an idea of which NZ artists are linked to Sony, check out this Amplifier page.

Next week, Kelly is going to publish a beautifully comprehensive investigation of Andy Morton's musical oeuvre, which includes such artists as Che Fu - one of the many you can download through Freegal Music. Be sure to check it out.