I'm a librarian in need: what are your favorite reputable FREE music websites.

Here.

She said "reputable", Ned.

I don't know how faculty would feel about their students citing ILM in papers

Actually, I think it's fairly acceptable (given the various and sometimes infuriating way that ILX has been referenced in articles/etc.) as a reference, but a "use at your own risk" caveat might be in order. It's definitely a general, searchable resource, even if it isn't academically acceptable for some.

http://www.discogs.com is something you may want to check out, maybe...?

Yeah! Stuff like that!

For free downloads, streams, reviews (incl by "guest editor" musicians), intervews attached to reviews(musicians talking about writing and recording), features, and listening parties (streaming whole albums, with artist's comments on each track)
http://paperthinwalls.com

I assume you're not looking for online versions of popular magazines like Rolling Stone, etc? Also, you're not interested in the MTV repository?

I think most of the kids know they can go online to read magazines. We also have over 60 subscriptions available to them.

And, uh, I'm totally out of it when it comes to MTV. Do they have an awesome archive or something?

It isn't really awesome but it's a good snapshot of the artists they are currently getting paid to pimp. They may have screwed with the interface to the point where it's no longer usable, though.

For your Production majors, you should subscribe to Tape Op magazine, which is free and great. The online site is worth knowing too, the discussion boards would be a good resource. http://www.tapeop.com/

And for your Music Business majors: http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/

sweet.

Any site that has articles that are as good and as important as this one can't be all bad either: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/imperfect-sound-forever.htm

(threads - with links to other articles - about this topic can be found here on ILM: here and here)

Some more music business related sites. Future of Music Coalition is Jenny Toomey's DC advocacy group, the site has plenty of interesting articles:
http://www.futureofmusic.org/

And these are particularly relevant to intellectual property issues:
http://www.eff.org/IP/
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/index.html
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/law/library/introduction.html

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com

(just kidding)

:)

nice.

this has a pretty comprehensive list of all the names of tracks sampled by hip hop producers:

http://www.the-breaks.com/

I love the breaks.

In doing the research for my book, I'm finding that the Breaks is a little less accurate than i thought it would be, but still totally an essential website. Will get my endless props throughout time.

Check out archive.org's massive collection of free music.

"I don't know how faculty would feel about their students citing ILM in papers"

"No Sufjan, no credibility" retrieved from ILX on…

allmusic.com too.

In the UK academic librarians have created a massive digital library of links connected to music as part of the Palatine directory

http://www.palatine.ac.uk/directory/index.php/Music/

Archives, Databases & Libraries [67]

Aural Awareness [6]

Children, Music for [7]
Composers [26]

Composition [14]

Country Music [3]
Course Materials [2]

Disabilities, Visual Impairment & Music HE [12]

Electronic & Electroacoustic Music [16]
Electronic Discussion Lists [5]

Employability [0]

Ethnomusicology [15]
Examination Boards [3]

Experimental Music [6]

Film Music & Multimedia [18]
Fun Stuff [20]

Geographical Areas [55]

Gospel; Blues [8]
Harmony, Counterpoint, Techniques [11]

HE Policy & Audit (Music) [8]

Historical Periods [52]
Jazz [19]

Journals & Periodicals [61]

Links2Links [37]
Music & Sounds Online [12]

Music Education [43]

Music Industry, Business, Administration [20]
Music Therapy [9]

Musical Scores Online [7]

Musical Theatre [0]
Musicology, History, Criticism [58]

Opera [32]

Perception & Music Psychology [15]
Performance & Performance Studies [81]

Popular Music [25]

Postgraduate Study in Music [2]
Recommended Music Sites & Gateways [34]

Shops, Record Labels, Publishers [35]

Software [112]
Study Skills for Music [5]

Subject Associations & Organizations [33]

Technology & Acoustics [33]
Theory & Analysis [17]

Widening Participation [0]

The Internet's definitive resource for songs about pie...

you guys are awesome! This is exactly the type of information I am looking for.

anything else?

Probably linked somewhere above but I never tire of UCSB's Cylinder project, which is good for historical research as well as links to other similarly inclined sites:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/

I haven't used it thoroughly enough to decide whether it's classic or dud yet, but Rockdetector contains a lot of biographical info.

http://www.rockdetector.com/index.sm

Famous Sounds
Riddim Directory

Not in English, but the nonprofit Dutch site 3voor12 offers streaming albums, radio, video, etc.

Chris Dahlen's Pitchfork column "Get That Out of Your Mouth" would be worth reading for a college student studying Music Business.

Bias. Oh wait. (Actually good business coverage in general really is something more writers need to be aware of, me included.)

I like Coolfer for music business talk, even tho I don't always agree with some things. www.coolfer.com

I don't see why any bass majors wouldn't want to read everything on Mike Watt's site: http://www.hootpage.com/

Vocal performance majors at a popular music college may be interested in: http://www.americanidol.com/auditions/

Ethnomusicologist Wayne Marshall often links to material he uses in his class, or that he discussed at seminars at his blog at wayneandwax.com