Legitimate sources of free music do exist!
A place where bootleggers go to share and trade recorded live shows. The live shows are not ones that will be released by the artist, so the artist is sanctioning them. This is a great place to go if you happened to want a copy of the latest gig your favorite artist attended in another county. What sets them apart from other torrent sites is that they do not allow posting of lossy formats (like mp3’s and ogg). So you have to download larger files, but they are lossless.
Another live show site, though slightly more active. It allows for lossy files to be posted.
Another live show site – starting to see a trend?
If an artist records their own shows, this site provides them the means of uploading it and sharing it with any fans who want a copy. Really cool idea for artists that don’t want to adhere to the traditional distribution method.
A record label that allows you to listen to an entire record before buying it. They also try to maintain a level of quality in their artists, so the music tends to be quite good. Free to browse and listen, buy if you like. You can also buy in lossless formats for making proper CD backups – I like it!