Twin Shadow, one of many artists featured on epitonic

Nearly ten years ago, when I first got a broadband connection, one of the main reasons was so that I could download music quickly, and (mostly) legally. There are those who will tell you that downloads spelt the death of the music industry – well, seeing as there have been more singles so far sold this year than last year (which was the record year for sales), that suggests that’s false. Yes, it may have had a devastating effect on record shops, but the savvy ones adapted (and some of the old dinosaurs had been ripping people off for years).

Two sites, insound and epitonichad masses of free downloads and they were – and are legal, too. epitonic has been rebooted, and I have to say with awesome music included. This should not stand as a way of giving up buying from record shops but a way of well, not sucking and see (yes, yes, ha ha) but certainly to hear something and go and try it out for yourselves. Also, I like the ‘like this? try this’ approach

Here’s some of what I’ve picked up this evening from epitonic (NB left click!)

Fleetwood Mac -‘Dreams (Walter Sobcek mix).’ mp3

Dykehouse -‘Chainsmoking.’ mp3

Twin Shadow -‘Five Seconds.’ mp3

And if any of the DMCA Nasiz turn up: these are legal. Why not put your energies into looking for people who destroy lives on the internet. Eh?