Broadway Music Downloads?(Free)

[Megan Marie]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 7:47pm

Does anyone know if there is a website or anything that a person could go to and download Broadway songs for free....or for a price either or. I'm thinking something kind of like Kazaa or Winmx, etc only with Broadway music. Its highly doubtful that this exists but if anyone knows anything please tell me.

[Broadwaygirl4life]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 8:21pm

Haven't heard of anything yet! I'm am looking for the same exact thing!

[mebice]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 8:23pm

I would like one! It would be nice!

[krisjoseph]

Posted: 1/11/04 at 12:06am

Alright. Lemme get on my high horse for a second.

Broadway recordings are expensive to produce, and they don't sell very well. Often hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested in the creation of a cast recording, and it takes a lot of purchased discs to make that money back. Downloading Broadway songs for free is disrespectful as well as illegal (in the USA and most other parts of the world).

Sites are starting to sell music for less than a buck a song, but Broadway recordings are still rare in those arenas. Sites like puretracks.com and napster.com actually DO have many of the newer cast recordings available and let you purchase tracks on a song-by-song basis, often for 99 cents or less. So much for the "I'm a poor student" argument.

If you want to hear tracks before you buy, use Internet radio as a preview source... broadwayworld radio is here for you, and there are tons of other (less excellent) stations elsewhere on the web.

There's no excuse to steal... please don't.

Updated On: 1/11/04 at 12:06 AM

[zbigner]

Posted: 1/11/04 at 12:47pm

Kris said exactly what I was going to say, only better. Also keep in mind that legitimate internet radio stations like broadwayworld radio pay royalties on every song they play. Thus, when you support these stations, you are helping to support the recordings they play.

I am hopeful that the spread of internet radio will help increase the sales of musical theatre albums since most people in the world have no other means of hearing this music. People can only buy what they are exposed to.

Zack

Updated On: 1/11/04 at 12:47 PM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/11/04 at 1:05pm

ITunes Music Store has some stuff buried away under the Soundtrack heading. You have to look. The nice thing is that you can listen to a 30 second sampling of each song, on each CD that that *do* have, and can choose to download the entire CD for a reasonable price (I think Wicked was $9.99) or just pick and choose individual songs for 99 cents.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 1/11/04 at 2:16pm

Go Kris!

I had used to download music, not much, but only a few songs every now and then. Then the big controversey came up with Napster, and I learned more about copyright online, so I stopped.

I LOVE the BroadwayWorld.com Radio feature. I haven't listened to any music from certain shows, and BW.com Radio prompted me to purchase SONGS OF A NEW WORLD and the new Cast Recordings of GYPSY and LITTLE SHOP, shows I would have otherwise not bothered to try and listen to.

If you are trying to get or or two songs from a show, I would go with Sites like Napster.com to purchase the individual song; but if you are wanting most/all songs from one particuar show, just go and buy the CD, it's not hard and it's not all to expensive - Amazon.com sells them for $13 on average.