SpiralFrog lets you download music to your PC and onto your MP3 player. There's no charge and not much hassle (and I agree, the names of these services get dumber and more oblique every day).
Here's how it works: You register, fill in a survey, and start downloading music from an enormous selection.
The site makes its money with eyeballs -- specifically, your eyeballs -- looking at ads on the page. You can download as much as you like, but to keep you looking at the ads (and oh, there are plenty), you need to manually start each download.
With a tabbing browser, that's really not a big deal. Hit the download, merrily go about your business in another tab, and wait for the sound that tells you the file's been downloaded. (And of course you can stick your ad blocker between the ads and you -- your choice, your conscience.)
Click the button for the next download
The other downside is that you'll need to take a silly survey every 30 days, otherwise the DRM encoded music will stop playing. (Yes, I know, there are unethical ways around that, but you'll have to figure them out on your own.)
Interestingly enough, and not unusually, my PC World buddy Emru Townsend disagrees with me. For instance, he doesn't like being "held hostage" with monthly visits and he was unhappy with the site's sluggishness (it's fast now).
You can read what Emru had to say in Free Music Isn't Always Worth It. In the meantime, I've gotta switch back to the other tab and click the download button.
Talkback
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I found a site called www.we7.com where you dont have to come back every 30 days - once you download it, its yours to keep DRM free.
There is great content on it too and the music plays on all media players!
Oooh, c'mon you guys at we7..... We all know this is you on every fucking comment for SprialFrog and Qtrax, trying to hype you're own poor business model...STOP IT before it gets embarrasing!