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they might be cool

They Might Be Giants is one of my favorite bands, and I love their attitude about online music. They give away a new piece of free music on their website every couple of weeks. It's password protected against file spider robots, but that information comes in the same weekly newsletter that announces when a new song is up. They've also got their own podcasts, as well as a streaming, flash-based “clock radio” applet that plays any of three TMBG-based-or-inspired radio stations, which also cover some of The Johns side project music. They also sell recordings of their concerts; their upcoming show at TED will likely be available through Google Video, if TED’s history is any indication.

Recently TMBG negotiated to electronically distribute their music,
which they sell at a reasonable price, and as no-DRM, non-crippled MP3s. So instead of buying CDs from their label or through iTunes, of which they might see 10% of the sale, I’ll be buying all albums from there from here on out.

But mostly I just wanted to tell you about free, cool music for geekdancing.

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