Free Downloadable Christmas Songs
From LoveToKnow Christmas
The Internet is a wonderful resource for free downloadable Christmas songs. No matter what style of music you prefer, you're sure to find something that gets you into the holiday spirit.
Copyright Considerations
Before you begin searching for free Christmas songs online, it's a good idea to make sure you understand the importance of copyright. When a writer, artist, or musician creates an original piece of work, he/she is given copyright protection to avoid monetary damages caused by unauthorized use of intellectual property. No copyright notice is required for a work to be protected under copyright law; the legal aspect of copyright protection occurs automatically.
Christmas songs are said to be in the public domain if the copyright has expired. This means that you are free to use the songs however you wish, since they can't be legally owned by one person or organization. As a general rule, however, most of the Christmas songs written in the 20th century are still under copyright protection in the United States.
If a song has been made freely available online and it's not in the public domain, the musician is probably allowing the download as part of his/her marketing efforts.
Finding Free Downloadable Christmas Songs Online
To find free downloadable Christmas songs online, check out the following helpful Web sites:
- Download.com, a site best known for its free software downloads, also has a section devoted to free Christmas music. Samples from CDs you must purchase are mixed in with the free music downloads, however, so you'll need to spend some time searching in order to find what you're looking for.
- Feels Like Christmas offers a wonderful selection of free mp3 files from several indie artists. Take a look around and you may find a new favorite musician! If you sign up for updates with the site, you can be automatically notified whenever new songs are added.
- I Love Wavs has a large assortment of downloadable music for the holidays, including country, comedy, and pop songs. Songs are listed alphabetically and you'll need to scroll through the list to find what you want since no search function is available.
- Christmas Gifts provides a small selection of free downloadable Christmas songs for visitors to enjoy, including elegant, classic, traditional, and funny Christmas songs. There is also a free e-book of Christmas carol lyrics in case you want to sing along with your favorite tunes!
- The Holiday Spot provides some of the most popular Christmas songs available as free downloadable MIDI files.
- Uncle Dave's Free Christmas Music provides fun and upbeat instrumental Christmas music as free downloads. For your convenience, several different file formats are available.
- Christmas MP Free is a useful site for anyone in search of free Christian Christmas music. The site is easy to navigate and you can listen to a preview of the song before you commit to downloading the file.
During the holiday season, iTunes also offers a number of free Christmas music downloads from up and coming artists. This music is typically available for a limited time only, however. For best results, search on a weekly basis throughout the months of November and December.
Using Free Christmas Music
One of the best uses for free Christmas music is to set the mood at your holiday party. Pick a selection of Christmas carols that includes both popular and slightly obscure tunes.
If you're trying to cut costs this holiday season, burning a CD of free downloadable songs to give to friends and family is a wonderful frugal gift idea. You can use Christmas clip art and your favorite photos to make a customized case and label. However, you'll need to check the site's terms of use to make sure this is permissible. Some artists have no problem with sharing their music as long as it's not being sold for a profit, but others restrict free downloads to personal listening only.
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This page has been accessed 2,229 times. This page was last modified 19:16, 15 October 2008.
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