iRATE radio is a collaborative filtering client/server mp3 player/downloader. The iRATE server has a large database of music. You rate the tracks and it uses your ratings and other people's to guess what you'll like. The tracks are downloaded from websites which allow free and legal downloads of their music.

Most of the music you'll be given is pretty mediocre. Some if it is real bad. But then, once in a while, there's something really awesome that you didn't know about before. Now whether you think downloading a bunch of songs you don't want for the chance of discovering something cool is worth the time or not.. I guess that's something you'll have to decide. If you've got broadband it's a lot easier, but on dial-up obviously it can take a long time.

I've found a couple cool songs/bands, but as you can see I don't like most of the stuff it gave me. But I can't really complain about free music. All the songs offered are songs the musicians made available for free. Check it out if you wanna find some new music.

Written by