Real Free, Legal Music Downloads -- From Your Newspaper

Along with everyone else we know who follows the music business, we are still marveling at the fiasco that is QTrax, the company that promised to give away all of the world's songs, for free, without breaking the law.

Of course, it turns out that the music industry hadn't signed on, and as of now QTrax is only giving away free music to people who attend the Midem conference in France, where it is sponsoring free concerts by the likes of James Blunt and LL Cool J (video, via Idolator, below).

Next month, though, New Yorkers will be able to download music, for free, with the blessing of a major music label. EMI is giving away up to 3 songs in a promotional stunt with the NY Daily News. In order to get the songs, you'll have to grab a code from an insert in the Feb. 3 or Feb. 10 copies of the News, then redeem the code at paper's Web site.

EMI says it will offer a catalog of 120,000 songs, but doesn't offer any more detail than that, and there's no talk about what format the music will come in, whether it will be DRM'ed, etc. Also, the Sunday news costs a dollar, so if you're a real spoilsport you could argue that the music isn't free, anyway. But if you're going to complain that much about your free music, then this promotion probably isn't aimed at you, anyway.

Earlier: QTrax: We're Launching...Someday
Sony-BMG: We Don't Have A QTrax Deal, Either
Warner, UMG, EMI: No Deals With Free Music Service QTrax
Legal P2P Music Service QTrax: Finally Up