This was posted 8 years 11 months 15 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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All Pink Floyd Albums Are Now Free to Stream/Download at Australian Libraries, DRM-Free 256k MP3

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Valid for Brisbane library, others are probably the same. You can download nearly all* Pink Floyd albums (including studio albums, compilations and live albums) using only a library account. You can stream 3 hours a week day, and permanently download MP3 tracks at the rate of 3 tracks per week per account (Brisbane) or 5 tracks per week per account (Melbourne). Other libraries may vary.

This service has a lot of great music, but the addition of Pink Floyd has only occurred this week.

*(Having a closer look it seems some obscure compilations like Works and Relics are not included).

If you don't know where to start, try this recommended track order:

  1. Echoes (from Meddle)
  2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts I-V, from Wish You Were Here)
  3. Comfortably Numb (from The Wall)
  4. Dogs (from Animals)
  5. Time / Breathe reprise (from Dark Side of the Moon)
  6. On The Turning Away (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
  7. Interstellar Overdrive (from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn)
  8. A Saucerful of Secrets (from A Saucerful of Secrets)
  9. It's What We Do (from The Endless River)
  10. Marooned (from The Division Bell)

Here are my favourite albums in order:

  1. The Wall
  2. The Dark Side of the Moon
  3. Animals
  4. Meddle
  5. Wish You Were Here
  6. The Endless River
  7. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
  8. The Division Bell (still a decent album despite ranking 8th)
  9. Atom Heart Mother
  10. Ummagumma

Not familiar with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, Obscured By Clouds, or More, but that's about to change!

Related Stores

freegalmusic.com
freegalmusic.com

closed Comments

  • +2

    Luckily their albums tend to have low track counts :)

  • +3

    money no money. I like the price of this deal!

  • +1

    Thanks.
    Free downloads & streaming - nice.
    Didn't know about freegal.
    Installed the app, entered library card number & pin.

  • +4

    3 tracks per week? I hope you are a patient person. It would take several months to download their whole catalog. You could pick out the songs you like best though.

    • +1

      You can sign up to multiple libraries that subscribe to Freegal and download tracks for each one. Some libraries (e.g. Melbourne City Library) allow 5 downloads. Freegal have a site to search for libraries that have subscribed: http://www.freegalmusic.com/homes/chooser.

      • +1

        Also it's per account, so if you have 5 members in your family each with an account…

        • +1

          Thanks. I will look into this as another alternative to source my music. I find it difficult finding relatively obscure stuff online, especially 80s music.

      • +1

        Or you could just hit a torrent site.

    • +1

      Pfft…. You can sign up to as many public libraries as you like

      Here is my weekly count of Victorian libraries (and yes I do have tons of library cards)

      53 MP3 downloads per week (naturally if you have family members this could run in the hundreds per week)

      Five downloads per week - Three hours music streaming unless specified
      1. Boroondara (5)
      2. Darebin (5)
      3. Melbourne (5) [Unlimited music streaming]
      4. Whitehorse Manningham (5)

      Three downloads per week - Three hours music streaming
      1. Bayside (3)
      2. Casey-Cardinia* (3)
      3. Frankston City (3)
      4. Glen Eira (3)
      5. Hobsons Bay (3)
      6. Hume (3)
      7. Kingston (3)
      8. Moreland (3)
      9. Stonnington (3)
      10. Yarra* (3)
      11. Yarra Plenty Regional Library (3)

      • Both Yarra and Casey-Cardinia are part of the Swift Library consortium. When you sign up to the second library in the Swift network you need to tell the librarian you want online access only on your second card. I had problems in which Yarra cancelled my Freegal when I signed up to Casey-Cardinia but that has now been fixed.
      • Aren't there library registration or renewal fees?

        • It was free to join all the above libraries.

          Most libraries will cancel your membership after two years of inactivity (borrowing). I am not aware if the above libraries have the ability to know that you are accessing material online and therefore not to cancel your membership. To be on the safe side I will be contacting all the libraries above in about 1.5 years time to inform them to keep my membership active.

  • +1

    Ummagumma ftw, "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"

  • +4

    Acid, library card, computer, check!
    At 3 tracks per week, this will be a long journey filled with dancing hammers

  • What's the bit rate of the MP3s?

    • +2

      256kbps.

      • Thanks! Added to title.

  • +13

    We don't need no, track download restrictions.

    • +1

      Damn it, I just sang this :(

    • +4

      All in all it's just another track to download

    • You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your beans!!

      • +3

        Meat boy, meat!

      • Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?

  • +2

    I don't need no Pink Floyd (thanks to this https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/85779), but plus 1 because Freegal rocks! 3 tracks x 5 Family members = 1 album/week :)

    • Now if you only sign up to more libraries you could turn that into 100s.

  • +1

    Grab the album "Animals" if available, IMO one of the best albums they did..

    • +1

      I bought that when it came out. I played it five times and I never played it again. But it is still far better than Endless River, which is not a real Pink Floyd album but a collection of The Division Bell outtakes which the record company benefitted from.

      • I liked Endless River much more than Division Bell or even Momentary Lapse.

      • +2

        Endless river is very poor. I gave it a few listens and gave up on it.
        <very tenuous claim to fame> My uncle was one of the team responsible for the pig on the cover of Animals (and a whole bunch of other PF silliness). Somewhere we have a photo of him grabbing hold of one of the pig's tethers just before it goes on its unplanned flight.

        • that's awesome! if you ever find the photos get them scanned :-)

  • +1

    OP, for Brisbane libraries, the streaming allowance is three hours per day, not per week. May be different at other libraries.
    http://bit.ly/Freegal_eLibCat

    • Thanks! Fixed.

  • +2

    Everyone, the search engine at Freegal is terrible. Here are a few tips to get the best out of it:

    • if you are searching for a song, and you use the song's title, you will get usually get loads of cover versions listed. To avoid this, it's usually faster to select "songs" and then enter the artist's name.

    • if you do the above, and can't find the song, scroll to the bottom of the page and Freegal will add more songs to the bottom of the list. Keep scrolling down, multiple times, and eventually no more songs will be added. Now use your web browser's "search in page" (Ctrl-F) feature to search for the song name.

    • if you still can't find the song and/or artist, search on the song name, scroll down multiple times as above, and then search for "various". Sometimes you can find the song on a compilation album, where all songs just say "various artists" or similar for the artist. However you will often find these are cover versions. Sometimes the photo of the album cover will list the artist's names, and then you can be reasonably sure you have a genuine track by the artist you were looking for.

    And sometimes, the artist you want just isn't on Freegal. You'll have to find a different music download service.

    Also be aware that there are a lot of "karaoke" songs on freegal. You'll often have to wade through pages of these before finding the original song, Freegal often doesn't list the songs in order of relevance to your search terms.

    Also, if you find some songs you want to download, but you have used up your download allowance, click on the "+" beside the song, select "Add to playlist" and "create a new playlist". Give the new playlist a name, like "download later" or similar, and your playlist will be available next week when your download allowance refreshes. From the left-hand menu, select "My Playlists" and then click on the name of your playlist. You can select "download" from there, again from the "+" beside the song. There are a small number of songs that can't be added to playlists, for these you can select "add to wishlist" instead. I'm not sure if the wishlist is as good as playlists, I think the wishlist has a maximum size. Playlists don't seem to have a maximum size, my "already downloaded" playlist currently has 213 songs!

  • Is it just me, or is Animals missing all bar two tracks? Well, it's missing 3 tracks, but they're the bulk of the album.

    • +1

      Sometimes that's the way it is, Freegal only received clearance for a limited number of songs.

    • +1

      Worst example on Freegal is Dolly Parton's Real Love album.. Includes all tracks apart from the title track (probably due to licensing reasons).

      Some stuff on Freegal sounds terrible (make sure you sample before you download)

      Since I am complaining about Freegal the track duration doesn't matter. Freegal will still count a 10 second intro track as a song - which is annoying if you want a album with lots of interludes.

      Last but not least .. Don't waste your credit on watching music videos via Freegal. Use Youtube for that!

      • You'd think they'd list all tracks, but only some would be hyperlinks.

    1. Do I need to physically go to my local library to access this service?
      I tried to register online but it doesn't recognise my post code (NSW) when I try to search for my local library.
    2. Do Aussies have access to the sister site FreegalMovies or is it US only?
      1. Once you have a library card you can access the service on any internet connection. Remember that internet charges apply.

      2. I don't believe Australians have access to FreegalMovies.

      • There's no option to change country, so that's a fair conclusion.

  • All in all your just another brick in the wall.

  • If the tracks are available for free, what's the practical differnece with downloading all in one go with a torrent ?

    • +5

      The artist gets a little money, versus getting zero money if you torrent. And it's legal, so it's good to introduce your kids to Freegal.

  • None of the albums of Pink Floyd have a download button by the song title. Perhaps it depends on your library. I joined City of Perth. Wait, sorry, I found it, on some titles…

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