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Sup Pop Records and Amazin.com are giving away a free digital sampler album. Digital Bang: The 2010 Sub Pop Sampler for Amazon includes 15 tracks by Sub Pop artsits such as Avi Buffalo, Wolf Parade, Dum Dum Girls and comedian David Cross.

The cover art for the sample is better than most. However, you can find the actual album art for most of the tracks in the AAX gallery.

Last week, heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden revealed the cover art for their forthcoming album The Final Frontier on their official website. The Final Frontier will be the band's 15th studio album. It is scheduled to be released on August 16, 2010.

I must admit that I am somewhat disappointed in this album cover. While it is a high quality illustration and typical of Iron Maiden, it is significantly different from the style of the cover art for the single El Dorado (right) that is being offered as a free download in the Iron Maiden website.

The cover for the single is made to look like a vintage comic book. I was hoping that the album cover would use the same concept. Instead, it follows the same formula used by Iron Maiden for the past few decades. I guess it doesn't pay to change something that works.

For those interested in downloading the single, there is also a link to download a high resolution version of the cover art.

A mixtape collaboration from Major Lazer and La Roux has been made available as a free download. Lazerproof includes 14 tracks. In addition to Major Lazer's Diplo and Switch and La Roux, it features artists such as Amanda Blank, Gucci Mane, and Drake.

The cover art for the mixtape is similar to the comic book style of the Major Lazer project. The quality of the image is a disappointment. The music files come with a 700 x 700 pixel cover. However, the image is very compressed. Even the images on the official website have a lot of JPEG compression artifacts. I have posted a repaired cover to the gallery.

Visit the Download Site

You can download Travie McCoy's single Billionaire featuring singer, songwriter and music producer Bruno Mars free by sending out a Tweet. Just visit McCoy's website and click the "Tweet to Download" button to get a download code. You will be asked to give access to your Twitter account.

The single is from McCoy's album Lazarus (right), which will be released tomorrow. The single is very good and definitely worth downloading. You can't beat the price.

A high quality version of the album cover is still needed for the AAX gallery.

Free Download

British pop artist Lolene has revealed the cover of her debut album The Electrick Hotel. As a promotion, a free download of Rich (Fake It Til You Make It) (right), the the first single from the album, is being offered online. The album is schedule for release on August 24, 2010.

You can download the single using the widget below. It is not necessary to share your email address.

The cover art for both the single and the album use bright neon colors (and neon lights for the matter). I think I like the cover for the single a little more than that of the album. The effect achieved by having the artist hold the pink neon star is very cool.

Singer and songwriter Ryan Adams will soon be releasing a metal album called Orion. The artist's website is currently conducing a poll asking whether or not visitor would be interested in purchasing it on vinyl. You can also download a sample track called Electrosnake.

There has been some write ups about the album art being "special", but I don't really see anything to praise. This is a typography concept that we've all seen a thousand times. It certainly isn't a heart-shaped pizza!

Visit Ryan Adams' Website

The album art for former American Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell's forthcoming album was revealed online this week. The cover for Without Regret was displayed on the artist's website along with a free download of her single Say Love.

The cover features a photograph of Caldwell sitting on the floor in front of a leather sofa. The first thing that I noticed about the image is that Caldwell's right foot and ankle look huge. I think I would have don't some Photoshopping to make it look more in proportion with the rest of her body. I think she's going to regret it otherwise. The album is scheduled for release on April 6, 2010.

Blondie has made a new Christmas song available as a free download from the band’s website. We Three Kings is a rock version of the traditional carol. It is being offered as a promotion for a new Blondie album that is slated for release in 2010.

Go to the Download  

You can buy the digital version of Adam Lambert’s nerw album For Your Entertainment from Amazon.com for the discounted price of $3.99. When you apply the special discount code for a $3.00 discount, you will be charged only 99 cents for the entire album.

Just get the special discount code and then click the “buy now” link below. You’ll get Adam Lambert’s album for less than a buck. How can you beat that deal?

Alternative rock band Pixies is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Doolittle by giving away a free live performance EP. The Doolittle 20th Anniversary Live Sampler EP features four 320 Kbps MP3.

The cover art that comes with the EP is very basic. It simply features the band’s logo in school bus yellow on a brown background. However, the sound quality of the four songs is very good. Pixies always sound good live and this EP is no exception.

You can download the EP after submitting your email address on the band’s website or by using the widget posted below.

Yesterday, Google launched Google Discover Music. The new music search service provides links to Google partners such as Imeem.com, Lala and Rhapsody where music by the artist can be purchased. If a search is made for a specific track, it can be listened to on a player embedded in the search results.

To promote the launch, Lala is offering several free tracks and exclusives from artists like Tim McGraw and Phoenix. Most of the exclusives are live versions and similar tracks that are given away as promotions by record labels. When the link to Lala is followed, a pop up box appears with a “Free MP3 button (right).

I found the music search results to be very hit and miss. I entered in some popular artist and did not get a music search result at all. Searching for specific remixes and tracks of the same name from different albums was almost impossible. Below are the screens for the Google Music Discovery landing page and the search result for Tim McGraw.

http://google.com/landing/music

I downloaded the free Tim McGraw song and added it to iTunes. I was disappointed to discover that the album art is inferior. It is a 550 x 550 image rather than the standard 600 x 600. Click the thumbnail (right) to see the actual image file included with the Lala track.

It is clear that Google needs to do a lot of work to improve their music search. The search results should anticipate how people search for music based on artist, album, song title, lyrics and fragments of this information.

Otherwise, it is still easier to find the music on Amazon.com and iTunes. Unless Google can help consumers find music that is difficult to locate and popular rare tracks, they are not going to be serious competition to the two major online music retailers. Offering music files of superior quality would also be a good idea. I will avoid Lala simply for the inferior album cover art attached to their product.

American indie rock band Vampire Weekend have made the first single from their forthcoming album Contra (right) available as a free download. Horchata can be downloaded from the band’s website after entering a valid e-mail address.

The download includes a 320kbps MP3 file and a digital booklet. That’s a pretty good deal compared to most free music downloads.

Contra is scheduled to be released on January 11, 2010 in the U.K. and on January 12 in the U.S. The cover art for the album was revealed several weeks ago on the band’s website.

Vampire Weekend - Horchata Download

Erasure is offering a free download of a the Frankmusik Ghostly Groom Dub mix of Phantom Bride from their forthcoming PhantomBride EP. The track can be downloaded from Erasure’s Facebook page.

The EP will be released on October 13, prior to the 21st anniversary deluxe 3-disc edition reissue of The Innocents album (right) which is scheduled to drop on October 26th.

The free track is quite good and certainly worth downloading. You will not have to sign up for anything or give personal information in order to download the track. Just click the link on the Facebook page and you will be taken to the download page.

To visit Erasure’s Facebook page and download the free track, click here.

The cover for the EP features a bridal veil and a pocket watch. It is very fitting for the title song Phantom Bride.

DJ Tommie Sunshine just tweeted that he has made several of his remixes available as free downloads for Labor Day. I was thrilled to find a great remix of Sneaky Sound System’s 16. However, there are many tracks worth having.

I’m a big fan of Tommie Sunshine. It is great that he makes his tracks available on SoundCloud. I’ve downloaded several of his remixes over the last few months. If you like great dance music, check out his SoundCloud page:

http://soundcloud.com/tommiesunshine

You can even embed the tracks on your blog.

I found a nice surprise in my inbox today. ITunes is giving away 10 dance tracks from the Kompakt label. If you subscribe to iTunes new music newsletter, you will get an redeem code via e-mail.

“Since 1998, the German Kompakt family of labels has delivered electronic music fans ambient, microhouse, pop, trance, and minimal techno albums that display the organization’s inherent love of melody and diversity. Kompakt has recently welcomed a wide range of labels into its family. Hear music from some of those members on this free ten-track sampler.”

The tracks are pretty good. Obviously, they could have done a better job on the album cover. The image iTunes provides is this ugly 550 x 550 pixel thing. Ugh!