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Apple’s iPod and its iTunes store are clearly the biggest fish in the musical pond. And if the makers of airlines’ inflight entertainment get their way, you’ll be enjoying iTunes in flight in the future. Assuming you have an iPod or just bought one at an airport vending machine, I suppose? In any case, it’s a far cry from the airtube headphones of yesteryear.

But don’t equate downloadable music entirely with iTunes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great service — you can download South Park episodes, after all.

But there’s a lot of *FREE* music to be had out there. The ubiquity of Apple’s iPod and the iTunes system for downloading music (and other content) shouldn’t keep you from exploring some of the other sites out there. And a number of them are offering generous free downloads right now. Stock up before your next flight, or just stock up because it’s free:

– eMusic is offering 50 FREE Downloads which play on your computer, or on any MP3 player, including the iPod. Apparently, this doesn’t come with any nasty digital rights management software (DRM) or copy protection, either. You bought it, it’s yours. I like their attitude. You have 14 days to download the free songs, then you have to subscribe, or opt out. You keep the songs. (Update: This particular 50-song offer is only valid through May 31, 2006 — the normal freebie offer is 25 songs.)

– Want more independent-label music? Get another 50 free MP3s from AudioLunchbox. Similar to eMusic, with no copy protection, a subscription model, etc. PC Magazine gave it a glowingly positive review. Not as many songs as eMusic, but a very different selection.

– Real Networks’ Rhapsody also does the 14-day trial, and has a substantial 2 million song catalog.

– Less appealing, but still potentially useful, is the reinvented Napster. The catch here is that you can listen to songs 5 times (streaming) but if you want to keep the song, you need to buy it. Kinda lame. Low portability, but if you’re burning to hear a particular tune, this could be what you need.

– Far less appealing, but still with its place, if you can work the system, is Sony’s Connect.com. They don’t use MP3 (or M4A) format, but they do have 2 for 1 album downloads on Tuesdays… Sony is notorious for making it hard to copy your songs, but you CAN burn an audio CD and then rip that into MP3. (Pain in the butt, I know. Less of an issue if you have a PSP.) Plus, if you’ve really got an excess of United Mileage Plus miles, you can convert those miles into music in increments of 10,000 miles. (10,000 miles = 10 albums or 100 songs, so with one song costing $0.99, 1 mile = $0.0099. Call it a penny a mile, not a great conversion.)

Note that these are all US-based providers, and may or may not work for addresses outside the US. No promises. Sorry to the international readers on this count.

Know of any other (legal and legitimate!) freebie download deals? Drop a line or add to comments.

Rock on.

tags: travel | airlines | inflight entertainment | free music | free MP3s | iTunes | iPod | eMusic | Sony Connect | Napster | RealNetworks Rhapsody | Audio Lunchbox