Local libraries offer free music

There are two things the Spokane Public Library loves about Freegal: the radical expansion of the music selection they are now able to offer the Spokane community and how easy and straightforward it is to use the service.

 According to A/V Librarian Mark Pond, these reasons make Freegal a favorite addition to the library. Freegal, a free music download service partnered with Sony, was added to its website in July of this year. In the past four months, it has added 1,079 users to the system.

"Prior to rolling out Freegal, a recent library survey showed that our current music CD offerings scored at the very bottom in terms of customer satisfaction," Pond said. "The same survey showed that 81 percent of respondents are currently downloading music or intend to in the future."

These negative ratings and future downloading predictions were only part of what prompted the library to seek the aid of Freegal. Overflowing shelf space was a major factor at many of Spokane's branch libraries. Albums were removed from the collection, whether they were being used or not, simply because they couldn't fit. Along with limited space, the Recording Industry Association of America's research showed that most music would be shipped in digital format for the year of 2011 instead of in a physical format.  

"Our job at the library is to provide access to the world of human thought and expression, and music has always played a key role in that," Pond said. "Yet, if we aren't providing it in a format that is useful to half of our population, well, we would only be doing a portion of our job."

Although the same songs offered from Sony's catalog are available through iTunes, Amazon and a variety of other sources, Freegal is not accessible through outlets other than the Spokane Public Library. And Freegal obtains songs as they are released — at the same time as other online companies.

"[The] Sony music collection includes access to over a half million songs of all genres," Pond said. The library has seen a huge expansion in their collection through the addition of Freegal.

"By combining the physical holdings with the digital holdings, we're able to serve a lot more people and reach people in their busy lives, where the definition of the library might be a Web address and not a physical building for some folks," said Eva Silverstone, communications manager at Spokane Public Library.

Cost savings are another aspect of Freegal that Silverstone and Pond discussed. Because the music is in digital form, it can't be damaged, stolen, misfiled or stuck in processing. Staff isn't needed for ordering, processing, checking in or out, or any other task that originally dealt with music. Along with this, expensive security cases are now a thing of the past.

Customer risk is reduced as they are no longer charged for lost or damaged materials or late fees. 24/7 access, availability on nearly any mobile device and songs that do not time out add to the benefits of using Freegal. 

Spokane Public Library has already seen growth and development in Freegal's program and looks forward to being a part of future expansion. 

"When we first subscribed to Freegal, the service gave us access to the Sony music catalog," Pond said. "This equated to approximately 500,000 individual tracks from 50 plus labels that fell under the Sony umbrella."

In the next couple of weeks, Freegal has been projected to expand to the 3.5 million track range. Pond spoke of a deal the service signed that will add approximately 15,000 independent labels to their music collection in addition to the original Sony material.

"We hope to do what libraries have always hoped to do: find a valuable resource, purchase it on the behalf of our entire community and then share those benefits with our entire community as equitably as we possibly can," Silverstone said.

Silverstone explained how this philosophy guides their purchase of New York Times best-sellers, as well was other DVDs and online databases. The library strives to get high-quality resources for the community, then let users decide how to incorporate them in their lives, whether for self-education, entertainment, business or otherwise.

"A library has always been a place where people have equal access and this service continues that idea," Silverstone said. "A person's income or background does not matter — the library is public and everyone is welcome to come in and use the materials."

Freegal offers user-friendly features like a Top 10 Downloads section that displays the top songs of the week. Adele, Aerosmith and Brad Paisley are currently taking up the higher positions, but each week brings a new wave of songs from all different genres.