These days, music is everywhere. You can call up practically any recorded song at any moment with a quick flick of your favorite fingie and nary an extra cent spent.
And yet, for all the convenience modern streaming services give us, something intangible is lost compared to the way we used to listen to music.
As a lifelong music fan, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I miss from the “good ol’ days” of our pre-Spotify/YouTube Music/[insert your own preferred streaming service] listening experiences. And I’ve realized, among other things, part of what I miss is the rich mishmash of live music and rare recordings that used to be a key part of my aural adventures.
Today, I want to share a timeless tool with you that brings those splendid sorts of sounds back into your brain space—and brings a much-needed injection of fresh variety (not only limited to music) into your life.
This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!
Meet the Internet Archive’s Audio Archive
If you’ve been around these here nets of inter for long, you’ve probably heard of the Internet Archive—maybe better known by its web address, archive.org.
➜ The Internet Archive is a sprawling nonprofit library for all sorts of fascinating stuff. It’s probably best known for its Wayback Machine, which lets you zip back in time and see snapshots of web pages from specific points in the past.
☝️ But what’s often forgotten—included by yours truly!—is that the Internet Archive also has a spectacular selection of completely free audio files that you can stream or download on demand, anytime, from any device you’re using.
And no matter what you like listening to, you’re sure to find something worthwhile and refreshingly interesting within.
⌚ You can start listening in the Internet Archive Audio Archive in a matter of seconds, but—fair warning—it might take you a lifetime to fully explore everything the site has to offer.
✅ To start, pull up the Audio Archive page in whatever browser you prefer and—well, just take a moment to bask at the oodles of options in front of your shiny, happy face:
Yamma hamma! See what I mean?!
It’s honestly overwhelming to even know where to begin, with all the diverse stuff that’s available, but here are a few especially noteworthy sections worth exploring to get your journey going:
- The Live Music Archive is an awe-inspiring collection of high-quality concert recordings from all manners of musicians—everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Strings, Elliott Smith, 311 . . . the list just keeps going. And going. And going.
- The Audio Books & Poetry section has tens of thousands of free digital recordings in practically every genre imaginable.
- The Radio Shows and Programs Archive is an enchanting dive back through history, with recordings of shows from decades past and more recent offerings from all around the globe.
- The Podcasts category expands even further, with mountains of more recent goodies to revisit or discover.
💡 The best way to get going with the Audio Archive is really just to scroll around and see what tickles your listening engine. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably end up lost deep in the stacks and forgetting where you even started.
🔎 But if you ever find yourself looking for anything specific—or even a particular category of music or other audio—you can always use the search bar at the top of the site or the filtering tools on its left side.
For a completely free, no-strings-attached resource, this is one heck of an supplement to any streaming setup—and a site well worth remembering the next time you want something new and surprising in your playlist.
- The Internet Archive Audio Archive is just a website. It’ll work in any browser, on any device.
- It’s nonprofit and free, without any restrictions, though you can always make a one-time or recurring donation if you’d like to help support its costs.
- The site doesn’t require any sign-ins or any sort of personal info.
Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.