WS Chronicle

Local residents can download up to three free songs a week with their Forsyth County Public Library card. The downloads are available via Freegal, which is now set-up on the Library’s Online Resources page (http://www.forsyth.cc/library/online_resources.aspx). After selecting the Freegal link, visitors will be asked to type in their Library card number and press the enter key. After that, they can dive into an absolute treasure trove of songs by popular artists.

Tens of thousands of albums produced by thousands of artists representing almost every musical genre imaginable are available on the site. The three million songs available include titles from Sony Music’s catalog.

Each week beginning Monday morning and ending the following Sunday, card-holders get three free downloads. The program allows you to easily keep track of how many songs you have downloaded for the week with a tab in the upper right hand corner of the page, where the weekly song tally is displayed. Depending on how many residents take advantage of the service, an overall download limit could be reached during a weekly time period. If such a message is displayed, the card-holder is urged to try downloading again the next Monday.

Freegal is legit. Its name means free + legal. It is free to library card holders because the Library picks up the tab for the service. Once downloaded, the music files are the card-holder’s to keep, transfer and play indefinitely.