Ever since I’ve started making music I’ve been giving it out for free. Trent Reznor of NIN has started releasing his music for free as well; check out The Slip. He urges musicians to put out their music on their own to avoid labels and recommends hand making limited albums to sell at shows. But this is recent for him, there are plenty of artists who have been releasing free music from the start.

So, with out further ado here are 5 (good) electronic musicians who release their music for free online:

1. Pretty Lights

I decided to start with easily the most prolific and popular of the bunch. Hailing from Miami Pretty Lights is primarily the work of one person, but when touring he brings a full band. In his recorded albums he fuses punchy Hip Hop drums with deep synthesizer bass all composed with an Electro House sensibility. They’ve sold out numerous shows world wide and when they toured San Francisco last April it was way OVER attended. Great for them though, because this (along with their merchandise) is how they make their money. I highly recommend buying a ticket early for these guys if they ever come to a city near you.

2. Beem

This funky Swede has had regular rotation in my house ever since I discovered him. He sounds like he took everything good about funk from the 80’s and made it contemporary with sampled drums. His skill on the keyboards is hard to ignore as you hear a Fender Rhodes take the lead role in many of his instrumental compositions. His links are a little small so look for the albums “The Future” and “Peel”, produced in that order.

3. Datassette

I wish I could remember how I found out about Datassette, but no matter how the story goes he makes some great tracks. Much of it is inspired by, and created with, vintage video game synthesizers. Both Datassette and Datashat are the brain children of J.M.Davies who releases most of his tracks under a Creative Commons License. So feel free to listen and even sample, just give credit where credit is due. My top pick is his remix of Happy Up Here by German production duo Röyksopp. Rarely do I find remixes that are better than the original and luckily, this is one of those times. While Datassette does release most of his music for free; Happy Up Here is one of the few with a price tag. However, you can listen to it on YouTube for free. Be sure to peruse his downloads section as he has plenty of original tracks and a few DJ mixes that are all well worth your time.

4. Slumgullion

If your not so into the synthesizer focused music than maybe this 3 man production team will tickle your fancy. I’ve listened mostly to Sir OJ and would highly recommend checking out his solo release State Beat tape. But you’ll have to download it from Stricktly Beats since his website no longer exists. I think the only reason they haven’t started producing mainstream MC’s in America is they live in the Netherlands. But There’s also a broken link to Dok’s most recent beat tape and Sir OJ’s website gives a 404 error. So maybe they also need to work on consistency.

5. Paul Pre

I hope I’ve introduced you to some great music because Paul Pre has introduced me to countless musicians through his mixtapes and I need to pay it forward. While Paul doesn’t produce any tracks on his own, his mix tapes are top notch and stay within this still nameless sub-genre of electronic music. Broke beat glitch hop? Maybe, as long as we don’t call it IDM. All I know is that I like it…and as people get tired of Dubstep’s strict adherence to 140bpm, they might look for something fresh with similar sub bass but free from the guidelines that define it as a genre but inherently limit it composition wise. Let ‘em have it Pre!