Getting Started with Freegal

What is Freegal?

Freegal is a "free" and "legal", downloadable music service provided by the Woodstock Public Library. With access to the entire Sony Entertainment catalogue, it offers hundreds of thousands of songs, over 100 genres of music and more than 50 record labels, all without having  to download software or digital rights management (DRM) issues.

Getting Started

Getting started with Freegal is as simple as entering your library card number and PIN into Woodstock's Freegal Music site.

Downloads per week

Each individual library card holder may download 5 songs per week. That's 260 songs per year! A new week begins every Monday at 12:00 am Eastern Time. Unused downloads are not carried over at the end of one week into another, so be sure to visit Freegal each week.

Streaming per day

In addition to the downloads per week, Library cardholders can stream up to 4 hours of music per day. Users can listen to entire albums, create custom playlists, or listen to playlists provided by Freegal. It's easy to create playlists and have them appear on your mobile device using the updated Android or Apple app.

Entire Sony Music Entertainment catalogue

Freegal contains the full Sony Music Entertainment catalogue which includes hundreds of music genres from more than 50 record labels. That all adds up to thousands of artists, tens of thousands of albums and hundreds of thousands of songs.

Music format and DRM

All the songs are provided in MP3 format, which means they can be played on most MP3 players, including iPods. Once you've downloaded a song, it is yours to keep. There are no DRM (digital rights management) restrictions on any of the songs. They do not expire and you can transfer them to a portable device or even burn them to a CD. Copyright laws apply to all music downloaded.

Searching for songs

Freegal music is set up to browse, or to search for your favourite song or artist. You can use the navigation along the top of the screen, the featured artists, the quick search or the advanced search options.

Downloading a song is easy

When you've found a song that you want, click on the "Download Now" link next to your chosen song. At the prompt, select Save and choose where you want to save your song. Keep in mind that once you click the "Download Now" link, the download will count towards your weekly allotment. There is no need for any special software with Freegal. All songs can be saved to iTunes or Windows Media Player, as you choose.

Tips for downloading songs from Freegal

• Using Apple\Mac with iTunes
• Using Win PC with Windows Media Player
• Using Win PC with iTunes

Need help getting started?

Try watching this introductory video, or speak to library staff for assistance.