​In the days before MP3 blogs blanketed the land, there was Epitonic, which offered users the opportunity to download select free MP3s from mostly indie labels and could easily be rifled through for hours on end (especially since it launched in the tail-end of the dialup era). The site went dormant in 2004, but after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised enough money to bring it back from the dead, it soft-relaunched last month. Today it returned in slightly more roaring fashion, complete with a couple of exclusive-to-Epitonic tracks and a few playlist-type features. The site's virtual shelves are now stocked with currently buzzy acts like The Weeknd and the Joy Formidable, but there are quite a few gems in the archives. Eight very biased suggestions, after the jump.

More >>

​If you were a young, Internet-savvy indie-rock enthusiast in the first few years of the 21st century, chances are you downloaded a Pedro the Lion MP3 or two from Epitonic, the early-adopter Free Music on the Internet! site that positioned itself as a legit Napster alternative and had an alright run of it from 1999 to 2004. (The site is still preserved from seemingly the day they closed shop, if you want a disconcerting jolt of nostalgia. Super-excited for that new Hot Hot Heat record!) "It was very difficult to monetize digital music back then," notes one of the site's co-founders, by way of explaining both their premature exit and, now, in 2010, their attempt at a resurrection. Y'know, because monetizing digital music is a piece of cake now.

More >>