Free downloads abound on the Internet. But how does one find the good and skip the bad?

Today Pitchfork announced its Infinite Mixtape, a series of free MP3 downloads. The first series, 21 tracks in all, are songs that are the staff's favorites of 2006. Pitchfork has long offered MP3 links, but not in this format. Now there's more weight behind each offering because Pitchfork's stamp of approval is valuable.

Another online tastemaker, eMusic, offers a free daily download. Today's freebie is "The Sediment" by The Palaxy Tracks. Only one track is posted at a time (better visit every day) and a thorough biography explains the song, the album from which it's taken and the band.

As the number of music blogs explodes, it becomes harder and harder to keep up with the offerings. New blogs enter the blogosphere just as MP3 blog readers seem to be tightening up their list of daily visits. There's a lot of discovering to do, but who has the time?

When the volume of blogs rises to an unmanageable number, sites like elbo.ws come in handy to show which are the most popular tracks on MP3 blogs. It's a good shortcut to endless surfing and downloading. At the same time there's a need for trusted, familiar voices to be a source for free music, too. Pitchfork and eMusic are filling that need