While the music industry implodes upon itself, amazing, beautiful, intelligent music continues to spring from the minds and hearts of bands and musicians the world over. Sadly, you’re less and less likely to hear it on mainstream radio stations. Thankfully, public radio is here for you on air and, now, on the web.

WFMU Radio in New York has spearheaded this amazing new Free Music Archive, a collaborative, curated website where some of the best public radio stations from around the nation help get copyright-free music by artists of the open-source future into your hands and iPods. Says the website:

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is being directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.

Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by outdated copyright law. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won’t put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

The Free Music Archive is a platform for collaboration between WFMU and a group of fellow curators, including KEXP, dublab, KBOO, ISSUE Project Room, and CASH Music. The site combines the curatorial approach that these organizations have played for the last few decades, with the community generated approach of many current online music sites.

The great thing is that you can preview all the music (about 10,000 songs so far!) by genre, curator and “recently added” without downloading and you can click on the “Tip The Artist” button and give them money of your own free will. It’s all amazingly self-explanatory.

Anyhow, as a public radio station that still plays lots of independently created music, we’re excited about this and hope you will be, too. Here’s a playlist for you to get started. Perhaps you won’t recognize some of the band names, and that might be the best part about it. There are all varieties of genres, styles, etc. Have the fun!

1. “Sporty Ankles” by David Last.

2. “Zhang Yaoyi by Sebastien Duclos.

3. “Vicky’s Box” (Live) by Throwing Muses.

4. “Minerals” by pandoras.box.

5. “Unopened Letters” by The Left Outsides.

6. “Hate the Eight Knots” by Alone in 1982.

7. “Als Je Lacht” by Het Gloren.

8. “Mustache” by Amiga Agia.

9. “Bad Sign” by Brad Sucks.

10. “Rory Rides Me Raw” (Live) by The Vaselines.

11. “With or Without You Rmx” by Opio.

12. “Children of Coyote” (Live) by Pretty Flags.

13. “Bitter Heart” (Live) by Zee Avi.

14. “Malo Selo” by Black Sea Hotel.

15. “Lysine” by Max Tundra.