Amazon.com lets you sample(r) hours of free music

Gigantic music at a tiny (as in free) cost

 Yes, amazon.com wants you to buy stuff, including music (in digital or physical form) but the huge online retailer offers plenty of great sounds that are free for the taking. Just as you can walk through a big box store like Costco and nibble your way through a variety of food samples, a browse on amazon.com can mean tasty freebies, too. Sometimes the site offers individual tracks to promote new albums, but there are plenty of full-length albums from a wide spectrum of musical genres that are yours for the downloading. (The site provides the free Amazon MP3 Downloader, a tiny helper application that allows you to download entire albums with one click and automatically adds your music to iTunes or Windows Media Player.) And the files are free of digital rights management (DRM) software, so you can burn your songs to CDs, play them on your computers and transfer them to your devices.

 Here’s just a sampling of samplers currently available at amazon.com:

1. The "Gigantic Music Sampler" contains eiight tracks from the small, sharp label, including tracks from NYC-based guitar rockers The Walkmen, up-and-coming British band The Rumble Strips and indie dance poppers Harlem Shakes.

2. Listening to the eight songs on the "Barsuk Records: 2009 Amazon Digital Sampler" is like tuning in to a good half hour of alternative radio (but it’s yours to keep) with the likes of Death Cab For Cutie, Ra Ra Riot, Mates of State and The Long Winters.

3. For a change of pace, go global with about 40 minutes of exotic sound from an esteemed world music label’s roster. The "Six Degrees Records Free Indian Music Sampler" includes the legendary Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, DJ Cheb i Sabbah and the Bombay Dub Orchestra.

4. The "Saddle Creek sampler 2008-2009" is a motherload of 18 tracks, over an hour of music, with two tracks each from nine bands on the upstart indie label. It’s your chance to check out some of the highest buzzing bands on the blogosphere, like Cursive, O+S and Tokyo Police Club.

5. There are only five songs on the “X5 Free Sampler - Golden Voices,” but they’re all classics - Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf. Make a disc for mom while you’re at it.

6. "Be On The Lookout!" offers nine tracks from a little label that has launched some big names on the indie rock scene, like The Donnas, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and gone-but-not-forgotten Chicago pop/rock faves, Troubled Hubble. Their track “Ear Nose and Throat” was written nearly five years ago, but could be the soundtrack for the current health care debate.

If such samplers rock your world, bookmark amazon.com's "Special MP3 Deals Store" and you can return for new featured free songs every week, plus sweet deals on new releases and discounted classics. And if  you subscribe to amazon’s weekly newsletter, the retailer will keep you posted on newly-added free downloads, special deals, and new releases.