Ben Reiser ’13 & Bryan Schiavone ’13
News Editors

According to Westport Public Library director Maxine Bleiweis, maintaining a top-notch music collection in a fast-moving world is not as easy as one might think.

“There is so much music available that it is very difficult for any library to have a truly great collection. Couple that with the physical challenge of the care required by multiple users for fragile CDs and you have a recipe for disaster,” Bleiweis said.

That’s where Freegal comes in.

Freegal, a combination of the words “free” and “legal,” is a download music service sold to public libraries for free use by its registered cardholders. The program contains over 400,000 tracks from the Sony Music Catalog, with more than 100 genres and over 50 record labels.

“Libraries are all about access, and that comes in many forms,” Bleiweis said. “This is just a very convenient one.”

One of the most enticing features of the Freegal program is that it allows users to download and keep any three songs per week.

“The MP3s become a permanent part of your music library. No checkout or return is necessary,” Library technology manager Tilly Dutta said.

The trend in music now is becoming increasingly digital, with more than half of all Americans owning MP3 players.

According to a study conducted by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), however, 95 percent of music downloads are illegal.

Freegal provides a legal alternative.

The program has made audio circulation at the Library much more convenient, according to Bleiweis.

“[Freegal] makes all the music in the Sony catalog available to as many people who want to listen to it at once. With physical CDs, if one person has it out, the next person has to wait. Not so with this product,” Bleweis said.

Students such as Tom Ward ’14 cite convenience as a main reason for using Freegal. Ward describes the program as a “cool and convenient” way to download free music legally, without having to make a trip to the library.

“They’re headed in a cool direction,” Ward said.

This new direction could bring about a change in the traffic at the Library to online traffic. Bleiweis expects use of the service to increase as people continue learn about it, and the “physical check-outs to decrease over time.”

While some lament the dying print industry, many Staples students, including PJ Syrrist ’13 embrace the changes that will come to the library.

“I think it’s really great how the library is modernizing,” Syrrist said.

Declan O’Hern ’13 agrees, claiming that the Library’s “digital path is a step in the right direction.”

Nevona Friedman ’12, who works for Partisan Records in Brooklyn, N.Y., says that digitizing the Library’s music catalog will attract their younger demographic.

“It’s definitely a good move on their part, staying current and keeping up with the trends,” Friedman said.

The Westport Public Library is the first library in the area to utilize the Freegal program, but Krishna Lal, a sophomore at Weston High School, hopes that other local libraries will employ a similar system in the near future.

“It steers people away from pirating music,” Lal said. “I think it’s a great idea. I definitely think Weston should do it, and I hope they will.”

O’Hern believes that by not charging for music, Freegal will attract students who do not want to spend money on paid services such as iTunes.

“Who wants to pay for music?” O’Hern asked. “No one.”

According to Dutta, more than 600 tracks are being downloaded every month by users of the Westport Public Library’s Freegal program, indicating a growing demand for the program. Because of this, the Library plans to continue to focus on technology development in the near future.

“We’re working on offering a product that would offer downloading movies and television shows, as well as E-books,” Bleiweis said. “Stay tuned!”