MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- What is the price of music? That depends. On average, a person can spend approximately $15 on an album or somewhere around 99 cents if they're downloading individual songs online, depending on how new or popular that particular song is.
If a person were to buy just one album a month, they could be spending more than $180 a year and with the importance of music in today's society, most are probably spending a whole lot more than that.
Now with a service offered at all Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune libraries, base patrons can keep some of that money in their pockets.
By registering at any of the MCB Camp Lejeune libraries, anyone holding a Department of Defense identification card can now download up to three, free music downloads a week.
Once patrons are registered at one of the libraries, they will receive an email from Freegalmusic.com with their account information and from there, they can start downloading from an array of more than 60,000 Sony artists from any Internet source.
"These songs are theirs to keep, so they do not disappear after a certain time frame," said Judy Bradford, library branch manager, Marine Corps Community Services. "Every Sunday, their account is updated so they can log on the following week and get three new songs."
The library has a trial subscription with Freegal Music until Jan. 31.
"We wanted to know this was something that our Marines and sailors and their families would take advantage of," Bradford said. "It's a large amount of money that the library is spending and we want to make sure people are going to be interested before we make a full commitment. If it goes well and our budget allows, we will continue to do it."
As of right now, more than 200 base patrons have signed up for the free service, some of which have consistently downloaded three songs every week since the beginning of the service in September.
"The library likes to provide to the military's needs and we just thought this would be a service to provide something to them that they can keep," Bradford said. "We want people to continue to come here and check out DVDs or CDs, but this is something they can keep for the future and they are saving money."