Starting today, music fans in the United States will be able to go to one place to buy music from mainstream artists as well as discover new artists through free legal downloads from independent musicians. MSN® Music, located at http://www.music.msn.com, has teamed up with GarageBand.com, the largest community of independent musicians on the Web, to offer free music downloads, radio and other content from emerging artists.

The alliance with GarageBand.com will help music fans easily discover their next favorite band without spending hours scouring multiple Web sites or local CD stores. Available at http://music.msn.com/garageband, the GarageBand.com site hosted by MSN Music will feature music and content from GarageBand.com's top-rated independent artists spanning several genres. Today the GarageBand.com page on MSN Music will highlight five up-and-coming musicians, including rising star Geoff Byrd, who has recently dominated GarageBand.com's listener ratings as a top-rated artist.

"There's so much great music produced by independent artists these days, including the music that may be in tomorrow's top 10," said Rob Bennett, senior director of MSN Entertainment. "GarageBand.com's listener-rating system is an excellent filter for undiscovered talent, and teaming up with GarageBand.com is a great way for us to help music fans discover new tracks and emerging artists that they wouldn't find on other music services."