Fusing free music downloads, diary, and music magazine, MP3 blogs relish the challenge of unearthing forgotten musical gems: remixes, forgotten genres and out-of-print albums.

Even the most popular among them don’t attract more than a few thousand visitors per day. Because of their size, or/and because they don’t tend to offer mainstream music, they have — at least so far — mostly escaped the Recording Industry Association of America’s crackdown on illicit downloading.

In an attempt to dodge lawsuits, most MP3 blogs have disclaimers that their music is for “sampling purposes only,” and they urge people to buy the artists’ music. Some have direct links to retailers.

What I find quite interesting is that MP3 blogs may help record labels market music that would otherwise never find an audience.
In fact, these labels see the potential of the MP3 blog format as a venue for marketing. As Matthew Perpetua from Fluxblog declared: “I think that only the most conservative labels will see MP3 blogs as a threat.”

A list of other MP3 blogs in USA Today.