"Once we're done with the music, you can have it," the Grateful Dead's late, fabled guitarist/singer/songwriter Jerry Garcia once promised his band's fans. And now, after decades of dedicated fan recordings and countless man-hours spent archiving and trading them, Garcia's free-sharing vision has blossomed in the digital age ― nearly 6500 archived Grateful Dead live shows are just one click of the mouse away.

And if the Dead aren't necessarily your favorites, you can also find over 300 gigs by Smashing Pumpkins, or another 70+ shows by rock songwriting legend Warren Zevon, and a cool 10 dozen (and counting) by contemporary star Jack Johnson available for free download. Indeed, there are now thousands of shows by artists great, small and virtually unknown available for free download at the same online resource, Archive.org. - more on this story

Preview and Purchase Grateful Dead CDs