[update: this search page has found mp3s this tool here hasn't, but if you want to know the direct link to the mp3 you have to do a lot of searching (CTRL+F) for ".mp3" through the page source (CTRL+U in Firefox :) ]

This here search box will find music files (mp3 and many other kinds) on open directories on the internet, via Google. All you have to do is type in an artist, song or album title.

It finds songs in these formats:

  • mp3
  • iTunes formats (m4a, aac)
  • Windows Media (wma, wav)
  • ogg (a great idea nobody uses)
  • midi (mid) (usually garbage, but I’ve found some golden ones)

    • Emulated video game music formats:

  • Game Boy (gbs)
  • Game Boy Advance (gsf)
  • Genesis (gym)
  • Turbo Grafx 16 (hes)
  • Nintendo (nsf)
  • Nintendo 64 (miniusf, usf?)
  • Playstation/Playstation 2 (psf/psf2)
  • Sega Master System, Game Gear (vgm)
  • Super Nintendo (spc)
  • Commodore 64 (sid)
  • Atari (sap)
  • Compressed formats that emulated music often is packaged in (zip, rar)

If you do more searches at the Google page this brings you to, it will keep searching under the same criteria. If you don’t want midi, compressed or other files in the search, type -mid, or -mid -rar -zip etc (I may eventually update this to control what you search with check-boxes).

There are Winamp plugins or programs all over the ‘net to play files in those emulated video game music formats. Here is an online Commodore 64 music player (it doesn’t seem to load tunes from any URL – apparently only from a partner site by agreement – and it’s not intuitive; to get a song file from that partner site playing, you have to remove the front of the link up to the artist’s name. Otherwise, wow, that thing is cool. I might put it in a page here..) Of course there are also web sites that specifically archive such music. Here’s a great one. I’m sure there are many other ancient game platforms I’m forgetting which have other emulated formats, and if you think of any, drop me a note here :) I have a large Nintendo and Super Nintendo music collection and have scarcely scratched the surface of exploring Commodore or any other music. Trying “Castlevania” with my search box here I found a directory somewhere with a .rar file containing this fantastic Nintendo 64 music (in miniusf format, which I converted to mp3 by way of Winamp with this plugin), not what I searched for, but which I recognized (and love) from it’s Game Cube successor.

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(download mp3 ~2MB)

I do not condone keeping music found on the internet (or any other place you can copy music from) unless the license allows it. I personally consider that if I find anything I like I’d better get payment to the artist or buy a legal copy from someone else before I keep it.  For me that includes owning a legal copy or purchase of any video game which, for personal enjoyment only, I obtain “ripped” game music from – and even there I don’t know whether that’s legal (or within license agreements for any game, which could vary from game platform to platform or even game for game) – my ideal there is to buy the game soundtrack on CD if it is available, and if not available, I know I gave out money for the game.