After a redundant registration procedure - available only to residents of certain countries in much of the developed world - services such as Lala or Rhapsody allow customers to play only 30 songs, mostly of a lousy audio quality.

One of the obvious deficiencies of these two services is there is no way for users to download songs so that they can play them on portable music players such as their iPod, Zune or that ubiquitous cell phone.

For more user-friendly online music stores such as iTunes or Amazon, giving away tunes is like an afterthought.

After paying a serious amount of money to buy the music to fill out their massive catalogues, once in a while these shops offer us a chance to download music from a legion of unknown bands about which even Google will have problems collecting information.

But if peer-to-peer music-sharing services - anything that has "wire" at the end of its name - is your thing, you will get free music and save a lot of money. The downside is that it will seriously compromise the sonic integrity of your stereo system, not to mention your computer's protection system.

So, is there a third way? Cue an online music service that gives away a wide selection of free music with adequate audio quality that is also playable on portable devices.

The Geneva, Paris and New York-based online music service Fairtilizer aims to be the middle way and it is proving a boon for regular music fans.

After an easy registration process, which requires you to submit an email address and other trivial details, this online music service grants you access to its vast catalogue of songs, with the array of artists ranging from latest Brit pop sensation The xx to obscure musicians such as Jakarta-based saxophone-playing singer Indra Aziz.

And by "access" it means that you can actually download individual songs from the Fairtilizer catalogue and play them on your iPod or other portable device.

So while it is unlikely you will get The xx's single "Crystalised" for free on iTunes or Lala, Fairtilizer offers it as a free download.

But even if you can't download some of the songs that you really like on Fairtilizer, the good news is that the online music service comes with an embedded media player from which we can stream tracks. It's not only that each track has impressive artwork - which also gorgeously animates during track changes - it also has a customizable URL, space for description and links, and comment board for listeners.

Gimmick-filled tracks? Free for download? How come?

One thing that enables Fairtilizer to freely distribute these gimmick-filled tunes is the fact that it functions as a bridge connecting labels, artists and music fans in general.

Fairtilizer chief executive officer Olivier Rosset says that the free tracks were ones that record labels gave away as promos to press and radios.

"Content owners use Fairtilizer even before the official release of an album. We are more of a partner to labels than a competitor," Rosset told Sunday Post in an email exchange.

Rosset is a veteran of the music industry who once worked for the British label Virgin records. During his stint as music executive, Rosset signed bands such as The White Stripes, Bloc Party and Antony & the Johnsons.

So next time you see Antony and the Johnsons' or The White Stripes' free tracks available for download on the Fairtilizer website, they are probably handouts from record labels that have been filtered by Fairtilizer for mass consumption.

But Fairtilizer is more than just a vehicle by which the record labels can spoon-feed music fans. In fact, it serves as a conduit by which independent musicians can find a way around record labels to distribute their music to fans or casual listeners.

The primary means by which DIY-minded musicians can distribute their music is Fairtilizer's embeddable player, which can be added to any website.

After opening an account on Fertilizer - a premium account can cost US$100 - users can host, sell and share their music and get 100 percent of the income. (iTunes gives $0.65 to recording companies for a $0.99 song sold on its music store. Or compare this with TuneCore, a service that allows bands to sell their music through iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster and other sites. TuneCore charges 99 cents per track, 99 cents per store per album, and $19.98 per album per year storage and maintenance. Musicians, however, get to keep 100 percent of royalties.

Through the account - which includes the embeddable media player - tracks can be set for streaming only or be made available for download or marked for sale. The tracks can also be set to public or private. Under a private setting, artists will be able to send the track to specific people, which will protect it from piracy and leaks.

"This is perfect for engaging a music crowd and community toward a brand, a nonprofit cause, new talents search campaign and other activities," Rosset says.

After gaining a solid ground in Europe - the company has the certified support of the Swiss government as one of the most innovative startups in the country - and the United States, currently Fairtilizer is making inroads in Asia.

The company is working on efforts to bring Fairtilizer into the local context. Soon it expects to open some branch offices in Asia's main cities.

"This will create bridges that connect the music scenes in Asia with those of Europe and America," Rosset said.

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