UPDATE: Updated to remove a cut-and-paste SNAFU that had the first line… twice.

It was reported on Digg, so of course I saw it and checked it out quickly. At first I expted the 70 Free Songs From iTunes (iTunes link) to be a collection of the latest popular music that they wanted to give away to boost sales and get attention from people… well, like Digg, and the iTMS-using geeks therein.

Actually, it turns out that these 70 songs were from Stanford university. The Music Store describes them as:

A wide range of musical performances by Stanford students, faculty, staff, alumni and artists-in-residence.

Now, let’s ignore how incredibly cool this idea is in the first place. Sure it builds a huge community and gives all these guys some extra needed exposure… The real point is: some of these guys kick ass!

I quickly fell in love with several of these artists in the first few tracks. Songs like Impossible and Coffee by Avery Brown and A Starfish In The Front Yard and Fade by Chris Ayer had me captivated for hours listening to these amazing free tracks (4.6 hours to be precise).

If you’ve got some extra time to burn and want to find some really amazing music, be sure to check out this great collection from Stanford…