For many years, Apple had an iTunes “Single of the Week” program. It primarily promoted new albums around the world, with a rare PR effort that would push the same track in multiple countries.

In the US market, there were actually three programs. One for mainstream artists, another for the Spanish-speaking market, and a “Discovery” program for new artists.

A few weeks back, the “Free on iTunes” section seemed to disappear for a while. When it came back, it seems as if the FoiT program had fundamentally changed. Every week, you can now download numerous free tracks. This morning, I believe there were 10 singles available to try.

As always, some of these tracks are pretty good. Many of them are forgettable. Some of them are awful.

It’s interesting though how much closer this new system matches Amazon’s Free Song system. It feels a little less curated than it used to be. Surprisingly, even with expanded content though, the iTunes free music continues to have far less bad material than you might expect.

Over the years, I’ve discovered some reasonable artists and high quality music. Just be prepared to accept the high quantity of chaff that surrounds the wheat.