Banned Music is a web project that promotes music activism, especially the non-commercial distribution of works that major record labels have driven underground. The site is one of several that are raising important questions about the role that the law plays in determining what we can experience.

The site is a project of Downhill Battle, a site that documents and promotes music activism against the major record labels, and promotes independent music. The site has two main goals.

• To make it impossible for the five major record labels to use legal threats to stifle musical art. Their plan is to publicly distribute works that are driven underground by the major labels.
• To advocate for common-sense reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal and practical for artists, and benefiting both the musicians who created source material and sample-based musicians who are using it to create new works. For an informed and vibrant discussion to exist on these topics, sample-based music needs to be readily available. To determine whether current copyright law is serving musicians and fans, the public needs to be able to hear the kind of work that’s currently being suppressed.

The site is distributing an easy BitTorrent installer to help distribute banned works.