Free Seattle Symphony concert, Apr. 27.

It's been a while since we had a cultural event freebie, but the dry spell is over: Seattle Symphony is holding a free concert on Friday, April 27, at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.

They just completed a renovation of the nearly-century-old venue, so now is your chance to check it out and hear some free music!

NOW 41 for $0.25.

Want to keep up with the hippity-hop that the kids are listening to these days? Or do you just need some new tunes for your workout/cleaning/dance-party playlist? Either way, you can't go wrong with NOW 41, for just a quarter. You can't even buy a gumball with that anymore!

Even if you just see one or two songs you like, it's still cheaper to buy this whole album than to purchase one song a la carte on iTunes, so go nuts! Impress your friends (and their kids).

Free holiday song-a-day from Amazon.

Ready for nonstop holiday music between now and the 25th? If you need more holly jolly in your life, check out the free-song-a-day offer on Amazon.com. Every day, another new holiday song is available for free download, so there are already five free songs waiting for you!

This offer is how I originally heard the Lady Gaga "Christmas Tree" song, which has become one of my favorites, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have this year...

Seattle: Free Day of Music, Sep. 18 at Benaroya Hall.

Whether you like rock, hip-hop, jazz, world or classical music, Benaroya Hall is offering a Free Day of Music on September 18, from noon to 6 pm! Over 40 acts will be performing, all for FREE. Looks like there will be some theater and dance performances, too. Check out the full listing and plan your day of music!

Borders closing sale: everything now 40-60% off.

Time for the next round of Borders markdowns... everything is now 40-60% off! That includes 40% off board games and 50% off general fiction, which is relevant to my interests.

They claim that new inventory is arriving in stores from their warehouses, but I wouldn't delay if there's something in particular that you're after - it was starting to look picked over the last time I was in there, about a week ago. Good luck!

Borders closing sale: Everything now 30-50% off + extra 10-15% off.

Borders has some new discounts this week to encourage everyone to buy more... everything in the store is still 30-50% off, but now you can get an extra 10% off when you buy 6 items, or an extra 15% off when you buy 8 items. It says "off the sale price," meaning they'll first take the 30-50% off and then reduce it from there, so it's not quite the same as tacking on 10-15% off, but it's still a little something.

No? OK, let's all just keep ordering from Amazon, then, where the prices have been this low all along.

Free SPIN magazine subscription.

No strings attached? Well, that's what they say. Sign up for a free one-year subscription to SPIN magazine, courtesy of Lollapalooza 2011. No credit card info is required and they say it's not auto-renewal or anything like that... just a free subscription for music lovers.

Enjoy?

Borders closing sale: Everything now 30-50% off.

Just got another update from Borders on its liquidation sale markdowns. Now everything in the store is 30-50% off, including:

• 30% off children's books, toys, games, mysteries, thrillers, sci-fi, cooking, travel, music, and more
• 40% off biography, health, pets, general reference, literary fiction, self-help, and more
• 50% off politics and law, culture, crime, romance, philosophy, business, performing arts, Blu-ray, and more

Now that's what I'm talking about. Finally the discounts are starting to look like, you know, an actual sale. I'll be heading over there today!

Borders: More closing sale markdowns.

It's a new week and new markdowns for the Borders closing sale, Mon-Wed only. Check out some of the discounts:

• 30% off all music
• 40% off romance, politics, government, law and business
• 40% off the Hunger Games trilogy and The Help
• Extra 10% off sale prices

If those appeal to you, head on down to your local Borders... time is running out.

Borders closing sale: everything now 20-40% off.

If you've been waiting for Round 2 of the Borders closing sale markdowns, like me, then check this out: the entire store is now 20-40% off. Highlights:

• 20% off cookbooks, e-readers, travel, and fitness books
• 30% off bestsellers, romance, business, calendars, and music
• 40% off Blu-Ray, video games, greeting cards, and newsstand magazines

Remember, as the discounts get better, the selection gets worse, so if there's something in particular you have your eye on, don't wait too long. And if you have Borders Bucks or gift cards to spend, for goodness' sake GET IN THERE AND USE THEM NOW! They're only valid through July 31 and that's coming up soon.

Amazon: Free summer music playlists.

Finally, something besides Borders coupons, amirite? Since it looks like we might have a summeresque day (after a disappointing weekend of rain), here are some totally free summer music playlists from Amazon for your downloading pleasure:

• 23 This Year: The Sub Pop Amazon Sampler
• Merge Records 2011 Sampler
• Dangerbird Records 2011 Sampler
• Vagrant Summer Sampler 2011

You can use your Borders coupon for one of those tote bags with the built-in iPod plug-in and speakers if you really want to be summer-ready, though.

Borders: Details on Lynnwood store-closing discounts.

OK, finally we're getting some more specific information about what's being discounted at the Lynnwood store-closing sale for Borders. Here are some highlights:

• 40% off ALL literary and commercial fiction
• 40% off ALL Blu-rays
• 30% off ALL CDs and e-readers
• 40% off ALL romance paperbacks
• 30% off ALL mystery & thrillers

If any of those things sound appealing, you might want to go and check it out! Everything else is 30-50% off too, so you never know what you'll find.

Seattle: Lynnwood Borders closing sale, now 30-50% off.

Things are heating up ever so slowly at the Lynnwood Borders store closing sale, where everything (no exceptions!) is now 30-50% off, right down to the store fixtures! And evidently you'll be earning Borders Rewards points on all your purchases, good toward Borders Bucks store credit if you rack up enough, so there's that.

Are you ready to venture up to Lynnwood? What are you hoping to find on sale?

Free Urban Outfitters playlist.

Want to know what the coolest kids on your block are listening to? Well, they definitely shop at Urban Outfitters, so you should download this free playlist posthaste to find out. Feel yourself becoming cooler as you scan the track list by artists such as Destroyer, Cut Copy, WIN WIN, and more!

Most of these bands I've never even heard of, which I guess means I need to download the playlist without wasting another moment.

Tanga: 1-year subscription to Rolling Stone, $4.

Tanga is back with another subscription deal on Rolling Stone - $4 for a one-year subscription. Use code STONE to get the discounted price at checkout. And you can buy up to 3 years at this price, which is a whole lot of pop-culture journalism, if you think about it.

Tanga: 3-year subscription to Rolling Stone, $10.

This one is for those who aren't afraid to commit... possibly the longest subscription offer I've ever seen. Get a 3-year subscription to Rolling Stone for $9.99 with promo code STONE. This is good today only, so if you want three years of oversized magazines stuffed into your mailbox, act fast!

Free NPR Best Music of 2010 playlist.

NPR has a holiday gift for you: a free playlist of the best music of 2010, hand-picked by them. Download the iTunes playlist (if you don't have iTunes, it's free, but you need to download it first). The selection includes folk, electronica, jazz, and world music, so it sounds eclectic, to say the very least.

Amazon: 25 days of free music - a new holiday MP3 every day.

And speaking of free music from Amazon, how about a new holiday song for free every day from Dec. 1-25? Download festive music each day, free, using the Amazon MP3 downloader (which is free, easy to use, and automatically exports songs to iTunes).

Last year I got a wacky Lady Gaga Xmas song this way, so I'll be curious to see what they offer us this year.

Amazon: Free National Geographic world music sampler.

Oh, they can try to make me call it "Nat Geo," but I won't. I won't, do you hear me? That's... pretty much the dumbest rebranding ever, and is it actually convincing anyone that NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is hip to what the kids are saying these days? Should NG even care about that?

(On a side note, it turns out that National Geographic has its own music label, which I did not know, so maybe this is like their rapper name or something?)

Whatever. Fine. Here's a free world music sampler, courtesy of a certain DJ Nat Geo in the hizzy.

Target.com: Free holiday music playlist.

Well, you're going to need something to listen to while you're doing all that CYBER MONDAY holiday shopping today, right? Check out Target's free holiday music playlist and get your toes tapping.