The mission of the Internet Archive is to build an Internet library to preserve content for future generations and for historical research. They have expanded well beyond just storing Web pages. They are rapidly building an extensive archive of digital media which now includes over 70,000 audio files.
The quantity and variety of free audio content is incredible. Here are some examples of of audio collections you may find of interest:
Berkeley Groks Science Radio
If you have even a spark of scientific curiosity, this would be great listening for the daily commute.
78 RPM Records
Early twentieth century culture and technology meets the early twenty first century. These recordings are fascinating and surprisingly enjoyable. No need to check your speaker cables, remember stereo was not invented until the 1930’s and not commercialized until the late 1950’s.
Live Music Archive
This is a huge collection of live concerts and other live audio. Some selections are available as MP3 files, but many recordings are only available as lossless audio files. They have information on what you need to listen to the lossless files.
Open Source Audio
These are various types of audio files that have been contributed by the creators. Many use a Creative Commons license which often allows others to use them in their own creations.
The above is only a sampling of what is available in the Internet Audio Archive.
