Google Music was opened to the public recently, and I finally got a chance to poke around. I’m not an especially active user of all these services where you save all your music in the cloud, as I’m pretty happy with my iPod Touch. I buy a few songs here and there, but mostly only redeem any iTunes gift cards or Amazon MP3 credits that land in my lap. However, I did notice that Google Music has a lot of pretty good free songs available, at least at launch.

First, they have a Free Song of the Day. Next, there are many free tracks sprinkled around the site. Here are some lists of free songs grouped by genre, let me know if you find more. You can download the songs directly onto your computer, and setup is pretty quick if you already have a Google account.

• Free Pop & Hip Hop songs (Jessica Simpson, TLC, Usher, Whitney Houston…)
• Free Rock Songs (Augustana, Train, John Mayer, Alice Cooper)
• Free Country Songs (Kenny Chesney, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, Dolly Parton)
• Free Classical songs
• Most popular free songs list (several repeats from above)
• Free albums of live music from Shakira, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Rolling Stones, Busta Rhymes,and Dave Matthews Band.

I found plenty to fill up the workout playlist. As a reminder, here’s a list of free MP3s from Amazon available as well, but I see more popular mainstream artists on Google Music.

Mastercard has a holiday offer going where if you register your Mastercard credit card number and spend $200 online with it, you’ll get a $20 gift card. Valid for first 80,000 – this promo started yesterday and I have no idea how long that’ll last, so just treat this like a nice surprise if it comes.

* Starts 11/15/11. Ends 12/31/11 or while supplies last. Offline, PIN-based & international transactions ineligible. Gift Card quantities are limited to the first 80,000 eligible entrants & maximum 10,000 other gifts to next 10,000 eligible entrants.

(Update: Looks like this deal is over.)

I know that there are some Economist readers out there, and it’s a pretty expensive subscription. Right now the site NEAmag.com/2011FREE is offering a one-year subscription for free (51 issues) with no credit card required. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying, and there are several other magazines including Kiplinger’s Personal Finance available as well.

The following offer is targeted at American Express Business Platinum cardholders, but has been reported to work successfully with all American Express cards. The deal is if you register your card at AmexNetwork.com/LowesPlatinum and make a single purchase of $200 or more at Lowe’s by November 15, 2011, you will receive a $40 statement credit. It would appear one good way to test this is to make a $200 gift card purchase at Lowe’s, either for a Lowe’s gift card or some other retailer gift card that is available in-store. Then you can use the gift card with any other available coupon later.

To be eligible for this offer, you must be the named recipient of this invitation and register your American Express Business Platinum Card® at AmexNetwork.com/LowesPlatinum between 9/5/2011 and 11/15/2011. You may only register one Card for this offer. Using your registered Card, you must make a single purchase of $200 or more between 9/5/2011 and 11/15/2011. If your Card is replaced during the promotional period, please call the customer service number on the back of your Card for assistance. Limit one offer per Card member. Statement credits are generally issued within 5 business days after your qualifying purchase, but may take up to 2 billing cycles to post to your account. The reward of $40 will be credited to your registered Card account as a statement credit. Additional terms apply; see Registration Terms and Conditions.

I tried my trusty Starwood American Express and AmEx Blue Cash back card and both went through successfully, and I also got a confirmation e-mail. Lots of home improvement going on recently, so I’ll follow up to see if I get the $40 credit.

Daily deals site KGBDeals has a national deal of 2 Fandango.com movie tickets for $12. Each ticket has a maximum value of $12 (total $24). Supposedly has 13 days left, but with over 9,000 sold it may sell out.

Valid until January 31, 2012 and are good for one-time use only. Available for redemption starting October 31, 2011. Valid for use toward 2 tickets with maximum value of $12 per ticket (maximum total value $24). Both tickets must be purchased together in the same transaction for the same movie and showtime. Not valid on IMAX or 3D movies.

p.s. Groupon also has $20 for $40 at The Body Shop as their national deal. 54,000 bought already, perhaps a good value for gifts?

In addition to the $25 statement credit for American Express cardholders, FedEx has a separate promotion where they will be giving out $25 “Shop Small” AmEx gift cards in support of Small Business Saturday through a Facebook promotion. You’ll need a Facebook account and visit their page at Facebook.com/FedEx starting on November 1st. First 30,000 who submit their mailing addresses only. From one press release:

FedEx recently announced it would inject $1 million into the small business economy in support of Small Business Saturday by distributing 40,000 $25 Shop SmallSM American Express® gift cards for use at small businesses on November 26. A total of 30,000 gift cards are available, first-come-first-serve, beginning November 1 on facebook.com/FedEx. FedEx will distribute an additional 10,000 gift cards directly to customers.

I’m not sure how the 10,000 gift cards “directly to consumers” will work. From another press release:

Shoppers will be able to obtain their free $25 gift cards from the FedEx Facebook brand page beginning November 1. For a limited time, shoppers can register and share the offer with friends with a few simple clicks. By providing a mailing address, the cards will be shipped to the first qualifying 30,000 consumers in time for them to get out and shop on November 26, Small Business Saturday. Only one Shop Small Gift Card will be sent to each Facebook ID that registers. There are no consumer fees of any kind associated with the Shop Small Gift Card.

TripAlertz.com is a new site that is basically like Groupon for travel, even though Groupon already does travel.

The refer-a-friend program works in that the referring person gets $10 for referring a new user. Here is my TripAlertz sign-up link. The new user only has to sign up with an e-mail address, nothing else, no purchase required. However, the new user does not get a bonus. So while you don’t get a bonus right away, joining quickly means you get $10 from any of your friends that sign up with just an e-mail address. Literally just takes seconds. If you get 47 people to sign-up, you could get the 3-night Aruba package on the home page for free.

Update 10/14: Looks like they changed it to just $1 per referral. Oh well.