You can't knock 'em for trying. The music industry is preoccupied with giveaways these days, CNET News reports: on Sunday, New York Daily News subscribers will find an access code in their paper that they can use to retrieve three free songs from EMI Music.

All subscribers have to do is punch the code into www.nydailynews.com, and they'll get a choice of three downloadable tracks from a selection of over 120,000 songs. There's no word yet on whether or not these tracks are unprotected MP3 files, which would enable them to work on any mobile phones in addition to iPods or Windows-compatible MP3 players.

The article concludes by saying that while the Daily News is compensating EMI for the songs, "it's still important to point out that to the public, these days the word 'music' trails the word 'free' like a caboose."

EMI gives music away to newspaper readers [CNET News]