is the red alert 1 soundtrack free since it was distributed free as well

Ask EA staff like @Straatford87

@arkmabat

C&C1, Red alert 1 and Tiberian Sun were all made freeware, yes. This issue was indeed rather unclear when C&C1 was released, but I still have the official answer given to us by then-community manager Apoc (Aaron Kaufman):

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/junk/td_free_1.png

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/junk/td_free_2.png

The same thing applies to the two other games they released later.

So, yes, the games are free. However, their soundtracks, as in, the high quality versions released on CDs, rather than the somewhat lower quality ingame versions from the game itself, are technically not free. They are all sold on ITunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ea-games-soundtrack/id267712132

However, you can listen to them all for free on Frank Klepacki's website:

http://www.frankklepacki.com/listen.html

Now, since Frank is the composer, his website actually has more tracks than the official soundtrack CDs (notably, for RA1, the music of the expansion packs), and even includes some unused/unreleased tracks. You should check out his "rare tracks" section at the bottom 🙂

@Nyerguds

I had no idea about that website--that is actually very cool. Thanks for sharing!

/time to get into some nostalgia..