5 Of The Best Sites For Music Discovery
A while back I had a little rant telling people to stop bitching about the state of the radio, because we have so many new options to find good music online. So I figured this would be a good opportunity to put together a small list, of some of my favorite radio replacing sites around the web. If you can’t find good music on these sites, you might need to stop calling yourself a music fan. There is plenty of good music is out there, and these sites should make finding it much easier.
Here’s my top 5 sites for music discovery.
Pandora
If you don’t already know the magic wonder land that is Pandora, you’ve been missing out. In my opinion this is the best internet radio system out there …no… forget the internet part, Pandora is just the best radio, period. I’ve been in love with Pandora since the day I discovered it.
If you don’t already know, you just enter a song or artist you like, and Pandora will create a station for you based on similar artists. If it gives you a song you don’t like, just give it a thumbs down and you’ll never hear it again. I’ve discovered so much new music on Pandora that I may have never come across on my own. Pandora is my goddess of ear sex. Unfortunately for some of you, it’s only available in America.
GrooveShark
GrooveShark is one of the best sites for streaming music on demand, it also allows you to build play lists and stations of music you like. If you know what you want to listen to you can search by song, artist, or album. If you have no idea, and feel like trying your luck with something new, just click on their start exploring button and browse away.
GrooveShark has become a nice platform for artists looking to spread their music as well. With so many up and coming artists hosting their music here, you are bound to come across some gems that haven’t made their way to radio yet. It also gives you the ability to share what you are listening to on your social networking sites, like twitter and facebook, so it’s a nice option for people to stay plugged into.
Last.fm
Last.fm is another personal favorite. Like Pandora it allows you to create radio stations based on artists you like, and has been the choice for many people who can’t access Pandora in other countries. My favorite feature is their scobbler, which keeps track of the music you listen to, and charts your most listened to songs and artists.
It’s also able to give you some great lists of similar artists you may enjoy. For example. You could even find friends and other listeners with similar taste as your own, and browse through their playlists till you find something new. Last.fm is just a great social music site to keep track of everything music related.
Stereomood
Stereomood is emotion based internet radio, that suggests music based on the current mood you feel like listening too. If you want something to study to, simply click on the study tag and it will dig up some good brain music. If you are feeling kinky maybe you can try their Make Love Tag. Of course you can also just search by Artist, Track, Album, or any other keyword you are feeling at the time.
As an open minded music fan, I like to test my luck with random tags and see what it comes up with. I’m always able find music I enjoy, sometimes it’s even music from genres I didn’t know existed. For this Steromood gets the dork mustache seal of approval.
The Hype Machine
The Hype Machine is bit different from other services on this list, instead of building play-lists based on the similar artists you listen to, the hype machine crawls through the internet and finds all the most talked about music that is buzzing on blogs around the web. This site is great for finding stuff outside the typical range you usually look for.
Unlike the blogs they get their music from, Hype Machine has the ability to cover every genre out there, so if you are an open minded person looking for something different Hype Machine is usually a good place to look.
Awesome, thanks!