New media
How to discover new music
A rundown of the new breed of music recommendation sites
By the Ourmedia staff
The Internet is rising up alongside the traditional music industry as a way to introduce people to new sounds.
If you prefer pure serendipity, you'll find plenty of good music by independent artists on sites like Magnatune, Opsound, Garageband or the Independent Online Distribution Alliance. Webcasts like Live365, Soundclick or Beatmaka are also a great source for new sounds. See Ourmedia's Open Media Directory for dozens of other options.
In addition, a number of websites have cropped up that do a fair job in recommending musical acts that match your tastes. Here are a few:Pandora
Founded by former musician Tim Westergren, Pandora asks you to type in the name of a few musicians or bands that you like. Within seconds, you'll be listening to a stream of music whose musical characteristics match your own, based on variables identified by one of Pandora's 40 musical analysts. You can fine-tune the selection process by voting thumbs up or down on each track. Chances are you'll come across some new artists that you never knew you liked. Lastfm
Based in the United Kingdom, Lastfm is a free service that tracks your musical taste, finds similar users and provides musical recommendations and free personalized radio stations. Instead of relying on experts to determine similarity, Lastfm uses a separate application, Audioscrobbler, to log and analyze songs you play on your computer or iPod. It then draws on the collections of its users to pick likely winners. "The theory is that you'll like the songs favored by people whose playlists overlap with yours," Steven Levy writes in Newsweek. You can also discover new tunes with Lastfm's Neighbour Radio feature.MyStrands
The startup in Corvallis, Oregon, asks users to download a small application that tracks what you listen to in iTunes. MyStrands then pulls up songs from a database of related music. The algorithm isn't based strictly on the songs' similarity but rather on the collective musical library listening habits of users, leveraging the power of social networks and the hive mind.MOG
The startup launched a public beta in July 2006 using a social-network model. Users set up a profile on the site, then a MOG application publicly posts the titles of all the titles in your library (not the music itself). You can edit out the embarrassing stuff. Members of the youth-oriented MOG community then compare your musical tastes to others'. You can also ask MOG to uncover playlists similar to your own.
eMusic
Another option is eMusic. the site has lined up 4,000 independent labels and outsells competitors Napster, Rhapsody and MSN Music combined, making it the second biggest digital music retailer. The reason? Deep catalogs of indie music, low prices (about 25 cents a download) and no digital rights management. Discover a new band, buy a track and email it to your friends. Most important, the songs come in MP3 format, playable on almost any portable player.
Other sources for new music
You can also check out new music on the Web rather than by downloading a program. Follow some of the links in the social bookmarking site del.icio.us, such as all MP3s tagged with the keyword jazz. Or head to The Hype Machine, an audio-blog aggregator that tracks uploads across different music blogs.
Sources: Ourmedia staff; Newsweek; Wired; Macworld
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