I'm a nerd. And I love music. So I'm essentially a nerd about music. More importantly, I am a nerd about listening to music and where to find great music. You know I've come up to you at some point in your life and told you check out some awesome band you never heard of. Yeah, I'm that guy. So this entry is going to show all you kids great ways to listen to music on the internet, LEGALLY!
Spotify: (Free- $9.99 /month)
I just recently started using this service. And its awesome. Spotify started elsewhere in the world (who cares if it isn't the US) and just recently came to our country. This service is a simple download away. Once you open the app, you can stream any song in their expansive collection. And its not like Pandora in the fact that it creates a station with like sounding artists (more on that later) but you can actually check out a whole album or play the same song over and over again (as I have with Perfect Situation by Weezer and Katy Perry). It does however have ads every so many songs, but the ads aren't that bad considering what you are getting. Another downside is if you like the whole idea of a radio station, that's a paid feature. With the payment plan however, you can stream to any iDevice or Android phone along with a whole slew of other features.
Who should use this service? Anyone that sits at their desk for long periods of time and works, also anyone who likes free, legal music.
Who shouldn't use this service? People who are cheap along with anyone who is on the move and uses their portable device to listen to music more than their PC.
Link: Spotify
Pandora: (Free)
You know what Pandora is. You've used it. Your mother has used it. Not much to say besides the fact that are more intuitive web apps out there that are more fun to use and do more than this outdated bit of HTML code.
Who should use this service? Your mom because she doesn't like change and because frankly, you don't want to teach her something new. People who like a clean interface and want quick access to great music they haven't heard of.
Who shouldn't use this service? Anyone else really, unless, well, you stopped reading after the first line of this whole blog post. OH! and hipsters because this is waaaaaaaaay too mainstream for us.
Link: Pandora Radio
Last.fm (Free?)
I don't really use this service, but I've heard some good talk about it so I'm giving it a try as of this paragraph. First off, I did use it on my Xbox a long time ago and it gave me pandora like stations which were great and I jammed out. As of now, its stalling on me. And won't play anything. Not cool. Okay, started working. So, it looks like they are fusing purevolume (remember that site???) and pandora together. There's a social network aspect which can be expected in anything these days. Seems to work fine and if it isn't pandora, I'm happy.
Who should use this service? People using Spotify perhaps that want a radio station builder for free that isn't Pandora. Also people who love to know all about bands and where they are.
Who shouldn't use this service? People who like a clean interface and don't want to dig into a bunch of menus (when I say a bunch, i mean like two) to access music.
Link: last.fm
Amazon (Price ranges depending on the song)
Why give Apple more of your money and have DRM? (Digital Rights Management, the thing that doesn't let you give your music to your friends) There's no good answer. So don't do it. Use Amazon instead! They have all of the same songs you like for cheaper sometimes. I've heard reports of having troubling downloading, but that might have been a user error.
Who should use this service? People who enjoy owning their music collection and having "physical" copies of their music on their hard drives. Rich people should also use this to help the economy.
Who shouldn't use this service? People who don't have money, such as myself, along with people that don't have a lot of hard drive space that don't have back up drives, so basically, everyone reading this...
Link: Amazon MP3
So those are the four major sources of music. These next two are for the ADVANCED USER only. These are both for the people who want to get immersed in music and have it become part of their daily routine to find new music to listen to.
thesixtyone.com (free- however much you feel like contributing to artists)
Hang with me for a second, thesixtyone is a massively multilayer online music listening social network. I know, I know, I just threw like twenty internet words at your face hole, but it makes sense. First you sign up on the site, then you find yourself with a little box in the middle of the page that has quests. You read the quest and you do what it says around the site. You complete the quest, and gain XP like in a video game. After you've leveled a few times, you realize that you now know a ton of bands that no one has heard of because leveling up forces you to find new tracks and discover awesome new tastes in music you didn't have before. Best part is, this site has no ads, and is as free as you want it to be. A word to the wise though, you will want to spend money because you want to see the artists here grow and put out more great music.
Who should use this service? People who want to be as involved as possible in finding great music on the interwebs. Anyone that likes indie bands should come here and anyone who is easily addicted to video games and loves music needs to check this site out.
Who shouldn't use this service? Those of the faint heart should stay away. This site is a lot to take in and there a lot of features the end user has to utilize to get the best experience. This is a daily site that is best used frequently to get the satisfaction from it.
Link: thesixtyone
Turntable.fm (free)
If you thought thesixtyone was confusing, then just wait, turntable.fm gets even better. This site is an up and coming domain that allows users to interact with each other with their music. When you get to the site, there's simply a list of rooms that you can listen to and participate in. These rooms consist of five "djs" that are playing tracks in order and the audience. The "djs" simply pick tracks from turntable.fm's library or upload their own. Now,"dj" has quotes around it because the users aren't doing live performances, they are simply picking tracks for the audience to listen to. If a room has a dj slot open you can enter as a dj and play songs from your own collection for the audience to listen to. This site is great because the audience and djs can chat and vote to like or skip a song. There's a real community feel in every room and the music is usually always solid and if you're in the right room, there's some great mixes people have done and are sharing on a very small scale, so feel lucky!
Who should use this service? People who want to share their music taste and love tight knit communities that will embrace what they have to say in 200 person room.
Who shouldn't use this service? Those who like to sit back and put little effort into their music discovery, don't bother with this site. Its too hipster for you anyways/
Link: Turntable.fm
I can't believe I wrote all off that or that you read all of that. Man, we're crazy! I hope that my insights will help you find music in better ways on the internet than iTunes. Now go enjoy yourself!
