Now that most music lives on the Web, there are more sounds than ever at your fingertips. But that newfound abundance comes at a cost: It takes a lot more work than flipping through a CD bin to find something you might like.
Luckily, there is help. A host of new tools and services can help you find your new favorite band.
SPOTIFY This popular new streaming music service has one of the most extensive song libraries online. But sifting through its 15 million tracks to find what you want to hear is exhausting. Recently, though, Spotify entered a partnership with Facebook that lets Spotify users who connect to Facebook list each song they’re listening to on their News Feed, serving up a real-time flow of songs to explore. The rival streaming services Rdio, Pandora and Mog also offer this feature.
In addition, Spotify lets you see what playlists your friends have created and subscribe to them. That’s how I discovered that the band XX was the perfect soundtrack for Sunday mornings, and that Beyoncé is a surprisingly good running companion. Pro tip: You can also send albums and songs to your Facebook friends who are using Spotify by right-clicking on the track you want to recommend and typing in their name.
THE HYPE MACHINE Music blogs like Gorilla vs. Bear, Fader, Nah Right and Stereogum post dozens of new songs, mixtapes and albums every day, making them reliable sources for fresh sounds. But those sites number in the hundreds, making it hard to stay on top of them all. The Hype Machine is a Web site and iPhone app that aggregates any song posted to a number of music blogs and streams them in a single place.
The Hype Machine is ideal for listeners who like radio remixes, covers and mash-ups and other B-side materials that rarely see the light of day. Imagine your favorite underground radio station playing only the newest jams, on an endless loop. You can also explore by genre, or use “latest” and “popular” tabs to sort through the songs. There’s also a “spy” tab to see what other Hype Machine users are listening to in real time.
TUMBLR In addition to funny memes and Lady Gaga, this popular microblogging site is also a great reservoir of music feeds that post new music streams, clever covers and quirky remixes. The blogs tend to be carefully curated and not nearly as high volume as a music site as Fader, making it easy to keep from getting overwhelmed by the influx of new tunes in your Tumblr feed. A few Tumblr favorites: CopyCats and Disco Naïveté.
SOUNDCLOUD The trouble with services like Spotify, Rdio and their ilk is that they primarily focus on music by artists who have been signed to labels. But there are still a lot of performers making music on the fly and uploading it. That’s where SoundCloud comes in. You can find rare mixtapes, like one that combines the indie crooner James Blake with the rapper Drake, and up-and-comers who haven’t yet been picked up by a big label, like ASAP Rocky, the Weeknd and Dominique Young Unique. You can follow artists you like, find friends and keep an eye on which songs they like as well.
EXFM Now that you’ve got all these new places to check for new music, how best to keep track of them? Exfm is a free browser extension that keeps track of every song you listen to and save as you bounce around the Web, and assembles them into a handy mixtape for later listening. The service also lets you browse through the top songs saved by all the users on its service, making for a neat crowd-sourced top 40 playlist.
TURNTABLE This social music service lets people take turns playing D.J. for a roomful of friends and other listeners. At Turntable, rooms are sorted by theme, from the self-explanatory (“Indie While You Work”) to the quirky (“Food Fight”), and they are all a good way to hear new music as well as old favorites. You can buy the tunes you like through Amazon or iTunes and save them to sites including Last.FM, Rdio and Spotify.
VHX.TV Remember when TV channels like MTV, VH1 and BET used to show music videos? VHX.TV aims to recreate those long-gone days with a service that makes the browser into a large screen for viewing videos. People using VHX can share their finds, and see what friends are watching. The videos tend to be more eclectic and visually interesting than your typical fare — think ‘60s-inspired noir Hollywood and colorful anime videos — and it’s never boring.
CULL.TV This service is similar to VHX.TV, and is trying to create an immersive viewing experience for music videos. But Cull.TV also offers several music video channels for viewers to flip through, like One-Time, which shows new experimental hip-hop, and New Chilean Rock, which features metal from South America. People are also free to create their own channels and share them with friends.
SOUNDTRACKING Ever wonder what your neighbors are listening to? This service, which is currently available only as an iPhone app, lets you see which songs are trending in a particular city or neighborhood — like the latest pop indie band to hit it big in Brooklyn or what’s bubbling up in Rio de Janeiro.
SONGZA This iPhone application lets people create and share playlists organized around a specific task or activity. You can browse songs handpicked specifically for falling asleep, reading in a coffee shop or throwing a barbecue. Additionally, Songza users can browse by moods, like Rowdy and Spacey, or by decades, to find the perfect songs to suit their disposition.
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