20 Essential Online Resources for Finding Music
March 28, 2011

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Back in the oft-mentioned “day,” we only had the radio and helpful record store clerks to satiate our musical hunger pangs. Now we have the entirety of the web.

Still, with this veritable diner menu of choices (read: overstuffed), it can be hard to find what one is looking for, impelling one to perhaps choose whatever is safest and most familiar, rather than seeking out something new, and perhaps, more delectable.

Luckily for you, oh consumer of tunes, there are scads of music discovery services out there, just waiting to help you make a more adventurous decision. In fact, according to a new survey from Orpheus Media Research, 54% of music lovers surveyed have used such a service.

Mashable has gone ahead and assembled an impressive menu below of such services, one that’s sure to satisfy both casual diners and gluttons alike. Check them out and then let us know what jams you discover.

1. Get Curated

If you’re the kind of person whose every decision needs to be backed up by fact and research, it may be best to turn to an expert when it comes to seeking out new music. Luckily for you, there are tons of people out there whose job it is to tell you what to listen to.

First of all, there are the institutions. MTV recently launched a new site called Hive that centers entirely around music. (Yes, we hear you commenters, “MTV doesn’t play music anymore” – just calm down for a second and read.) Featuring artist interviews and new online video programming (including the resurrection of 120 Minutes as 120 Seconds), as well as new elements such as MTV’s music discovery tool, the Music Meter, Hive is meant to be a resource for music fans.

Spin magazine is also taking steps to become a more modern resource for music fans — via a new integration with “Pandora for music blogs,” Shuffler.fm, which lets readers listen to all the music on the site while surfing, as well as a slick new iPad app [iTunes link], which also allows you to read and listen at the same time.

Outside of the confines of old media reborn, there are also tons of web-only solutions for music discovery. Epitonic — one of the first curated MP3 resources — recently relaunched, bursting with handpicked jams, reentering a space that now includes the iconic Hype Machine, as well as RCRD LBL, a site and daily newsletter featuring free music, and MySpoonful, which bills itself as “DailyCandy for Indie Music.”

RCRD LBL also just recently kicked up its content a notch by partnering with artist-to-fan site Topspin to offer the yet-to-be-launched RCRD Deals, which will bring Gilt-like, music-related deals to RCRD LBL’s newsletter.

Add these sites to your Google Reader and subscribe to these newsletters for a daily shot of expert opinion.

2. Hunt and Gather

If you’re not down to take someone else’s advice when it comes to your musical taste, there are also sites out there that replicate the record shop experience, allowing you to comb through the racks to find your new favorite band.

First of all, there’s We Are Hunted (to which MTV’s Music Meter bears a resemblance). This site allows you to surf through an online, listenable music chart of up-and-coming acts to build your own charts that you can share with friends and other music lovers. The site also has a “Discover” tool, which helps you find new music based on what you like and dislike on the site. (We Are Hunted also recently released an iPhone app called Pocket Hipster [iTunes link], which uses The Echo Nest’s API to comb through your musical library and suggest new tunes.)

Similar to We Are Hunted is TheSixtyOne, a “music adventure” that crowdsources content from independent musicians and presents the visitor with a stream of songs (featuring artist info) that he can then “heart,” comment on, share and even download.

One can also create playlists sorted by mood (mellow, happy, rocky, smooth), as well as follow friends. TheSixtyOne is in no way a passive music-listening experience, but one that will draw you in and captivate you for a goodly amount of time. The creators also have an iPad app — Aweditorum [iTunes link] — that replicates the searching and digging experience of visiting TheSixtyOne.

So, music lovers, block out an afternoon or evening and start hunting and gathering tunes — all from the safety and relative isolation of your computer chair. All that’s missing is the judgmental clerk scoffing at your decision to buy that record.

3. Listen To Your Friends

Some of us have friends who have rad musical taste, some of us have friends who like Justin Bieber — for those of you in the first category, read on, because there are myriad ways your friends can help you find tunes.

Music subscription service Rdio is the most top-of-mind choice for those us who want to tap into the musical brain of our compatriots. The service allows users to follow friends and trusted influences, and to check out their collections of cached and listened-to jams.

For those of us who are a bit skint when it comes to cash (Rdio costs $4.99 per month on the web, and $9.99 per month on mobile), there’s also Blip.fm, a service that allows you to be a “DJ” of sorts — and to follow other DJs — and share music to social streams like Facebook and Twitter.

And there are even more options for those light on cash: Disrupt.fm is a much more startup-y, indie site that requires you to share a song on Facebook before downloading it for free, and then there’s mFlow, a “Twitter meets iTunes” that allows you to share music to your social streams, and rewards you with credits to acquire music when friends purchase songs you share.

For those of your who prefer a bit of a more “lean-back” deal, online radio service (and Y-Combinator startup) Earbits also makes it super easy to share music with friends. With an interface similar to TheSixtyOne’s pleasing, image-heavy experience, users can check out music from up-and-coming (and relatively unknown) musicians via the web, iOS [iTunes link] or Android. If you like a song, you can share it with friends via Facebook chat, your Facebook wall or Twitter (on the web — mobile sharing options are more limited).

Music recognition service Shazam also recently added a layer of sharing magic with Shazam Friends, a new update [iTunes link] for the service’s iPhone, iPod touch and Android apps that lets users check out which songs their friends have discovered via the service.

Use all of these services to keep up with your pals’ musical going-ons, or, you know, ask them to make you a mixtape — depending on their level of Luddite-hood.

4. See a Show

One of the best ways to discover new music is to go see it live — opening acts can be a veritable gold mine all on their own. The web makes it super easy to track when your favorite bands are blowing through town.

Songkick, for one, is a wonderful resource. A kind of concert-going social network, Songkick lets you track favorite bands from your Last.fm, Pandora and iTunes, get email alerts when your top acts are playing near you, buy tickets to shows and create show calendars that you can export to Google calendar, Outlook or iCal.

The site also lets you share your experiences via a “Gigography,” so that you never forget that one show — you know, the one where you fell in love with that dude whose name you no longer remember?

SuperGlued is another great, concert-planning website and app that functions much like SongKick. SuperGlued’s iPhone [iTunes link] and Android apps, however, are the most useful of its suite of offerings. The apps have a feature called “Recommended” that scans your iTunes and then suggests shows to go see based on your musical tastes. That feature is extremely useful when one is trying to find a show to go to on Saturday night, but one has no idea who’s playing.

Armed with these apps, there’s really no reason to toil away in a realm of mundanity, listening to that one song on repeat. Download, bookmark and subscribe — your ear, and your neighbors, will thank you.

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/03/28/music-discovery-services/