Where do you find music? Part 2: RIYL Sites

As a compulsive music collector, people are often curious about how I discover new music and where all the cd's/bootlegs/mp3s and DVDs come from. So as a service to my friends and readers, here is a little peak inside my demented world of music procurement.
Part 1: Internet Radio.

Part 2: RIYL Sites
Say you’re looking for some great new music. Maybe you’ve just discovered a cool new band on Radio Paradise and you want to hear more stuff like that. Well if you’re lucky enough to live in a town that has a privately owned record store filled with music geeks you could probably go ask one of them. Maybe they’ll help you. Maybe they’ll sneer in your general direction and point you toward a bin of death metal. Or you could ask your hippest friend, who’s likely to tell you about the hippest new band that has nothing to do with the band you are actually interested. Here’s a better idea. Check out one of these “Right If You Like” (RIYL) sites and find something sorta like what you like, but different!

Pandora
Pandora.com is the most interesting of all the music recommendation options of the web. It is powered by the Music Genome Project, a group of technicians, music professionals and fans that attempt to break down music into a “genetic code” that can be used to connect similar songs in a computerized “Right If You Like” (RIYL) model of recommending music. Pretty crazy stuff! And it works great! Just go to Pandora.com and enter in the names of some songs or artists you like. Pandora will create a streaming radio station based on your entries. You can further refine the selections by indicating the songs you like as they are played. Feel free to check out my Mellow Moods station, which was created by inputting Kruder & Dorfmeister, Morcheeba, Sigur Ros and Thievery Corporation (with further refinements).

Sadly Pandora is having a hard time staying afloat thanks to new legislation that charges royalties to internet radio providers higher than that of satellite radio or traditional radio (which pay none!). Check them out while you can.

Music Emissions
This is a very handy indie-oriented site. It offers both editorial and user reviews. It has a handy RIYL section that will point you in the direction of the other bands. Lots of links where you can hear clips of songs.

iTunes Genius
iTunes has gotten into the RIYL game with the new “Genius” feature on the just released iTunes 8.0. It is still pretty new and I can’t really give a full report on it. It basically allows you to select a song in your iTunes Library and then suggests other similar songs available in the iTunes store. This seems to work very similar to Pandora (except you have to buy the songs), and in my few tests the suggestions seemed to be pretty reasonable. I’ll come back to this later if proves especially useful or useless. Let me know you think!

Up Next: Download Sites