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
Part 3: Download Sites
You've discovered some cool new bands on places like Radio Paradise and Pandora, but now you want to investigate further, or better yet, get some tunes. Well you could of course go to iTunes or Amazon or even your local record store, if you have one. But there are lot of other options out there you might not know about. Here are some of the places I go when I want to hear more of a band.
Live Music Archive
Part of the Internet Archive, the Live Music Archive is an out growth of the Jamband Taper Scene. These days it is home to live recordings of 100's of bands ranging from jammy to indie to twangy to techy. All theses are band sanctioned recordings, that are distributed free of charge. Most recordings can be downloaded in MP3 and lossless formats.
Songza
Ok so this isn't technically a download site, but is still a pretty cool way to hear more of an artist that might interest you. It is a very simple site that allows you to type in the name of an artist and then it will create a playlist of songs by that artist. You can stream the songs, but not download them. Great way to decide if you are interested in buyin the album.
eMusic
This is a subscription service that allows you to download a certain number of tracks each month, depending on how much you wan to spend (from 10/month for $5.99 to 300/month for $74.99) . You are not gong to find very many major artists here, but the indie, underground and jazz is very well represented. I've been a member for a long time, and over the years have download Miles Davis, Arcade Fire, Dead Kennedys, LCD Sound System, Cat Power, Creedance Clearwater Revival, moe., Belle + Sebastian, Bill Evans, the list goes on and on. Tons of great music at lower prices than iTunes or Amazon.
Showing posts with label Find Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Find Music. Show all posts
Friday, September 19, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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
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
Monday, September 15, 2008
Where do you find music? Part 1: Internet Radio
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
There was a time when you could look to the radio dial for new sounds, but in most of America those days are over. Thankfully the Internet is here to fill the void left by corporate radio. These streams have introduced me to countless musicians. Oftentimes ones that later go on to make huge waves in the press:
Radio Paradise - Great community-supported, commercial-free, web radio station. It is one of the stations built into iTunes in the radio section under "eclectic". They play a nice DJ-selected mix of new and classic rock with the occasional classical or jazz selection thrown in. On-site playlists, discussion forums and links make it easy to further investigate artists and even buy music.
WFPK - Louisville, KY has a surprisingly fertile music scene, as evidenced buy the recent accension of My Morning Jacket to the halls of indie-rock stardom. WFPK has long been a driving force behind that scene, pumping out great indie, rock, bluegrass, jazz and more. "Live Lunch" in studio performaces every friday at noon
Radio IO - This is whole network of Web radio stations. They do have ads, but you can pay little fee to go commercial-free if that really bugs you. My two favorites on here are RadioIO Jam (for when I want to relieve my deadhead days) and RadioIO Eclectic.
Next up: RIYL Sites
Part 1: Internet Radio
There was a time when you could look to the radio dial for new sounds, but in most of America those days are over. Thankfully the Internet is here to fill the void left by corporate radio. These streams have introduced me to countless musicians. Oftentimes ones that later go on to make huge waves in the press:
Radio Paradise - Great community-supported, commercial-free, web radio station. It is one of the stations built into iTunes in the radio section under "eclectic". They play a nice DJ-selected mix of new and classic rock with the occasional classical or jazz selection thrown in. On-site playlists, discussion forums and links make it easy to further investigate artists and even buy music.
WFPK - Louisville, KY has a surprisingly fertile music scene, as evidenced buy the recent accension of My Morning Jacket to the halls of indie-rock stardom. WFPK has long been a driving force behind that scene, pumping out great indie, rock, bluegrass, jazz and more. "Live Lunch" in studio performaces every friday at noon
Radio IO - This is whole network of Web radio stations. They do have ads, but you can pay little fee to go commercial-free if that really bugs you. My two favorites on here are RadioIO Jam (for when I want to relieve my deadhead days) and RadioIO Eclectic.
Next up: RIYL Sites
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