Guide To Discovering And Downloading New Music

I stole this image. Found it while searching 'chicks listening to music' on google images.

I love music, it makes me happy, it makes me work better, it inspires me. I enjoy listening to new music every day. Sometimes I know what I want, and many times, I don’t know what I want. So I start discovering new sounds, stuff that I haven’t listened before. I have thought that I am addicted to music, music is my drug, I always want more and something new every time. If you are reading this, it means that you are like me when it comes to music. This will guide you to places that you could find new music and possibly add to your list of favorite artists, without using software like Limewire or bittorrent networks.

Where to Start and Last Resorts ;)
iTunes Store - Access it through iTunes
Amazon MP3 Store (on a side note, why do amazon uses non-user friendly URLs?)
Rhapsody

News
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com
http://thedailyswarm.com
http://stereogum.com/
http://www.subterraneanblog.com/
http://www.mtv.com/music/charts/
http://www.mtvu.com/music/ahead_of_the_curve/
http://www.current.com/fix

Where To Discover
http://fairtilizer.com - You will need an invite to get in. I have a few, if you ask me nicely, I can give you one.
http://audiomap.tuneglue.net/
http://www.musicovery.com/
http://www.spiralfrog.com/
http://soundslikenow.org
http://mog.com/
http://music.myspace.com
http://muxtape.com - Create your own “Muxtape” or randomly click on any of the ‘muxtapes’ at the homepage, you never know what good treasure you might find. Check mine out, I will try to update frequently with different ‘ear food’.

On iTunes
1. Open iTunes
2. Click on Radio
3. Open the Eclectic Tab
My favorites from that list are:
Pig Radio
KCRW

Search Engines
http://hypem.com
http://beemp3.com/
http://g2p.org
http://elbo.ws/
http://skreemr.com/
http://www.musire.com/
http://www.albumhunt.com/
http://www.mp3gle.net/

On TV
I rarely watch TV, but here are three programs that I watch to discover new music.
MTV U
Subterranean - MTV2 - Sunday Nights at 1:00 AM
The Fix - Current TV - Tuesday Nights at 10:00 PM
MTV Hits - Watch out for the MTVU and Subterranean playlists.

Blogs
Here is a short list of blogs that I constantly keep an eye on.

http://palmsout.blogspot.com - electronic, mixes
http://missingtoof.com/ - electro, mixes
http://digitaleargasm.blogspot.com/ - electric, pop, mixes
http://www.discoworkout.com - electronic
http://caucasian-tabloid.blogspot.com/ - electronic
http://my.opera.com/Licorice%20Pizza/blog/ - eclectic, oldies
http://deekmedia.wordpress.com/ - eclectic
http://redthreat.wordpress.com - electro, mixes
http://musichole.blogspot.com/ - eclectic, bootlegs, mixes
http://blog.tracklistings.net/ - radio shows, mixes
http://mp3daily.blogspot.com/ - eclectic
http://www.nialler9.com/blog/ - indie, eclectic
http://www.brooklynradio.net/shows/ - eclectic, various
http://www.newmixes.com/ - radio shows, mixes
http://therapup.rawkus.com/ - hip-hop
http://findasoul4sale.blogspot.com/ - hip-hop

All of the sites above have RSS feeds. RSS is a very powerful instrument to get information from the sites to us, instead of us going to the site to find about. To keep an eye on new updates that any of the blogs that you like, use any RSS aggregator such as Netvibes, Use it, abuse it, stay informed and up-to-date with music, and share your tabs with the world.

More Info
The following link, I collected some information from them and used it to compile this list. You may find something else useful on them.
http://mashable.com/2007/09/20/music-news/#more-11067
http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Download_Free_Music
http://blog.brokep.com/2007/10/27/what-to-use-instead-of-oink-waffleswaffleswaffles

  • Go to your favorite artist myspace. check out their top friends. Click on any of their “friends” and keep digging in.
  • Click on the blogrolls (the links on the sidebar). You never what treasures you may find.
  • On Google. Use this string artist name "rapidshare.com/files"|"megaupload.com/?d"|"badongo.com/file/"|"mediafire.com/?"|"http://www.zshare.net/audio/", replacing ‘artist name’ with the band or artist that you want to search.
  • Google Images - Search for album covers in this format (Artist Name - Album Name). The best results are Blogs posting the links to download the full albums. You might find more music of your interest.
  • http://www.music-alerts.com/ - You type the name of your favorite artists, and it will create a RSS feed from the artists you input and keep an eye for anything that is released from them.

Enjoy music, feed your ears, stimulate your senses with aural goodness! And that’s it. I will keep updating this post, whenever I find a good site, or any recommendations that I may get. Enjoy!

One Response to this post.

  1. nicko's Gravatar

    Posted by nicko on 22.04.08 at 9:32 pm

    thanks for the shoutout. much love from chi town.
    -nicko (http://redthreatchicago.com)

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