Finding New Music

Hello everyone—it's KK here. Sorry I'm a little late this morning. Unfortunately my internet cut out last night so not only could I not post on time, I also couldn't look up and reference the things I wanted to post about. :(

Time to pull a bit of a switcheroo!

I'm going to take a little more of a music focus for the next couple weeks (although I'm not guaranteeing anything). I LOVE listening to new music and since I work at a desk all day, I have several online sources for my music. I talk to people about music all the time, and there's one question I always get:

How do I find new music?

Here are a few suggestions if you want to either explore musically or find new sources to buy music. A couple months ago, my old favorite, Imeem, shut down, so I had to resort to some of the options I used before. Let's take a look.

Lala: This is my new favorite site. I love discovering new music and I always try to buy songs (legally) once I know I love them and want them to be part of my selection. Part of the reason Imeem got shut down was because it let you stream pretty much any song and album by any artist...without any limits. *For those who don't know, "streamed music" is music that is played over the internet. You don't actually have it on your computer and can't put it on your iPod and such.

Lala takes a more "legal" approach, and I think it's a great deal. For about 10 cents, you can purchase the ability to stream any song how ever many times you want. (about $1 for any album) Since I'm at work all day, this is a great option for me. Also most homes these days have really strong internet connections, making this option really easy to use.

Lala also lets you actually purchase songs if you decided the streaming isn't enough for you. It will then substract whatever you paid for the streaming fee from the purchase price.

I love this option because I can pretty affordably have access to so much music—all legally!

Emusic: This is another option for purchasing music. Although they don't feature the most popular hits and artists, there are tons of options to explore on this site. Most of the appeal in this site is from factoring in the free downloads they offer. I don't currently have a subscription but am tempted to go back for a month and then cancel again.

You pay a low subscription rate ($6-$15) and get to download a certain amount of songs a month. Since the artists are *more* unknown, I like to browse and pick out what I would purchase before I sign up again. It's easy to opt out too. (I've done it a couple times obviously)

Some suggestions that are available on this site:
Matt Nathanson
Eric Hutchinson
Zumba Fitness
Matthew Perryman Jones

Amazon: When it comes to buying music, I prefer Amazon over iTunes. Maybe I just like being a little different. But Amazon is a tad cheaper, and always has tons of deals to explore. EVERY DAY they feature a Deal of the Day, which offers an album for anywhere from 99 cents to maybe 4 bucks. I've seen LOTS of great finds here. Every month they feature about 100 albums in a variety of genres for just 5 dollars. They also have tons of free downloads to check out.

iLike: I originally linked to this through Facebook, which I think is a great idea. It allows you to share with your friends what you like and to see their choices as well. Additionally LOTS of artists, especially the up and coming, offering free downloads. In my experience this has been a great incentive to listen to new stuff and potentially discover something amazing. (I love free stuff!) My favorite find is actually now one of my top three overall artists: Debra Arlyn.

Myspace Music: When Imeem went down, a new and improved Myspace Music stepped in to fill its place. No, I am not a fan of Myspace for anything other than listening to music. Most, if not all, musicians of any sort have a Myspace page with a couple tracks to listen to. This is a great opportunity to listen to songs from an album you don't have, popular singles, even songs that haven't been released yet. Myspace also has a "Friends" section, which often directs you to musicians with similar styles or who your favorites have toured with. Browsing friends of friends is a great option to broaden your music selection. Myspace is also now offering the ability to make your own playlists and options to listen to whole albums.

Project Playlist: I used Imeem for almost all of my playlist creations, so this site has become my new source. It's not my favorite, because there are lots of songs missing from its database. But it's a pretty simple option for creating a playlist to post on a blog or Web site...among other things.

I hope this was interesting and that you can start exploring all that's out there in the music world—not just what the DJ chooses to play on your radio station. If you have questions, let me know....Also, be sure to share any exciting finds!

- KK