Music and boards sports flow together like Jay and Ye. There are few things better than blasting your favorite tunes while shredding with some friends. With the explosion of new music distribution platforms thanks to the web, grabbing your new favorite tunes has never been easier. Still drive your Fiero to Best Buy to cop the new Jay-Z? Well then, fire up your internet explorer 5.0 and give these sites a try.
1. Last.fm
Last.fm’s big feature is something called a scrobble. The scrobble listens to what your playing or downloading and recommends music, videos or concerts based on what your listening to. The site is absolutely HUGE and you can sometimes get lost with what your doing but they certainly have the largest selection of music related features of any social music website I’ve visited. What’s good about this site is you can also check out the artist’s videos.
2. Grooveshark
Now, you can’t actually download music from grooveshark but its a great online radio streaming service nonetheless. If you have a wifi capable MP3 player or cell phone it’s especially useful for listening to exactly what you want to hear right then. Grooveshark streams music and creates playlists based on YOUR choices. This is a great alternative to Pandora where you only have the ability to select your genre more or less.
This site is awesome. The Sixty One caters to independent artists. The site is super interactive and fun. You can “heart” artists which works very much like the powerhouse platform Digg.com. Popular artists are showcased on the homepage and new artists are discovered by the users. Users have the ability to save or purchase tracks essentially creating playlists in the process. If you like scouting independent up and coming artists then this site is for you.
4. Imeem
Imeem is very similar to Last.fm. It’s another huge social music site that hosts videos, mp3 and related artist info. Imeem is what myspace would be if it just relied solely on music. The customizable layout even feels similar. I would suggest this site if you have a good handle on social networking sites, otherwise it can be a little confusing. You can download just about every popular song you listen to on Imeem.
6. Pandora
Pandora is another online radio streaming service. You select your genre or artist and Pandora generates a playlist based around your selection. The great thing about Pandora is the simplicity of the site and service. Just select the genre or group and your ready to go. If you have an iphone Pandora makes a great app that provides the same service and features on your iphone. You can also download any song your currently listening to. Just plug your iphone into your stereo and your set. The one drawback I will say about the site is the advertising is a little over the top.
7. itunes
O.K. there is really no explanation necessary. Itunes is the 800 lb gorilla of the new web based music industry. If you haven’t updated to the latest version of itunes i’d recommend doing so. There is a new feature that allows “home sharing” of music. This feature allows locally connected users to listen to each other’s libraries.
There is another highly controversial way to listen and download music. Its usually free, risky, sometimes illegal and not at all recommended by us but the services do exist so its worth mentioning. You’ll need a peer sharing BitTorrent client, an isp blocker and a website to download the actual BitTorrent file. You can figure out the rest.
Have some sites we missed? feel free to comment. We love discovering new sites.
