If you have access to Last.fm, Pandora or Spotify, you may find all your new music needs there. But these services don’t include everything, and more importantly, they’re geo-restricted. So without further ado, here are 6 great ways to discover cool music you’ve never heard before, no matter where you are in the world.
Earbits Radio
Earbits is a fantastic website in which you can discover new music, listen to it, learn about new artists, chat and comment about them, and much more. To start, all you have to do is pick a station. Stations are based on genres, but there are loads of them to choose from. Whether you’re interested in experimental rock, funk jazz or street hop, you’re going to find it in Earbits.
If you can’t even decide on a genre, you can choose a shuffle station, or go for editor’s picks or listener’s picks stations. After you choose a station, the music will immediately start playing, featuring a huge image of the artist and a short bio and buy links on the bottom.
You can log in using Facebook to rate songs and comment (unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to so this without Facebook). You can also download the Chrome app, and get the Earbits iOS or Android apps. This is an awesome way to listen to new music you’ve never heard of before.
Musicovery
Musicovery is another great service which helps you discover new music. It’s not as eye-catching as Earbits, but it does the job well. To start, you can either enter a name of an artist you like, or choose your mood.
Musicovery will create a radio station for you, much like Last.fm or Pandora, which should feature songs that suit your taste and/or mood. You can listen to all the music you want this way. If you create a free account, you can ban songs from appearing in your playlists and mark songs as favorites. A paid account will get you some extra features.
Musicovery also comes as an iPhone app, and there are other goodies such as the widget and lab you’re going to want to check out.
Shuffler.fm
Shuffler.fm is a music discovery engine that is entirely based on music blogs. You can listen to music by genre, by popular tracks, or by blog. Simply choose your “channel”, and off you go.
If you choose to listen by genre, each song in the playlist will come from a different blog. The page will change accordingly, and you will get to view the actual blog post relating to the song you’re listening to.
You can create an account with the site, or log in using Facebook, to follow specific blogs and more. Shuffler.fm also comes as an iPad app.
YouLicense Mood Finder
YouLicense is actually a site aimed at letting people license music, but it also provides a pretty good way to discover some new music. The website includes a tool which lets you browse for new music by mood; there aren’t a lot of moods to choose from, but all the really important ones are includes.
When you choose a mood, a new window will open with a set playlist for that mood. In that aspect, there’s a limit to the amount of music you can discover with YouLicense, but it does contain songs by artists you’ve probably never heard of, and you can use it as a stepping stone to discovering even more great music.
If you create an account on the site, you can rate songs and create playlists as well. The website is not meant to be a music discovery tool per se, but it’s definitely useful as one.
From The Basement
We now move on to a different kind of websites: These websites don’t provide a lot of music to listen to, but do provide information and names of new artists you may want to listen to. And after all, that’s half the problem with finding new music.
The first one of these is From The Basement – a sort of podcast/live performances website created by Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich. The site features live shows shot by the website, which aim to create a relaxed atmosphere for the artist and produce the best performances possible.
There is a limited number of artists to choose from, some of which you’ve probably never heard of, and each contains 1 or more live performances, a picture gallery, and useful links. The videos are very well made – not something you would find on MTV, that’s for sure – and the minimalistic site is a joy to browse for any music lover.
Gnoosic
Gnoosic is a music discovery service that doesn’t include any actual music. You give it up to three names of artists you like, and Gnoosic starts giving you suggestions for more artists you may enjoy.
For each suggestion, you can choose whether you like it, don’t like it, or don’t know it, and the suggestions continue. For each suggestion you can also access a discussion board, and even cooler, see it on a music map.
The band you were looking at will appear in the middle, with other, similar bands floating all around it. You can use this to find music that is similar to music you already know you like. After finding some names that look interesting, you can use other services to find the actual music.
Looking for more online music sources? Check out:
- 10 Music Search Engines To Discover Cool Music, Musicians & Great Bands
- Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online
- The 4 Best Websites To Check Out New Music Releases First
Do you know of more cool ways to discover new music? Share in the comments!
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