Music

3 Ways to Find Good Music Online

September 16, 2013 By 901am

Even if you have an extensive music collection, there’s still nothing better than discovering a new band and instantly falling in love with them.

Anyone who says there isn’t any good music being made nowadays just isn’t looking. In fact, finding new music is super-easy with all the music sharing websites there are, and it’s made it easier for smaller bands to find a large audience.

There’s an entire world of music waiting for you to discover — a lot of it available for free — as long as you know where to look.

Here’s three great ways to discover new (and free) music.

1. Explore Bandcamp
Bandcamp is a great site that lets musicians share and sell their music and retain a lot of control over the pricing. By searching the site by genre, you can see which singles and albums are being downloaded, and most of it is high-quality and independently produced or on a small label.

One of the best features of Bandcamp is their pay what you want model, which allows musicians to choose to post their EPs, singles, and even full albums and let their listeners decide how much they will pay for them.

If you like what you hear, you can support a band as much as you want, both monetarily and by sharing their music on your social media profiles.

2. Try Spotify
If you aren’t already on Spotify, you can get a free account through Facebook. With the radio function, you can create a station based on a song, artist, or playlist and get related tracks that you’re likely to love.

You can also see what your friends are listening to and subscribe to their playlists to see what new discoveries they’re making.

3. Search your local music scene
Rather than blindly searching for specific bands, check out sites dedicated to the local music scene. Not only will you find shows that you can actually go to, but it will direct you to the best up-and-coming bands in your area. Or just check out sites for other cities known for having a great music scene.

There are hundreds of sites and blogs that are in the know about which bands have the potential to be big; then you can say you knew them when, and be the one to introduce your friends to great unknown bands.

Legal ways to get music online for your mobile phones

December 15, 2012 By Angus Shaw

Mobile phones have developed and evolved into such powerful machines that it is now packed full of features and capabilities that used to be handled by separate devices. For example, many mobile phone owners have ditched their dedicated digital audio players and now use their phones to listen to music instead.

There are many sources online to get music that you can then download to your mobile phone. We’re not talking about illegal means of getting files but rather the legal sources for getting music. Below are some of the best sources for getting legal music files online: [Read more…]

Microsoft Working On a New Music Streaming Service?

February 20, 2012 By 901am

There are indications that Microsoft is preparing to launch a new music service/application that will be similar to what Spotify, Pandora, MOG or Rdio offers. Microsoft is reportedly talking with different record labels about developing the said app/service.

Experts say that Microsoft’s plan is to release the service as part of the applications or services associated with the Xbox 360. It does not intend to use its Zune brand name because it did not gain traction with consumers. [Read more…]

Google Music comes to iOS via Safari

September 9, 2011 By 901am

Google Music is still in its beta and not a lot of people are getting it as yet. Itâ€™s not even available in other countries. But the guys at Google still want more people experience what they think may be a game changer in entertainment and cloud computing so they have finally released a version that is compatible with Appleâ€™s iOS.

The new version of Google Music can be accessed on devices that carry iOS. But this is not a completely separate app â€“ the access will go through the Safari browser. This is a mixed bag for some people. Others prefer a separate app so they can access Google servers even without the browser, while others want their access to be done through the browser so they wonâ€™t have to install any extraneous apps.

The browser interface actually acts similar to an app. Users can slide between the songs and as a nifty feature, the songs you are playing will continue to do so even when the browser is closed. Of course, browsing through the library and searching for songs can be done through the browser as well.

Google Music is not the first to market with a music streaming service â€“ it already has competition from Spotify and other music streaming services and soon from Appleâ€™s own iCloud service. Google Music has to make unique product decisions to distinguish it from its competitors.