How to Find Music on the Internet

If you've read this blog over the last few weeks, you've probably noticed the "What I'm Listening To..." widget that appears in the right hand column of this site. It's a tool provided by Amazon that allows me to display some of the cds I'm enjoying in case somebody wants to go and preview them or decides to buy one based on my recommendation. Somebody recently asked me how I even hear about some of the bands that have been recommended there given the fact that the radio pretty much plays the same 30-40 songs over and over again, there's no M on MTV, etc. Today, I'll share with you a couple of ways that I learn about new music and then I'll let you in on some secrets that you can use to find music to 'sample' on the internet.

There are a number of cool sites popping up all over the internet that allow you to listen to music online, tell the site whether you like the songs or not, and then get recommendations for new music based on what you've indicated. A couple of the sites that I use are:

All of these services work in pretty much the same way. Each streams music to you over the internet and then, based on what you like and don't like, begins making recommendations to you for new music. Definitely try those out.

Now - what do you do if you find some new music that you like but you're not sure you want to go right out and buy the cd? There are several alternatives - some I recommend and others I do not. I know my sister and her family subscribe to Yahoo Music - a service that allows you to download music and put it on your IPod, etc. My problem with that site is that you never 'own' the music. As soon as you stop your subscription, the files stop working. It's essentially like renting the songs. You could go to ITunes and pay $0.99 per song - but that still doesn't address the fact that you're not sure whether or not you really like this new artist or not and you probably don't want to pay for the download until you're sure you do.

So - please keep in mind that my posting here is purely informational in nature - what you do with this information is not my responsibility. That said, there are ways for you to seek other means of obtaining the music. Give it a couple listens, check out a couple more songs, decide whether or not you want to buy the music, and then DELETE the files you're sampling. Here's how to go about finding those files to sample.

Many people on the internet are into music and many people write about it on their blogs. There are now search engines available that will scan the 'blogosphere' looking for MP3 files that people post to their blogs. The best one that I know of is:

Go to Seeqpod, enter an artist or song name, and simply let the engine search for hits. The results look like this:

As you can see, Seeqpod has gone all over and found sites that have Vanessa Carlton songs on them. I can simply click the little 'audio' icon and listen to the songs. Or, if I'd like to 'sample'
them, I can hover over the http address, write it down, and go get the MP3 directly by simply entering that address into my web browser. I prefer Seeqpod for finding songs that I want to listen to online. If I really want the MP3 file, I use Google. Here's what you do. Go to Google
and enter the following:

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" mp3 "pearl jam"

This command will find open directories with mp3 files with Pearl Jam. Obviously you can change the band name or file type to better define your search.

You could substitute whatever song or artist you're looking for in place of Pearl Jam (keep the quotes). Google goes out and looks for directories on the internet that have Pearl Jam in them with MP3 files in the directory. You'll get a variety of results - I tend to stay away from any of the sites that look foreign (you can tell by looking at the site name - if it ends in .ru or .jp or something like that, don't go to it). Look through the hits you've gotten from Google and start exploring. You may have to look in a couple of different sites to find the specific song you're
seeking. Once you find what you're looking for, right click on the file name, select 'Save Target As', and save the MP3 off to your hard drive. It looks like this:

There you have it - several ways to find new music and several ways to either listen to the music online or 'sample' the music for yourself.

Enjoy.