[FearSC549]

repost below

 

[FearSC549]

For electronic music, DI.fm
 
As for general, grooveshark.com is great

 

[sonitus mirus]

MOG is great.  The 320 kbps mp3 streams sound very nice at home on my PC>USB>NuForce Icon HDP Amp/DAC>Denon HD5000s and at work over WiFi or 4G (Wimax) with an Android HTC EVO>Analog output>HeadRoom Micro Amp>Audio-Technica ATH-50 setup.
 
With MOG, I can save any album or individual song to a "Favorites" list, and this list can be accessed and updated from any computer or device that can get to MOG's service.  Any updates I make at home on my PC show up on my HTC EVO phone or my iPad, and I can add songs on my phone that will appear when I log into MOG on my PC.  This synchronization is important to me. 
 
The Android app I use with my phone is far superior in functionality to the browser-based internet GUI for listening to my saved "Favorites".  The Android app will randomly pick 250 songs from my "Favorites" list, and it will cycle through all of them and add newer songs while removing recently played songs from the list that it generates.  It seems very effective, and it does a great job of letting me hear all of my music now that I have built-up quite an extensive list of songs in my library.  The PC version does not have a similar option available, and I have to manually put each song into the player if I only want to hear my "Favorites".
 
For music discovery, the radio is really neat with MOG, as it has a slider that you can adjust from "Aritist Only", which will only play songs from the same artist you have selected, to multiple settings in between that vary the number of similar sounding artists.  So it acts a bit like Pandora, although it uses genres, and not Pandora's algorithm for matching acoustical characteristics, but it generally works very well.  Even at the maximum "similar artist" setting, there does not seem to be enough variation when compared to the radio from my Rhapsody music service.  It is still the best way that I have found to discover new music, and I can play an awesome find over and over again if I like, plus I can go play an album or the entire discography from a newly discovered artist.  Any keepers can be saved to my "Favorites" in mid-play, so that I can listen to it later on any number of my MOG-enabled devices. (Roku media player, PC, netbook, iPad, phone, etc.)
 
While I have not had a reason to do so, there is an option to download tracks to an Android phone or iPhone when connected to WiFi, so that you can play back high quality songs when you are not online or in an area that you could stream the music.  These downloaded tracks have DRM that locks the songs if your subscription is cancelled or you do not connect the device to MOG's service before your scheduled subscription renewal date expires.
 
It's not the only thing I use for my music fix, but I use it more than anything else because the sound quality is great and it is easy to access my music.

 

[rroseperry]

oddly enough NPR comes up with good new groups. I just found Abigail Washburn through them. Banjo player, but not simply roots.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Yes, NPR is a great source! I've picked up quite a few CDs after hearing artists profiled there.

I also find a lot of very good recommendations here.

Another good place to poke around is archive.org. Free and legal downloads, so why not explore?

Similarly, I love browsing through old vinyl at junk stores. If something looks interesting, I'll buy it. This is the best reason to own a turntable.

 

[johangrb]

Metacritic.com occasionally.

 

[Meliboeus]

progarchives.com
metal-archives.com

That's where i usually look for new material, but i've found plenty of interesting suggestions here on the forums as well.

 

[Snag1e]

Indieshuffle.com , Stereomood.com , Pandora , and Soundcloud.com =]

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Spotify and the playlist generator Spotibot. If you don't have access to Spotify, Music Map is another very clever 'if you like this, try this...' site. Otherwise, as mentioned ProgArchives.com is superb and covers all aspects of the genre.

 

[bigshot]

Most people look for music similar to music they already like. I do the opposite. I usually pick a brand new type of music, then dive into the obvious names. Then by reading about the artists and their music, it leads to more names to explore. I've gone through dozens of kinds of music this way, from opera to country music.

 

[WisdomListens]

Along with random classical music picks at the library I try and grab one or two random genre CDs there as well.
This forum has also helped me with finding new music.

 

[WisdomListens]

Quote:

oddly enough NPR comes up with good new groups. I just found Abigail Washburn through them. Banjo player, but not simply roots.

I was just on my search to find music with a banjo in it and stumbled on your post. Thanks!

 

[Redcarmoose]

In the past you would get your fingers dirty by going though records. The covers are big and you go with your instinct. This way the band producers and the record company could make a cool cover that you may relate to on a certain level. The independents could put all kinds of stuff that could spark interest. There was no way to hear the records when they were new. At times the record store would have a copy they could put on, other times you had to wait till you got home to see if your instincts were right.
 
This way works with Cd's now. Other ways are great but there is just a great hunter instinct which makes you feel great when you have made a find. I miss the tactile response when just looking through on line. You want to find music your friends do not know about so you can be way cooler than they are. Heavy Metal magazines also have great reviews.
 
When looking for old music, books seem to be helpful. Old music is like gold mining where you just keep following the vein for years.

 

[bigshot]

When I was very young, record stores still had listening booths. The records weren't shrink wrapped. You could take them into a booth and play them to see if you liked them. More civilized times.

 

[Long813]

I'll have to take a few of these site to get more tunes. I usually search for "Flac blogs" and then sort through all the music, I'll download it and try it out. I'm quite open to music, and when some old blues albums are uploaded I don't think I can say no.