Online Music Resources
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I love music. I love to listen, to sing, and dance to it. I think music is one of the highest expressions of our beingness, and some believe, it is what created the world. I have included here only a few of the musical resources available on the web, so don’t stop here…there is a lot more to explore!
Gathering and Listening:
*Station Ripper will allow you to rip music off of the Internet radio stations for your own musical collection. There is the free version, and of course, the upgraded versions which cost $19.99 to $29.99. The basic version works just as well, but requires a little more work on your part.
*SHOUTcast is my favorite resource for Internet radio. I was paying for Live365, but the quality of the music had begun to pale in comparison to what was available for free. Though there are some stations available on Live365 at 128k, most come in around 64k. I like high quality, and most of what is offered at SHOUTcast is 128k, and as high as 192k!
*PANDORA is very cool, but does have it’s limitations. It works by creating a station based off of a favorite song, or artist. This is very neat if you are in the mood for one particular kind of flavor. However, the problem arises if you are wanting to listen to anything independent, as most of their music is pretty mainstream. If I create a station for example based off of Type O Negative, I will have a very limited selection of music, because most gothic music is independent. They will often throw in a bunch of music that does not fit the predominantly independent genre, because there is a limited supply under that category.
*FilterMusic does not have the quantity of stations that SHOUTcast has, but all of the stations they do have, are guaranteed to be 128k or higher.
*Last.fm is a music social networking site. You download their software to create your own stations, load music to your iPod, etc. It specializes in independent music artists, and when I looked up ‘goth’, I got 982 results, and, I found my favorite music artists. I have never actually used this service as of yet, but it seems pretty cool.
Fun:
Tony-b Machine is just a fun little online toy to make your own music. Nothing fancy or for the expert, just a little amusement for the novice out there.
Music-Map will aid you in mapping out similar artists based on one particular band/singer. Merely type in the name you are interested in, and a map will arise, showing you artists with similar styles. I typed in Grace Slick, and got about 40 results.
Musicians:
*8notes has a wide variety of sheet music for every musical instrument you can think of, and lessons.
*Gootar has a chord generator and lessons.
*Fretplay has bass and guitar tabs, plus lessons.
*Metronome Online has a program to help you keep your beat.
*Cyberfret gives free guitar lessons in a wide variety of styles…lots of information!
Lyrics:
To test how good these lyrics sites were, I typed in Jack Off Jill, if I didn’t strike gold, I left it out of the list.
I hope you enjoy these resources, and if you have any to share…please do!
Picture by Angel-13
5 Comments
Michael Forian
August 9th, 2008
at 6:09pm
I put Blip.fm on and let it play away! Great songs (most of the time)!
Forian
shadowmyth
August 9th, 2008
at 6:57pm
Thanks Michael! I went over and created a station out of Dio, Camel, and Pink Floyd…boy did I get some surprises! Definitely has a different twist from Pandora, as it includes other listener’s music stations.
I found really there was only one drawback, when I turned the page and discovered it resets the station. The problem was that I had to re-listen to the music in the exact same order again. and I couldn’t find an option to scramble the music.
I did however hear songs I have never heard before! Thanks again!
leftystrat
August 9th, 2008
at 9:51pm
I have yet to find a music recommendation service that made any sense to me (apparently they’re just fine for most of the populace).
When I type in Jeff Beck, there’s just NO way I should get REM as a result. And that’s one of the less egregious ones :)
kovacz
August 10th, 2008
at 1:43am
Hahaha… “rage against the machine” gave me ac/dc…. Still, nice starting point…
nice tips nonetheless :)
ShadowMyth
August 10th, 2008
at 10:31am
Lefty & Kovacz,
Yeah, I can agree there. However, it is difficult for some singers/groups to be replicated, and it can be hard to find bands that are similar. Grace slick for example, there just aren’t any women singers truly like her…so how do you make a music station based off of her? Rush is another good one, there just aren’t any bands out there truly like Rush…it just isn’t possible really.
They may suck at putting the stations together, but I think often times they are pretty limited by what is available. I guess it also depends on the musical knowledge of those creating the program’s basis.