A self-confessed internet illiterate cum nostalgic music junkie begrudgingly embarks on a journey through internet radio and
a plethora of playlists to produce a guide to music websites.
Do you have a few minutes?   BY SAM HOUGHTON


I listen to the blues and still jack off manually. I guess I’m stubborn, just another bimbo stuck in the sixties, in a generation I never witnessed. Hippy or not, new things like the internet scare me. It’s too immense and hard to fathom, making me feel like a piss ant in an ocean of piss ants. The thought sometimes occurs to me that one day, everything will be virtual; everything from blow-pops and hot baby-sitters with glasses will be enjoyed lounging back on a lush computer chair while our streets turn to mayhem and gluttony.

For now, until things get too weird, I’m on an assignment. I’m snuggled in a quiet corner of Brooklyn, on the outskirts of the center of the world, snuggled right up next to my computer, sacrificing a few days to explore the musical side of the internet, post Metallica and Napster. Feeling like Francis Drake or Neil Armstrong, I’ve agreed to travel the outer limits of the virtual world, to discover where—and find out how—the internet can help us explore the vast universe of independent music.


Tangible Thoughts

Before I reveal the findings of my journey, allow me to wax nostalgic—some more. While leaving a neighborhood bar late one night, I found myself talking to the DJ. He looked like Santa Clause lugging a huge bag over his shoulder. He had long dreads, felt young and smiled big with raggedy teeth. I mentioned my assignment and his smile faded. He sighed big and proceeded to tell me of his childhood, the days he would relish running out to the record store, buying an album, rummaging through the plastic wrap, smelling the album and finally throwing it on. He told me: “You see this huge bag. These are records I’ve been saving up since I was 7. I’m 40. Think of all that music. Someday, I think there’s gonna be some great virus that wipes out everyone’s computer of their music. What are those people that have been downloading music and buying them on Apple, what are they gonna do? They’re gonna be left with nothing.”

There’s some stubborn, blues listening words in there that ring true for me. I miss the great chats at the record stores with the old bearded freaks behind the counters, the album art, the track listings, the band thank yous, the lyrics, the mere physical presence of something you own. The colorful, dust-covered piles of albums and CD cases lining the shelves of your Dead Head uncle’s basement? It’s all slipping out of the hands of our fine culture and being replaced by .99 cent MP3 files or ripped megabytes, little blips in the main frame of some monstrous computer database, a database only a few geeks comprehend.

What’s going to happen to throwing on the entire album of Dark Side of the Moon or Exile on Main Street, cranking the volume to ten and letting it all play? No skipping songs, just letting it happen, letting the artist illustrate what he meant to illustrate. What’s gonna happen to the radio DJ, those unique show business voices that boom out of car stereos and apartments with the spirit and soul of the land? K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies and Mr. Senior Love Daddy are fast becoming relics.


Love & Music in the New Age

The truth of the matter is we’re coming into a new age. It’ll probably be the end of us, but it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t run with it, take it to the limit. And, strangely, as I wade my way through these websites and find myself listening to tio_jam’s “Sound of Kittens Dying” mix on 8tracks.com, I actually find myself enjoying the Fleet Foxes. A revelation of sorts. Strange. This “Ragged Wood” song has something going, like Crosby, Stills and Nash but more on cloud nine and smoother and really something. I feel alright listening to it, not too self-conscious. It has the sound of kids laughing and playing. And then there’s this Cat Power lady singing on the mix, and then the Grizzly Bears or something, and then this Animal Collective thing, all 21st century songs that somehow I enjoy. Very weird: to think that our generation is finally coming together with a sound is wonderful. Perhaps there’s something to be said for this internet thing. Perhaps I’m coming around. And why not?

I first heard of Pandora (the most popular internet radio station) a little while back, when I was in a cartoon animation class where hours upon hours of work had to be put in to create very short and basic movies. My classmates and I would spend our Thursday nights frustrated, bent over desks with pens and paper, drawing out hundreds of drawings while our friends outside did the usual college thirsty Thursday thing. Music was necessary. It was better than coffee—fuel, fooling us into enjoying our work. Sitting next to me in class was a beautiful, talented artist named Maria. The pictures she could draw—man, they were something. I had just started listening to Otis Redding, so, naturally, I plugged him into the Pandora “create your own station” box. To make a long story short, I fell in love with the girl…naturally. I never told her, of course. She knew that someday we’d reunite (if you’re reading this Maria, write an email to the editor and he’ll hook us up), but that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is to ask if it was simply Mr. Redding and his fellow contemporaries that made me fall in love with this cute little South American artist, because that’s certainly possible. Or, was it the genius behind the controls of Pandora.com, a corporate monster pulling levers and pushing buttons, sitting behind a big mahogany desk in front of a million computer screens, spreading love across the internet with a big, malicious grin?

Very possible, indeed.



The Sites: In Numbers, In Words

The assignment I spoke of several paragraphs above? Are you still with me? I considered several factors in assessing the more popular music sites below and I've rated them on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best possible rating.



• RULES – The less rules, the better. For example, many sites limit the number of times you skip tracks...not a good thing.
• EASE OF USE – self-explained
• COMMUNITY – The degree to which a site promotes/presents it's online community.
• FUN FACTOR – self-explained
• ADS – Fewer ads, better rating.
• INFORMATION – Presents accompanying information about artists and albums.
• SELECTION OF MUSIC – range of music, obscure, not obscure, genres, etc.
• SOUND QUALITY – of the track recordings
• PERSONALIZATION – The ability for a user to personalize his/her experience.
• HORIZON BROADENING – The level at which a site engenders the listener to hear new music.
• OVERALL RATING – The final grade.


Pandora.com – Create your own radio station, basically, just for yourself. Taking cues from the music you identify, Pandora draws from it's database of music and analysis (see The Music Genome Project). The range of music is great and has the sound quality to match. Pandora is awesome for finding new music and  learning about music. Where it lacks, though, like most of these sites, is the personalization factor. You can’t have it all, but Pandora is close.

8tracks.com – Awesome site! For some reason, it attracts people who listen to good music. It’s function and navigation appears simple and looks good, not cluttered like many sites. If you invest a little bit of time, you can find some good DJs to find new, good music. It’s fun, too, making your own mixes from your iTunes and throwing them on the site. They don’t muddle the site with pointless knick knacks and profiling options. Maybe that’s how they keep away the loonies.

Last.fm – Basically, it's Pandora except they look through your iTunes and play accordingly. Pandora should be used as a refresher from your own music. Last.fm does allow for creating your own stations as well, but it doesn’t have the range of music found on Pandora.

Blip.fm – Think Twitter, but, for music. I gave it a 3 because Twitter is too much for me and I don’t think I’m the only one. The website’s pretty chaotic, too. Things are happening too fast. Twitter sucks unless you invest your time in it. If you invest your time in Blip and enjoy Twitter, this site’s for you. You can get to know different DJs and give people credit for posting good songs. If you invest enough time, you can gain all kinds of credit and feel good about yourself as a DJ.

Mixpod – Don't waste your time with this site if you like good music. Most of  the users/DJs listen to fall out Boy or Slipknot. No offense to them, but the website is dry. While there's a lot of music offered, the sound quality usually sucks and don’t come here if you’re trying to find new music. Songza or Grooveshark are better for finding songs with higher sound quality, and both have better layouts. However, if you’re looking for ringtones, this is Mixpod’s standout. They try to make it fun by giving you profile options, like marking your playlist with a pink bunny, which I find pretty lame. It seems like a kid site. You can link with your blog or myspace site here pretty easily which is a bonus.

Hypem.com – Hypem gets a 5 for the community factor because it’s purpose is to expose the better music blogs. You can listen to lots of new music find someone writing about it online. Maybe not any song, but you'll find lot's of new music and some classics, too. Great site, leading the way in a blogger revolution in the music world. Should continue to be a big hit. (See, also, Cowbell.fm.)

 “To put it simply, the Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high.” – Hype Machine's description

JustHearIt.com; Grooveshark.com; Songza.com – All, essentially, do the same thing: nothing too complicated, and no community factor to worry about, just a straight up search engine for music to make playlists for yourself. These are good in their simplicity. I’d say Grooveshark is the best because of it’s simple layout.

Sad Steve.com – The bonus here is the percolator tab. Every 15 minutes, the percolator page is reloaded with “What’s fresh in the world of music.” Gets a four for community because your own band can be added to the website, plus, the point of the website is to be public radio, totally funded by the visitors of the site. I gave it a four because it’s not as easy as Pandora to find different music—it doesn’t broaden one's horizons as well as some of the other sites. They have every kind of music (you could see as this as a pro or con) which can clutter the website. But there’s some great stuff that the Percolator highlights. The site is said to have been created by angry teens peeved at the idea that Apple is basically in control of the music industry, an industry that cares more for technology than music.

AirMp3.net – Your basic search engine for music. Has a wide range and the sound quality is usually good. Can link to blogs and other music sites pretty easily, including sites where you can buy mp3s for real cheap: a single Creedence mp3 is going for 15 cents, the entire 50 track album for $7.50 (doesn’t add up but that’s what they say).

Playlist.com – Similar to 8track but much bigger in terms of popularity, apparently. Different from 8track in that they provide the songs for you, instead of uploading your own mp3s. They say there are 40,000,000 + music lovers on using the site. Not sure how that’s possible but that’s what they say. It’s basically Facebook for people who like making playlists. You can invite friends and chat on the site, and whatever else you can do on Facebook. Problem is, with so many people, it’s hard to find good playlists. Plus, it’s not laid out quite as well as 8track. There’s a bunch of chat rooms that just get ridiculous, a bunch of conservative honkies talking about health care. An 8Track for the masses?

Imeem.com – Trying to do it all here. Has places for new and not so new bands to put their music, like myspace. Has the option for creating groups with different users of the site. You can link blogs with other users, too. They let you rank songs and, as a result, they set you up with music that you’ll supposedly like—and users you supposedly like. Basically, all the ideas are there for this site, but they fall short in coming through with what they promise. I still get mostly random music that I don’t like in my suggestions box.


Real Community?

After doing all this research and coming up with this thing called the community factor, I might even feel more inclined to race up to outdoors and live my life as a recluse. It’s strange to think of what would happen if this so called 8tracks site had a big party at a bar of some kind. Would people go? Would they leave their screens and easy-chairs, wade through traffic and show they’re faces? Or, would they be too freaked, too paranoid of revealing their true selves to the public? I’ve realized that the community most of these sites boast are based solely around their own site. It’s 100 percent virtual, like those Playstation zones you can go on the new Playstation: walk around buying fake clothes with your own real money and talking to other virtual characters. They’d be happy having you sit there all day, talking with Johnny Skidmarks about aborted fetuses. Sure the music is real, but it’s still strange. Perhaps, The Matrix was on to something after all. I would love to one day shake the hand of tio_jam’s and thank him for the mix he made, instead of sending a little blip on message on his 8track page. The internet really is the way to harness a musical revolution of sorts, something our country needs, but we should be wary of this whole virtual thing.

Sam Houghton, also, contributes to Knocksfromtheunderground.com.