Our Mission

I'm starting this blog so people who are interested in downloading music on the internet can get a good idea of where to start. The number of download platforms, file formats, and types of sites that offer music downloads has grown exponentially in the last year making it difficult for people to find what they are looking for. On this blog you will be able to read and review the websites on the internet that provide people with music such as subscription based sites, search engines, peer - peer networks, music archives, internet radio, music communities, and non subscription download platforms. Please feel free to add your first hand experiences, preferences, and grievances as we try to make it easier for people to download music on a site that suits their specific needs.

Live365.com - (Internet Radio)

Live365.com is an internet radio site that allows users to create their own stations and broadcast personalized content. Some more established am and fm stations also broadcast their signal via live365 in addition to standard airwaves. Live365 relies on MP3 streaming and can be played through a variety of media players. The live365 player can be downloaded for more optimal services like enabling live in home broadcasts. Unlike many other internet radio sites, live365 is best searched by genre which produces results categorized by niche stations like jazz, country, blues, and pop. Other internet radio sites like pandora.com and last.fm are more concentrated on personalized radio play via playlist recommendation and and user tag systems while live365 focuses more on niche oriented personalized broadcasting. A great find for anyone looking to start their own radio project or interested in other people's indie radio broadcasts.
Live365.com
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Last.fm - (Internet Radio)

A personlaized radio site that formats your playlist based on what you search and play most frequently. Last.fm is a scrobbler which means songs played are logged and recommendations are calculated based on other's playlist similarities to your own. Warner music's has given the go for Last.fm to make available their entire collections. There are various stations and groups cenetered around music styles and artists.
A key charactersitc of last.fm is the unique way in which the site's algorithm finds new music based on previous song choices; the site has a built in suggestion maker. Last.fm is a great way to get aquainted with new artists similar to tagged favorite artists in the past.
Last.fm
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Pandora.com - (Internet Radio)

An automated music recommendation and internet radio service. The way Pandora works is you type in a favorite album or artist and Pandora creates a playlist based on your suggestion. Pandora will initially play the most cliche, generalized stereotype of your favorite artist and progress deeper into their catalogue along with mixing in other artists of similar genre and appeal. This service is free and can be used by anyone. One of the downsides to pandora is their binding liscenses inhibit you, the user, to skip through more than three or four songs at a time. This internet radio strikes me as a unique and effective tool for business owners who need extended playtime as wells anyone who wants to stream free hand picked music. Upon, using Pandora for an extensive period of time, I realized that their liscensed content is limited, making the site great for sampling music, but not great for music afficianados who desire the more complete catalogue for their favorite artists.
Pandora.com
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AOL Music Now - (Subscription Service)

Free 30 - day trial with a $9.95/ month subscription to stream over 1 million songs. Like Itunes, you can purchase songs to own for .99 and albums for $9.99. Music now is not compatible with Linux or MAc and only works with Windows XP. The songs downloads are fast and can be transferred to any non Ipod MP3 device. You get access to thousands of radio stations which are chosen based on your favorite artists and heavier downloads. The greatest thing about this site is that it has an extensive trial period which can be a huge incentive for someone who wants to browse around the site and get a feel for it. Also, the searching tools allow for a more optimized search for artist, genre, and categories.
Core disincentives include the site's Microsoft biases, to own music you have to pay what you would at Itunes, and purchased songs can only be converted to an MP3 player.
Core incentives are, there is an extended trial period, faster downloads than most subscription sites, and you can listen to up to a million songs on your computer without having to purchase them. AOL Music Now has some of the right ideas in allotting more freedoms to their consumers in terms of searching and sampling music, but does not quite beat out other subscription sites which provide access to massive databases without having to purchase songs for .99.
AOLMUSICNOW
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Myspace Music - (Social Music Community)

A community for bands and artists to listen to each others music and recruit fans through friend networks. Myspace makes it easy for bands to advertise upcoming shows/events, sample new music, and reach out to un - tapped audiences who would have had a more difficult time engaging themselves with the artist without the use of online networking. Due to myspace’s proven success as a site that allows bands to reach their audiences instantaneously along with its ability to function as a prediction market for record companies, many up and coming bands use myspace to launch their careers.
On an artists webspace you can listen to streaming content whether you are a user with an account or visiting the site. To add a song you must have an active myspace account and to download a song you must have an account and the artist's permission through their personal settings. Myspace is a great place to actively support bands and find extensive information. Now that snocap ( end to end digital music distributor) has teamed up with Myspace, you can purchase songs and full albums based on the artist's price setting discretion.
Myspace.com
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Purevolume.com - (Social Music Community)

A music community with free user accounts and web page set ups for artists and non - artist users. Purevolume caters in large to rock, indie rock, and its sub genres with other segmented communities of varying musical genres. On a band's personal webspace you can stream songs or add them to your purevolume playlist; this allows you to access the song whenever you want through purevolume. Purevolume is a large social network with close to 300,000 accounts including a line up of signed, reputable artists who use the site to communicate and interact with fans. If you are big into indie - rock this site may be one of the best sources available for getting information on shows, touring, merchandise, and anything to do with your favorite artists. On each separate band account their is a feature that provides information on how to purchase full cds. Also, the site provides news feeds, community forum, a peer review system, and an optimized media player with a play tracker.
Purevolume.com
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