Web2.0 is taking the world of music to a whole new platform. While internet service providers are throttling P2P traffic and the recording industry has its head up its ... well, you know ... music lovers are finding other ways to share tunes. I can't stress how important it is today for listeners to fight for their right to tune in and turn it up. You can read more about the death of the music industry here.
In the meanwhile, here are three fabulous options for online listening and musical networking.
1. Last.fm
Last.fm's subtitle says it best: "The Social Music Revolution." I came across Last.fm almost a year ago, and it has made my life sheer musical bliss ever since. This site syncs with your computer's music player or Ipod to track the music you're listening to. Once you've built up a library, Last.fm offers recommendations based on the artists you enjoy and what it thinks you might like, but have never heard before. You can also "love" tracks to create a personalized radio station of all your favorites. And with Last.fm's "Discovery Mode," you can listen to music by artists you like that you've never played before. You can view charts for your favorite artists, albums and tracks, which are broken down by weekly, monthly and overall increments. My friends and I generate our personal top 15 tracks of the year and create mixed albums to share with one another each Christmas, and Last.fm has made the task of narrowing down my true top favorites easy as pie with the overall track charts. Last.fm's social networking aspect allows you to add friends and watch their musical tastes progress, as well. The site also stocks your dashboard with recommended videos and free downloadable full-length tracks, and lets you view your weekly "neighbors" - other Last.fm users who share your musical tastes. Yet another bonus is the handy widgets you can create and place on your MySpace, blog, etc., that show off your favorite artists, albums and songs.
2. Fuzz.com
Fuzz is my new love. I discovered it just yesterday, and am thoroughly enjoying the concept. Fuzz gives new, emerging and independent artists an opportunity to be seen and heard. While Fuzz currently has quite a small community of users, it has the potential to grow and expand. According to the site's FAQs, "Fuzz is a new breed of music company - combining a next-generation music label, a powerful artist promotion platform, and a feature-rich interactive community that engages artists and fans to promote, discover, share, review, influence, buy, and sell music." Users can create a social profile, add favorite artists and users, and listen to select tracks promoted by the artists. You can even add these selected songs to your own personal music library, and then create playlists. These playlists can be used to make a totally cool "mixed tape," for which you select a background, an old-school cassette and case style, and text to label your tape.
3. Songza.com
Songza allows you to search for and listen to any song - and I mean ANY song. This is a brand-new site that just launched today, and I'm quite impressed. Once you've searched for a song, you are given the opportunity to play it, share it, buy it, and rate it. You can also add songs to a playlist, but the list is exhausted once you log off of Songza. Right now, Songza operates on an anonymous platform, with no option to create an account. However, this is an amazing tool to utilize if you'd like to listen to an artist or song you may have never heard before. Check out Songza's interface:
Not all music is created equal, and it should stay that way. Here's to sharing music online and sticking it to the man, who doesn't seem to want us to listen to a thing.
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