Jan 21 2008
Music on Mondays - Premier Edition!
Welcome to my new feature, Music on Mondays! Many of you know that I love music, as evidenced by my participation in mix exchanges, and I like to share all that with you by listing what I’ve sent in for my mixes. I love that it’s a way to find new music. With that, I’m going to talk about where to find new music.
The mix exchanges are a fun, great way to find new stuff, but not everyone has the ability or desire to participate in them. They do require a CD burner, and a bit of cash to purchase blank CDs and postage to send them out (the mailings are about $1.31US, and there are usually 11 to send out, so it adds up). But what you can do is network. Ask your friends, co-workers, and others what kind of music they like and why. As you expand your likings, they will be better able to recommend stuff they think you might like.
Amazon.com is a great one because they have a fairly decent recommendation feature. If you have an account with them and have purchased stuff in the past, they will recommend stuff based on your purchases. Also, they give you the option of editing your recommendations so that items you already own are taken into account, or the weird CD you purchased for your great-uncle when you drew his name in the gift exchange doesn’t come into consideration. Amazon.com has 30-second clips of songs on nearly every CD that they sell, and recently they have started selling some albums in MP3 format and yes, you can buy individual tracks.
The iPod is pretty much the standard when it comes to digital music players. I know the Zune is doing a good job at getting themselves some of that market share, but I have an iPod and would marry it if I could, so all digital music players I talk about will be the iPod. With the iPod there is also iTunes, which is a free download and a great way of organizing your digital music collection. iTunes also will let you upload your CDs to their player (unless you have a copyright-protected CD, which I just avoid in general). iTunes also has a recommendation feature based on purchases and browsing history, there is the iMix feature where people make their own mixes and upload them to iTunes, and their Free Song of the Week. Many people think that if they have iTunes and and iPod that they must purchase music from iTunes, but that is simply not true. You can purchase from other sources and import the music into iTunes. Just go to File > Import > Import File to Library and it will bring the songs you have saved elsewhere on your computer to iTunes. And don’t forget the mixes! This is the program I use to make all my mixes, since it’s so easy to create a new playlist and burn it.
I don’t listen to much commercial radio, because frankly, it pretty much sucks. I listen to CDs in the car or nothing at all. But other sources can be great. I used to listen to Radio Paradise a lot at my old job. They play an eclectic mix of anything and everything. Listening to RP has the potential to do some serious damage to your music budget, because in addition to playing everything under the sun, they have a great database of where to find the music. Click on a song link and you come to the album it’s from along with other albums by that artist and offers a few suggestions.
CD Baby is another great source. They sell music by independent artists, bypassing the record companies and their huge portion of the profits. They have an amazing selection of great music you’re not listening to, and they sell their CDs by actual CD that they will mail you or MP3, which you can upload into iTunes.
Those are my favorite ways to find new music. How do you find new music to listen to?
ooh, this is fun! I like to read music magazines, mostly my boss’s issues of Paste, which comes with a music sampler each month that he kindly brings in to work. I also like CMJ, which also comes with a sampler, and bought my husband a subscription for Christmas.
I also like to peruse music blogs, there are a ton out there, I am partial to ones that post MP3s (for sampling purposes, mind you) and especially those which focus on indie pop.
I also work at a record store, which makes it really easy peasy to find new music since I can just preview anything that comes into the store that has appealing artwork or an interesting name.
Another way I find bands is by paying attention to openers when I go to shows, I like bands that are less mainstream, and so their tourmates are usually similar in style. I also pay attention when watching movies and if something catches my ear, I pay attention to the credits or check the song list on imdb.com. If worse comes to worse, I remember a lyric snippet and google it.
Sorry for the lengthy comment, I love music!
Amy, no worries about the long comment! We have a great store here in Vegas, Zia Records, that has lots of listening stations out and a huge local music section. Going to shows is really expensive here, though - the least expensive one I went to was $30, and I was floored that it was that cheap. Usually it’s past $50, which gets hard on the budget. I’d love to live in a town with much smaller venues and a bigger local music scene.
Must. Subscribe. To. Paste.
90% of my music listening is Sirius Satellite Radio (Octane 20 for new stuff, Lithium 24 when I’m in the mood for 90s alternative). The other 10% is CDs.
Ah yes, satellite radio. Boyfriend has Sirius, but it’s wired into his pickup truck, which we hardly ever use since it’s a gas hog. When we do start it up to make sure it still works, Boyfriend likes Blue Collar Comedy. I don’t get a choice there (unless my car breaks and I have to drive the truck!)