My CD player at home isn't working, I'm not home that much anyway, and I try to drive as little as possible. As a result, I'm often not near "normal" sources of music, like my CD collection or a radio (radio reception in my office is poor, and the selection of radio stations these days is even poorer.) So where do I listen to music? On the computer. So I thought I'd write in praise of those sites that make it possible for me to get some good tunes and not go completely insane.
(None of these guys are paying me to say any of the following, by the way. I'm just feeling enthusiastic.)
Emusic
I first stumbled upon these guys when I was trying to find a song I'd heard on KALX (OK, not all radio stations are crappy)... it was this obscure but funky Ethiopian song. I tracked it down and found it was part of a series called Ethiopiques... in record stores for $15, or on Emusic for $8.99. I happily bought and downloaded it. About a year later, Ghost World came out and I decided I had to get the soundtrack. Once again, Emusic came to the rescue... but now it was a subscription-only deal. However, they did have a free-trial offer (100 songs at the time). I signed up, and when I'd gotten to 100 songs, I just kept subscribing. And they've kept adding new albums!
The weakness of the service is perhaps its greatest strength: with a few exceptions, they simply do not have the "big names" like Madonna, Eminem, Snoop Dog, Dixie Chicks, Pink... you get the picture. What they do have is amazing assortment of independent labels and musicians, and they just keep adding more. Interpol, Cat Power, Amy Rigby (you've probably never heard of her, but you really should have... there's no justice)... and even some bigger names like the Hives, Badly Drawn Boy, and 50 Cent. They recently added a bunch of albums from the Beggar's Group labels... Cocteau Twins! Stereolab! Love and Rockets! Needless to say, I'm having a grand old time, all for $10 or $15 bucks a month for as many albums as I want (within reason... a few people have gotten the boot for overdoing it. I haven't hit that point.)
For some reason, though, whenever the press writes about online music services, they always talk about PressPlay and the like... you know, the services that charge you $10/month plus x amount for each track you stream, or each track you download or burn to disk. It's all very complicated, and very pointless to me. I think Emusic has it right and they don't. But will users find in large enough numbers to make it successful?
Boombastic Radio
An internet-only station broadcasting out of the U.K., Boombastic has been my favorite discovery from ShoutCast. They play a melange of jazz, funk, world music, hip-hop... anything from Nina Simone to De La Soul to Feta Kuti. I can't listen to streaming audio at work, but at home I'll often put these guys on. They don't charge a cent, but if you donate to them, they'll send you cool mix CDs.
Epitonic
I don't know who these guys are or how they make money, but this site has great information on various alt music, as well as mp3s. You won't get the whole album, but you will get a couple of songs — not just 30-second clips — from many groups. It's a fun place to explore.
Trouser Press
These guys published a magazine, and then released a few compilations of alt album reviews, and then went away. But now they've generously made all the reviews from the books available on the web. What a great reference. I wish the 70s/80s material was integrated with the 90s; it seems silly to have two different databases for them. But this is a quibble, really.
Pitchfork Media
I stumbled onto this site recently; they have a great collection of music reviews, and their music news stories betray a sense of humor.
I also like (but not as strongly):
Q Magazine
IUMA
Amazon's online music section
KPIG (used to be essential listening for me but now they charge and you have to listen through RealAudio)
Virgin Radio
