I use Slacker (http://www.slacker.com). It's free. I like their stations and shows and keep finding music that I want to buy there. I don't have many ways of finding new music (friends mostly) that don't annoy me. This I like.
I swear by Spotify. You can custom create radio stations based off of artists, albums, or tracks; there are admin-created playlists based on genre/mood/whatever; and there are frequent recommendations based on artists you already listen to. Its "related artists" are a good way to explore, as well.
I also use www.last.fm (music + data visualization = everything I've ever wanted) to track my listening habits and explore related artists. It also has very comprehensive concert listings.
I'm too lazy to sign up for Spotify (if I want to listen to something specific, I usually go to YouTube), and I have multiple Pandora stations to suit my mood/the season. You start with a seed band/song and then you can add diversity by adding other band/songs you like, and then they use their algorithms and your feedback to refine the station further (you can give a thumb's up or a thumb's down on anything they play). The occasional ads are annoying and mastered at high levels (ow), but I've discovered more fun and completely random music of all eras using it that I have grown very fond.
I use Pandora too, and it works just fine for my non-techno-savvy musical needs. I've set up a few stations:
Brick House (funktastic) Serenity (as in Godsmack, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) This is Not a Love Song (actually all love songs) One Last Drink (pub music, bagpipes) Deia (yoga and trance music)
My work station contains a big subset of novelty songs, so every now and then I get Weird Al, the Marx Brothers, and dirty songs sung by Mae West. It's awesome!
I am also a spotify girl. I use it almost exclusively. Also use last.fm scrobbler for tracking, as mentioned above.
I am also fond of 8tracks (http://8tracks.com/) because it is searchable by mood. "relaxing indie sunday" and then there's umpty playlists. "angry workout" Etc.
Further editing to add: also big on spotify for me is the ability to see what friends are listening to (and make a playlist of that), share playlists, etc.
I find a lot of new music via other people's playlists (both on spotify and 8tracks) and that's more effective for me than the pandora algorithm, which i gave up on years ago.
You can tell some people really spend some time crafting their playlists. I love it so much. But I'm bad because I only use 8tracks for listening - and i'll take stuff i find on there and then find it and make playlists on spotify.
I love Spotify a lot! I quit using Pandora when it gave me Kanye West and Eminem as hard rock. I figured the fine people at Pandora didn't know what the hell they were doing at that point :/ Spotify has been awesome!
I use Google Play, which gives me access to their entire library of music. Not free. I listen all day at work, plus with commuting and a bluetooth connection to my car stereo, worth it. It does have the ability to play a radio station, which is like Pandora. Pick a song, and it will play a list of songs that are similar. This is just like Spotify or Rdio.
The free ones I subscribe to for new music discovery is
Noon Pacific, which emails you a mix tape every Monday at noon pacific. http://www.noonpacific.com/
And Upbeat, which is people upvoting music by genre. You can listen to them for free. http://www.upbeatapp.com/
FWIW I had the worst luck with Spotify. I found it intensely frustrating and it charges separately for each device you listen to it on. Spendy.
I use Pandora. After a year or so I paid for the upgrade to Pandora ONE. One flat price for all my devices (home PC, work PC, Rin's laptop, and our phones).
The algorithm thing is generally a failure for me, so I mostly use bands or artists as the "station" (Leonard Cohen Station, Lindsay Stirling Station, System of a Down Station, etc) and that seems to work out just fine. Got the idea from a friend. When I don't know what I want to listen to I set it to shuffle through all stations.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I also use www.last.fm (music + data visualization = everything I've ever wanted) to track my listening habits and explore related artists. It also has very comprehensive concert listings.
no subject
no subject
Brick House (funktastic)
Serenity (as in Godsmack, Nine Inch Nails, etc.)
This is Not a Love Song (actually all love songs)
One Last Drink (pub music, bagpipes)
Deia (yoga and trance music)
no subject
no subject
I am also fond of 8tracks (http://8tracks.com/) because it is searchable by mood. "relaxing indie sunday" and then there's umpty playlists. "angry workout" Etc.
Further editing to add: also big on spotify for me is the ability to see what friends are listening to (and make a playlist of that), share playlists, etc.
I find a lot of new music via other people's playlists (both on spotify and 8tracks) and that's more effective for me than the pandora algorithm, which i gave up on years ago.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
The free ones I subscribe to for new music discovery is
Noon Pacific, which emails you a mix tape every Monday at noon pacific. http://www.noonpacific.com/
And Upbeat, which is people upvoting music by genre. You can listen to them for free.
http://www.upbeatapp.com/
no subject
http://somafm.com/
Spotify...
YMMV
no subject
I use Pandora. After a year or so I paid for the upgrade to Pandora ONE. One flat price for all my devices (home PC, work PC, Rin's laptop, and our phones).
The algorithm thing is generally a failure for me, so I mostly use bands or artists as the "station" (Leonard Cohen Station, Lindsay Stirling Station, System of a Down Station, etc) and that seems to work out just fine. Got the idea from a friend. When I don't know what I want to listen to I set it to shuffle through all stations.