The websites in this section help you find MP3s, assist in promotion for bands/artists, connect you to live music & ticketing, offer place-shifting for your media (PC-to-PC, PC-to-mobile phone), stream music, and/or offer video discovery. Others, are fantastic recommendation engines or social & sharing platforms.
ArtistData
A tool for musicians and agents of musicians to manage social media
[website]
If you are an artist or someone who wants to manage data for ONE artist—OR
you work for a label, management company, or agency that has a roster of MANY artists—you may want to give this site a look. ArtistData provides a great platform for managing and synchronizing the broadcast of news, status updates, and show/concert information across the social media stratosphere including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. They have a Base plan which offers the artist/band free of charge which gives you the option to have shows submitted to the top concert databases. Their Gold and Platinum packages are $9.99 and $24.99 respectively and give you expanded capabilities. The great news is that ArtistData was recently acquired by Sonicbids and they are offering these plans free of charge until September 1, 2010.
8tracks
Even you can be a DJ...discover & share music through mixes
[website]
KISS—keeping it simple (is) smart—the 8tracks way. This site offers an easy way for people to share and discover music through an online mix—a short playlist—containing at least 8 tracks. On 8tracks, people can do two basic things: listen to a mix or create a mix. Listeners can search for a mix by artist or genre, stream it in a legal, radio-style manner, and follow others who make compelling, had-crafted mixes. There are some limitations to deal with as a listener due to licensing constraints, but this actually complements the intended experience of the site. You can only skip through 2 songs per mix, per hour ‘forcing’ you to sit (or stand or dance) through the mystery of what the “DJ” plays next. Coincdentally—or not—8tracks refers to it’s users that create mixes as “DJs.” There’s no limitation on a listener’s ability to skip through mixes and there’s an easy opportunity to follow you favorite DJs and be followed by people who really dig your taste in music, as well as a chance to like and comment on specific mixes.
Gigzee
Easily find local live music
[website]
Easily, indeed! If you’re in the mood for live music tonight, simply type in your city or zip code into Gigzee's main page (top image) and find multiple listings of shows taking place today (bottom image). You’ll be presented with all the pertinent gig information for shows/performers—both large and small. It includes an interactive Google map plus links to find out more info on the performer, (fed from the last.fm database) and a venue profile page where you’ll discover future shows they’ll be hosting, as well. 
Swift.fm
Extending the functionality of Twitter for music sharing & discovery
[website]
If you Tweet and you’re a music junkie like us (if you’re reading this on Groovemine, we know you are!), then this app is for you. Swift.fm is built on top of Twitter so there’s no need to send invites, find fans, or request followers. The number of social media apps are growing exponentially, so it’s great to come across a tool like this that works with your existing network.
You can share music using Swift.fm by uploading tracks to their servers (great for musicians!), browsing the music that already exists in their library of music or list of links, or by linking to music found elsewhere on the web. Tweet about any piece of music or artist directly from Swift.fm. It has the bit.ly function/app conveniently embedded to shorten URLs.
There are a couple of great ways discover music on Swift.fm that are especially worth highlighting. “My Swiftlist” is an auto-playing list of all the songs the people you follow have swifted. The list plays through all of the music they have shared automatically like a radio station or any other passive-listening web music service. Discover music outside of your personal followers by creating or exploring lists, or “channels,” of music on specific genres, from certain artists or exciting topics. Anyone can create a channel or add to one by adding a hashtag (a word preceded by a ”˜#’ sign) to the description of any swift-tweet. This should be very familiar to any frequent tweeter. The right sidebar has a link to existing channels. Clicking on any of these channels pulls up a playlist where you can stream, favorite, or retweet about of the tracks you discover.
Flokoon
A music discovery application taking a visual approach
[website]
At first glance/first click, Flokoon is a music discovery application with very few words. Typing in your favorite artist/band produces a thumbnail image of the artist which sprouts a tree graph of artists who connect to your choice. The branch artists have either collaborated with the artist/band or they have similar sounding music. You grow your tree of related artists discovering new ones along the way. Hovering over each thumbnail produces a dropdown graphic menu of options offering bios, popular tags and top fans
Flokoon doesn’t allow you to directly play music on its site, perhaps its biggest downfall, if one wanted to be critical. Its data, however, is powered to Last.fm, so clicking “read more” button found in the short bios takes you directly to Last.fm, where you can listen to and download the music.
Music Nomad
An indispensable resource for DIY musicians
[website]
Similar to Groovemine.com, Music Nomad is set-up to be a jumping off point— specifically, though, for do-it-yourself musicians. If that is you, then you should know that the site is filled with listings of helpful resources to produce, sell, and support your music. It's a clearly delineated directory of all kinds of qualified organizations offering goods, services, contacts, and other helpful information. It's very easy to find what you need...think of it as an indispensable yellow pages for musicians.
SoundCloud
In a similar role Flickr plays for photography, SoundCloud is a great tool for music makers, as well as folks just browsing for fresh earfood.
[website]
SoundCloud is an online audio platform catering to music professionals, enabling them to collaborate, promote and distribute their music online in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. SoundCloud allows music makers to upload large audio files, embed those tracks on websites and blogs, share them publicly (including via Twitter) or only to specified contacts, and gives listeners the ability to comment on specific parts of the recording directly from the SoundCloud player (see screenshot above).
Also of note, their blog contains posts and interviews with professionals regarding the ways that various web resources (usually in tandem with SoundCloud) can be used to enhance one's musical production or promotion. They also post remix contests and other things music makers may be interested in.
REVIEWED BY IAN RICH
Fluid Radio
A solid resource for the experimental music lover
[website]
Fluid Radio hosts two radio channels playing "experimental frequencies" in various flavors as well as album reviews, artist and label profiles and mixes for those looking for something off the beaten path. Two sections we especially like are Downloads and Films. The Download section offers access to full-length albums, and the Film section provides music videos and films about some of the bands themselves.
REVIEWED BY IAN RICH
Stereo Mood
Operable with one click, this easy-to-use mood-based streaming site provides a great selection of indie music
[website]
I think I am in love with Stereomood.com. What a novel idea! Stereomood is a mood-based music streaming site, or in other words a ”˜mood-based internet radio’. It is easy to use and offers some perks that Pandora doesn’t.
There is nothing to figure out. Go to www.stereomood.com, click on one of the moods and you can start listening without even having to set up an account. If you do decide to set up an account (which is very easy), you can then create your own playlists, moods (i.e. stations), or even add a song of your choice to an existing mood.
Here’s the other great thing. You can skip as many songs as you would like (unlike Pandora), and look ahead to see what songs are in the ”˜mood’ mix. You can even shuffle the already predetermined mix.
One more awesome thing that sets this site apart is the song selections. The people at Stereomood reach out to music blogs from all around the world to create their playlists. The resulting song mixes are eclectic combining artists that are known with indie artists to completely unknown artists. They have a list of links to all of the blogs that they use as well.
If your emotional (like me) and love music and discovering new music I think you may be about to meet the music website of your dreams. Do yourself a favor and check it out!
REVIEWED BY LYNN SHER
Radio One Llama
A fantastic search engine to find and listen to internet radio
[website]
When you want to go outside your own music collection, the route of internet radio where real people (as opposed to a Pandora-type of site) are making decisions about programming is, increasingly, a great route to go. The number of radio streams are multiplying and Radio One Llama allows you to search for a station in a variety of ways: via artists you like, genres, or location in the world...yes, the world!
The site is so easy-to-use, it's not worth explaining too much. The first image above shows our search for a station based using an act that we've covered here on Groovemine, Letting Up Despite Great Falls. The stations that have played their music appear below the search field. Clicking on any of the live links launches a station's current stream within the window, which is identified above along with tracks/artists the station has recently played. We'd recommend staying away the "popularity" tab as you'll get suggestions based on ultra-pop music, new and old. The "genre" tab presents options as pretty as the Periodic Table of the Elements (see second image above). The "location" tab is, perhaps, the most amazing thing about the site as it presents you with a map powered by Google, allowing you to zoom in on a geography-based selection.
Oh, and you can use this great site on your iPhone.
The Sixty One
A visually engaging discovery site despite some design drawbacks
[website]
Named after Highway 61, a U.S. route that runs along the Mississippi River and marks the origin of American music culture. Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and B.B. King rode the 61. Elvis grew up in the housing projects along it. Highway 61 was the road by which people left their homes to take their music to the world. That, said, the music found here isn't all classic Americana.
The qualities that come to mind when thinking about this site are: visual, confusing, and engaging. Visual because a large background image fills the entire browser window with remarkable effect, often a photograph of the artist who's music is playing, sometimes it's album art. Other related images, additional photography, biography factoids, or concert dates randomly appear, overlapping the background image sometime with transparency. The site is a bit confusing because the navigation is atypical either because of its location or labeling, which isn't always a bad thing in and of itself. Regardless of 'where' you are on the site, it always looks the same, as described previously. We couldn't figure out how to work some of the functionality that appears to be straightforward at first glance, for example setting up a playlist. In spite of all that is confusing, we spent a lot of time on the site. The visual design (almost) renders the music you hear an extension of your experience rather than the focus, which is refreshing.
What about the music? Quality indie stuff you may have never heard of before that fits perfectly with music from major indie faves also present on the site like Andrew Bird, Iron & Wine, and Besnard Lakes. Not sure how all of the collection is curated, but there is an option to register as an artist (or as an agent of one) allowing you upload music and photos. Some of the music is for sale but, this is another area we find confusing. It seems you have to purchase credits to buy each song yet somewhere on the site we found the claim: "Unlike a record or distribution deal where they only make $1-2 per album (if they ever get paid, that is), artists on thesixtyone make at least $7 per album and are paid every 30 days—no wait for recoupment and no complex royalty schemes!" The option to buy an album was unapparent.
In general, this site looks like it was conceived of and designed by a team of smart ADDers and, perhaps, it's just a matter of time that they resolve some of the things we find confusing about the site. It's definitely worth your time exploring despite our perceived drawbacks.
The Crypt Sessions
Intimate HD video portraits of acoustic artists, new and old
[website]
On a long drive home from a lousy day working in the rain, sound recordist and studio owner Rick Barber and Cameraman Bjorn Ventris decided that there had to be a better way to combine their skills. Inspired by Black Cab Sessions and From the Basement, The Crypt Sessions was born out of a need to provide quality content for a few artists that we were working with at the time. Early 'guinea pigs' ManOrMouse? and Matthew Neel came in to perform while The Crypt Sessions honed their set. Soon they were inundated with requests from labels, artists, PR companies etc all hoping to get a slot. The sessions are shot in HD and recorded by engineer/producer Matt Sime (Feeder, Moloko, The Boo Radleys) The Crypt Sessions aim to create an intimate acoustic performance from artists both new and established.
A podcast is available from iTunes as well as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Myspace.
Well-Rounded Radio
Podcasts containing in-depth interviews & music of
innovative indie music providers
[website]
If you're an active consumer/junkie of independent music, hungry for the story behind the music, you need to check out this site. Well-Rounded Radio connects listeners to great music happening outside the mainstream, gives them a behind-the-scenes look at its creation, and lets them sample it within each interview. Composed as a podcast, you can stream directly from the website or subscribe via an RSS feed. The site is organized by episode, each one devoted to an artist, producer, or someone working behind the scenes to deliver great music like Episode 056 with Jeff Price, founder and CEO of Tunecore or Episode 058 featuring one of the founders of Amie Street, Josh Boltuch. Some of the more recognizable artists that have been interviewed include Antibalas, Mission of Burma, Pylon, and Jill Sobule. In written words, you find the background of the interviewee, a summary of the discussion, and a tracklist of the music featured on the podcast. The "Recommendations" link at the top of any episode takes you to the same page where you find linked suggestions of music to investigate, seminars to attend, websites to browse, and more—don't forget to visit this page! 
Cloudspeakers
An aggregator and discovery tool
[website]
Cloudspeakers is an aggregator linking to legal audios, videos and reviews from a variety of music sites. It's presentation streamlined in form and function than and couldn't be any easier to use, especially if you know the artist(s) you want to research or listen to. They do have two feed lists on the home page (top screen above) of what is "fresh" and "hot" from which you can browse, but the breadth of what can be obtained on Cloudspeakers comes from what you request in the search field. Type in your favorite band/artist and you come to a profile page (bottom screen above) with an excerpt of a their bio found on (and linked to) last.fm, an expandable list of excerpted reviews of the artist from blogs and magazines, a slide presentation of their discography, and a list of other "relevant" artists. A similar page appears when you click on an album cover. All pages have an embedded media player accommodating both audio and video. The site remarkably easy to navigate—very similar to Cowbell.fm.
StumbleAudio
A recommendation engine with superior interface design
[website]
If you get off on discovering music from independent, perhaps unsigned, artists you've never heard of via a perfectly designed interface, then check out StumbleAudio. Interaction with StumbleAudio feels more like you're using a portable music device rather than interacting with your PC. Browse their library by genre or type your favorite artist in the search field at the top and be presented with music that supposedly sounds similar your entry. In either case, albums are presented on a virtual CD carousel for you to listen to in their entirety. If you decide to purchase the album, there are links on the right side of the screen taking you to retail outlets offering MP3s or CDs. The main drawback of the site seems to be the limitations of the search function. It did not produce any results for a handful the indie artists that we typed in. We expect they're working on it, so bookmark this site and visit often.
IndieFeed
Curated, free MP3 feeds
[website]
IndieFeed provides a curated selection of free MP3s organized in five broad genres of indie pop, hip hop, electronica, dance, and blues. Our first inspection found a good selection music from emerging indie artists that we've heard of along with some that seemed quite obscure. Part of what makes them somewhat unique is the ability for you to listen and download the MP3s directly from the site or to automatically receive downloads through RSS syndication as podcasts in iTunes and Zune or other media aggregators. The one thing we didn't like is the intro to every MP3 (podcast) identifying "IndieFeed" and it's corporate sponsor although, we couple this comment by acknowledging the need for anything indie to make money.
Slacker
Award-winning internet and mobile radio
[website]
Sleekly designed (think Harley Davidson), extremely user-friendly, Slacker is an internet radio site with nearly 100 genre-based stations. You can add to their selections by creating your own customized station(s) once you create an account. Registered or not, users are able to share a radio station via a form-generated email or by copying the station link code that is presented at the bottom of the Share This Station window of the player. Bios are accessible for every artist within the player when the Now Playing left tab item is selected (see image above). Upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus for $3.99 and avoid audio and banner ads, get unlimited song skips (normally, you're limited 6 skips), complete song lyrics, and use a mini widget player that you can place anywhere on your desktop without having to use your browser.
Slacker Mobile is a set of free apps for your Blackberry and iPhone giving you everything you find online with your PC. It was awarded as a CNET Editors' Choice in April 2009.
[Discover more Web-based Tools here]
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