The Internet has opened a door for the discovery of new music and new artists around the world. There are millions of artists, songs and genres that create traffic and noise around the Internet. People like to find what they are looking for on one or three websites, and if they need to look further they give up and turn off the computer. There are websites that allow you to find new music in an easier way and have become popular. These websites are:

Pandora

Pandora is an Internet radio website that provides playlists that are based on similarities between the song, genre, or artists selected with others. The “Music Genome Program” breaks down songs into small components, through the use of mathematical logarithms. It matches these components according to their similarities. As people listen to the playlists, they can “like” or “dislike” a song. With the use of these the program eliminates the song disliked as well as songs that are similar to that song. There are around 700,000 tracks in the Pandora database and is growing daily.

• Advantages: This program can be easily accessed through the Pandora website or downloaded as an application for smart phone, video game consoles (Wii, PS3, XBOX) and Internet connected TVs. It also allows access to direct retailers to purchase a song. There is no need to access a different website to purchase a song.
• Disadvantages: Pandora allows 6 skips every hour, and 12 skips every 24 hours. It does not allow the listener to go back and listen to a song again.
• Membership: It has 3 types of memberships. Free membership that allows the listener to play music for 40 hours a month, a membership that costs 99 cents a month &allows unlimited listening hours or Pandora One, which is $36 a year and allows unlimited listening hours and does not contain any advertisements.

We Are Hunted

We Are Hunted is an online music chart based on the popularity of songs and artists on the Internet. Its popularity depends on the number of hits and mentions song have though blogs and music charts managed by We Are Hunted. We Are Hunted can be accessed online or downloaded as a music application for smart phones or smart tablets. There are three main charts the website manages, which are “Popular” (main stream music), “Emerging” (new indie artists and songs)  and finally “Remixes” (popular or emerging songs remixed with others). Anyone can access this website and stream songs from each music chart. These songs can be shared to social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, or they can be purchased on the website. There is also an option to become a member of the website for free. The advantage of becoming a member is the ability to create a music chart and share it with the rest of the website members as well as your friends. Members can comment on each other’s chart and blog about them through We Are Hunted. The charts are changed every week allowing an entrance for new music.

Pitchfork

Pitchfork does not only concentrate on tracks, but it introduces music news and music reviews. It presents a description of how the music was created, the ideas behind the music, and  ratings by Pitchfork experts. There is a section in the website called “Playlist” where all the featured tracks are available to stream online. Although there is no membership to this website, listeners can follow Pitchfork on Twitter and Facebook in order to access the information on their phones.

Last.fm

Last.fm works similar to Pandora. It is an online radio station that provides playlists based on similarities according to genre, style, and artists through a method called Scrobbling.“Scrobbling helps us tell you what songs you play most often, which songs you like the most, how much you’ve played an artist over a certain amount of time, which of your friends have similar tastes… all kinds of stuff. By focusing on the music you already play we can help you discover more music” (via Last.fm). Last.fm is a free service to listen to music and discover new music online. You are allowed to buy the songs that you like, or comment on songs on the artist/ song profile page.

Stereomood

Stereomood provides listeners with a different way to look at music. Listeners are allowed to find music according to the mood they are in. Stereomood provides the audience with around 100 moods that someone can possibly be in, then the listener chooses a mood. Stereomood creates a playlist with around 100 songs according to the selected mood. Also, in each mood’s side bar it presents featured artists whose music is inside the chosen playlist and gives information about the artists. Similar to the rest of the websites, the listeners are allowed to purchase the songs that they enjoy as well as share them on Twitter or Facebook.

These are just 5 of the most popular websites that people use  to stumble upon new music everyday.