Streaming music apps and discovery services are a dime a dozen, but even the best ones have a hard time competing with the names everyone already knows. Even so, getting out of your comfort zone a little bit and trying a new service will only reward you with tons of great new music. Here are a few services we love that we think you'll love too.
We originally ran this post just over a year ago, but since then some of our picks, like Piki, Ex.fm, and even Turntable.fm have shut down. So here's an updated list with some of our new favorites!
Why Shouldn't I Just Use [Insert Service I Already Use]?
Pandora, Spotify, Songza, Rdio, Grooveshark, and all the rest are great, we're not trying to convince you otherwise. However, trying something new doesn't cost you anything and doesn't have to replace the app you already love. Seriously, the streaming music app you use doesn't have to define you, and shouldn't turn into some kind of music lover's version of the OS wars. Trying more than one will only reward you with new and interesting music you may not have heard.
Case in point, I love Pandora and happily pay for Pandora One. I keep a pretty big Grooveshark library too. I have the mobile apps for both, and stream Pandora in my car when I want to listen to music almost exclusively. That hasn't stopped me from falling in love with some of the services we're about to discuss.
Upbeat
Think of Upbeat as Reddit meets great music, without the unnecessary conversation. You can listen to everything available on the site, or just select specific genres from the sidebar on the left. Click to play tracks you like, or just start at the top and play everything in the category—and trust me, there's plenty to listen to. As you listen, you can star songs you love, save them to personal playlists where you can get to them again later, and most importantly, upvote or downvote them to tell the world how you feel about the track.
We've covered Upbeat before—it just so happens to be from the same team that built Noon Pacific, which we love (and will mention a little later), so you can be sure you're getting a good listening experience. The site is fast, light, and doesn't suck down resources when you're streaming all day, which is a nice bonus, and while you'll stumble on a track that won't play every now and again, it's a great listening experience. You can also easily switch between the newest songs on the site, the most popular, or just the hot songs that other users are listening to right now.
If you have your own music to submit, or see a song elsewhere on the web that you'd love on Upbeat, you can always submit it, and when you do, you get "karma" for doing so. Just like with the other services here, I use it personally, and while you can't follow people, you can see what they've saved.
Official.fm
Official.fm only recently hit my radar, although it's been around for a while. The site is an entirely curated selection of new music, combined with beautiful imagery that's paired with each song you play. The service pays artists fairly for every play they get (partially by getting brands and companies to buy those full-screen images you see when you play tracks) and you get to listen to great music ad-free, streaming, without the clutter of banner ads or interruptions on the page. It's a great system—one that's easy on the eyes and on the ears, and the site is constantly updated with new songs from great known and unknown artists.
From there, if the song is available to download, you can grab a copy. If not, you can share it with friends or save it to listen later, A lot of Official.fm's traffic comes from those artists sharing their music on social media, but there's nothing stopping you from visiting directly and checking out the front page, trying a few songs out, and then letting the curated playlist carry you away from song to song. Even the site's "about us" page speaks in music first and words second, asking you to click some of their favorite tracks to understand what they're all about. Those are people I can get behind.
The Hype Machine
The Hype Machine really needs no introduction, but its omission from the last time we did this roundup was an error I've long wanted to correct. The Hype Machine has tons of great music, from bands large and small, remix artists and DJs, indie musicians and well known artists alike. The service is great on the web, but also has a cottage industry of music players (some of which we've featuredbefore). It's simple too—sign up for free, and listen to new songs highlighted on music blogs around the web.
For those unfamiliar, The Hype Machine aggregates music that's been posted to some of the most popular music blogs and review sites from around the web into a single, easy-to-navigate interface. If you find something you like, you can heart it and come back to it later, or click out to read the article or music blog where the song was posted. You can also follow other users, musicians, or music blogs that you know post great music. Music is tagged so you can filter or search for things you know you'll like, or sit back and enjoy the discovery experience. I've rarely found tracks at The Hype Machine that I didn't enjoy, and plenty that I've really loved.
There's an official iOS app, an unofficial Android app (an official one is coming—I've been testing the beta and it rocks), and tons of desktop players (linked above) if you don't want to keep a tab open. You can even go back in time with the Hype Machine Time Machine to explore popular tracks from the site's history.
This Is My Jam
We've mentionedThis Is My Jam before in glowing terms, and it's still a great service. Here's how it works: Pick a song you love (or love right now) and make it your "jam." Other users will find it, listen to it, and "like" it. You can do the same—TIMJ makes it easy to explore jams by other users, and will suggest users to you who have similar jams to yours. It'll even lead you to other songs by similar artists to the ones you've already shared. Your tracks expire after seven days (but you can renew them if it's still your jam), or you can change them whenever you like. Best of all, since people are adding new tracks all the time, there's always something new to listen to.
From there, you can follow people who post music you enjoy, play all the jams from people you follow in one playlist, export all of your jams (or all of the jams from people you're following) as a Spotify playlist, or just use the This Is My Jam Spotify app to explore even more music. TIMJ is great if you're wary of trying a new service, or would prefer to just explore a few new tracks from some interesting people every now and again. It's totally free, and there are some great people sharing great music there. I use it regularly, and if you do too, leave me a link to your profile in the discussions and I'll give you a follow!
Noon Pacific
Every Monday at noon, Pacific time, I get an email in my inbox with a brand new playlist full of music. I've likely never heard any of it before but know I'll love all of it. That's Noon Pacific, and I can't say enough good things about it. It's probably the best, least-effort music discovery service ever, mostly because you sign up, and wait for the music to come to you every week.
We've discussed Noon Pacific before in glowing terms, and highlighted theirmobile apps, but there's something great about knowing every Monday you're going to get a good hour of great new music hand picked, curated, and delivered right to you. The playlists are hosted at 8Tracks, and if you want to try some of the mixes before you sign up for the weekly newsletter, they're all posted on their site—which helps if you had a favorite mix from a few weeks ago and want to hear it again and again. (022 was my former love, but this week's, 097, is pretty killer.)
Whyd
Whyd is another service we love because it fills two roles: it helps you organize all of the music you stumble on from around the web and keep it organized, and then it lets you build playlists and listen to that music anytime you want. Whyd used to be invite only, but it's open to everyone now, so there's even more great music to go around. It helps that Whyd is a social service, and there are plenty of other people there to listen to who have music just as good as the music you've added yourself.
If you wanted to use Whyd as just a way to organize YouTube videos, Vimeo videos, and SoundCloud tracks, that would be enough, but once you start exploring the music others are adding, it's a whole new world. Best of all, Whyd supports a lot of these services, and songs hosted on other sites, so even though I use some of the above, I find the source track and save it to Whyd so I can listen to it later. I'm not kidding when I say I use Whyd every single day. There's an iOS app if you want to take your tracks on the go, and an Android app on the way soon. If you like what you see but want an alternative, SongDrop is a similar service we've mentioned.
We've seen some good music discovery services and some really bad ones in the past. The worst services force you to listen to songs just because someone else has added them, without actually making sure you'd like the music before connecting you with that other person. I can think of a half-dozen that promised "music based on what your friends like," that completely ignore the fact that I may not always enjoy my friends' tastes in music. Sign up, and you're treated to a bunch of songs you can't wait to skip through. On the other hand, the best services connect you with people based on common tastes first and relationship second.
They make sure you and the other person would enjoy hearing the music that you both have listed, and then they start the tunes. The beauty of the great ones is that they can play the music you already like while simultaneously guiding you to new songs and new artists that you'd enjoy, all without playing the same tracks over and over, or depending on other people to pick great music before you can hear it. Like we said, give something new a try: the worst thing that could happen is that you discover something new you'll fall in love with.
Photo by Jonathan Kriz.
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